Baseball once put Surprise on the world map.
When the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals agreed in 2003 to move to a stadium in a city with just about 60,000 people, it was no surprise people had not heard of that name before then.
Now as the city welcomes in the first game of the city’s 24th season of Cactus League baseball on Friday, Feb. 20, baseball continues to be a driving force of the Surprise tourism economy. Besides the 30 days of games through Saturday, March 21, Surprise is hosting this weekend’s College Baseball Classic, dozens of amateur tournaments — and for the first time, the Big 12 Conference baseball tournament in May.
It is all part of a bigger plan to bring entertainment options to Surprise year-round, said Kendra Pettis, director of the city’s Sports, Entertainment and Culture Department.
“Over the years, we’ve just kind of grown on both sides — on the sports side and then now with adding in the arts and culture division,” Pettis said about the change last year from the Sports and Tourism Department to what it has expanded into as the city begins to also produce shows at the Vista Center for the Arts. “With the shows at the Vista, it’s really kind of just expanded to events and entertainment throughout the city and leads to that year-round drive for activity here in Surprise,”
To help attract tournaments like the Big 12, which will bring Surprise national attention like the spring training season, the city council last month voted to reimburse groups up to $100,000 for reaching certain benchmarks, like the number of hotel rooms the events attract.
For spring training, that feat is no problem, Pettis said. The city has about 900 rooms available at hotels on any given day, but Pettis said she expects the city will be at capacity again starting this weekend with fans of the Rangers and Royals descending on the furthest northwest stadium in the Valley.
Pettis said reimbursing groups as a way to sweeten the pot for them to come here is a great way to use money specifically dedicated for tourism events
“It could really attract big events into Surprise,” Pettis said. “That’s kind of how it’s done all throughout the country.”
ESPN’s platforms in May will cover the five-day Big 12 tournament, which Pettis said could have a residual effect of other tournaments coming here.
The Big 12 plans to collaborate with the city to execute a marketing campaign that reaches 1 million combined followers on social accounts.
“We’re obviously getting the opportunity to be on the national stage,” Pettis said.
Big 12 Conference and REV Entertainment, the marketing arm of the Rangers, are helping the city produce the single-elimination tournament, which has an automatic NCAA Tournament bid at stake for the top 12 teams in the standings of the 16-team conference.
The city estimates 40,000 fans will attend across the five days with about half of them coming from outside of the Valley.
The tournament itself is expected to generate an estimated 3,500 hotel nights for 12 teams, coaches, officials, family and fans.
The city partnered with REV after it began to search for a new place to host the conference tournament after hosting it for years in Arlington, Texas, the Rangers’ home, Surprise made the cut because of its quarter century partnership with the Rangers.
“They know that we, obviously, can host these types of events because we host spring training and other events similar to it,” Pettis said.
One of those events is this weekend’s College Baseball Classic, featuring four big-name colleges for four days of baseball. The city previously used corporate sponsors to help pay for the tournament, but the city now has a dedicated entertainment producer helping put on the show.
The city estimates the Big 12 economic impact to Surprise could be about $3.5 million. It is unknown how exactly Surprise benefits from spring training games, but the Cactus League as a whole determined that the season attracts $700 million for the state as a whole each year. There are 15 teams in the Cactus League across 10 stadiums, and Surprise is one of five complexes that house two teams.
Pettis said the city will try to bid for future tournaments now that the council has approved for up to three years the reimbursement money for hotel nights the events bring.
“They have to hit those numbers in order to get the full reimbursement,” Pettis said. “It’s an incentive to make sure that they’re getting the attendance that they’re expecting and getting the hotel nights that they’re expecting. It’s a good thing when they’re getting fully reimbursed.”
ExploreSurprise.com is the site the city uses to get the word out about local events. Recent attractions in Surprise included the West Valley BBQ Festival, a dog show, an art nature festival, and tennis and pickleball tournaments.
“I think there’s a lot of things that people aren’t aware of that we already have here,” Pettis said.
She said events are focused on benefiting tourism and Surprise residents.
“We’re really just trying to kind of build out that year-round calendar and make sure there’s a variety of different activities, whether it’s sports or arts and culture or special events,” Pettis said. “We’re trying to kind of build our partnerships with a lot of these event groups and make sure there’s things to do for both residents and visitors to Surprise.”
Jason Stone can be reached at [email protected]. Submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to [email protected]. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Jason Stone
Senior News Editor | Surprise
Meet Jason
Jason Stone joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2019, after a distinguished three decade media career that included stops at the Arizona Republic, iHeart Media/Clear Channel and Beckett Sports Card magazine. He remembers when airports sold newspapers.
Community: He is a big supporter of the Valley’s original sports team: The Phoenix Suns.
Education: Northern Arizona University with a BS in broadcast journalism and a minor in sports coaching.
Random Fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
Hobbies: Surfing, backgammon and men who aren’t afraid to cry.
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