The Rangers started their spring in Arizona, and could finish the season there too
SURPRISE, Ariz. - The Texas Rangers are comfortable playing in Arizona. It’s like a full circle for the team which has trained there in the spring for the past 20 years.
About 20 miles outside of the busy downtown Phoenix is a much quieter Surprise, Arizona – the spring training home of the Rangers.
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The Surprise community is excited that the team it hosted back in March is now on baseball’s biggest stage.
"It’s kind of cool to see it from the ground, build up, then you turn on the TV a couple of months later and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It’s really exciting to see it all come together," said Kendra Pettis, the sports and tourism director for Surprise.
The training facility in Surprise is used throughout the year by the Rangers, Kansas City Royals, and the community.
"It’s a great economic driver for our community. These people are staying in our hotels. They’re eating at our restaurants, shopping in our retail. A lot of those sales tax dollars go back into our community," Pettis said.
Now in early November, the focus is on the World Series in Phoenix.
But to no surprise, the folks in Surprise are preparing for the start of another spring training.
Normally about 200,000 fans visit Surprise for spring training. But when two teams in the Cactus League play one another like the Diamondbacks and the Rangers in the World Series, the town can welcome nearly 2 million people come March.