LECOM Park Makes It To Best Of Ballparks Contest Final Round

BRADENTON, FL — Local baseball fans have until Sunday to vote for LECOM Park in the 2021 Best of the Ballparks contest’s Low-A championship round.

In this final round, LECOM, the spring training ballpark of the Pittsburgh Pirates and home of the Bradenton Marauders, is up against Atrium Health Ballpark, the home field for the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, a Chicago White Sox farm team, in North Carolina.

Those interested in voting for their favorite ballpark can do so here. Fans can vote multiple times, but only once a day.

The contest, sponsored by Ballpark Digest, featured 29 Low-A minor league ballparks competing in five rounds of fan voting.

“The Low-A Best of the Ballparks fan vote features an almost totally new set of competitors after MLB’s reorganization of Minor League Baseball,” Ballpark Digest said. “This new Low-A lineup contains most of the former High-A Florida State League and California League, a former Triple-A Pacific Coast League ballpark, former Low-A Sally League teams, and some former High-A Carolina League teams. Of this new lineup, only the former Sally League teams competed at the Low-A level in prior years.”

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At the start of the competition, LECOM Park was the No. 4 seed, according to Ballpark Digest.

LECOM Park advanced by just one fan vote in the semi-final bracket to beat the competition’s No. 1 seed, The Diamond, home of the Lake Elsinore Storm, to move into the finals.

In its semi-final round, Atrium Health Ballpark easily beat its competitor, Public Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, home of the Lakeland Flying Tigers, to make it into the championship round.

According to the Major League Baseball webpage for the Pirates, LECOM Park was built in 1923. Major work was completed at the ballpark, giving it a Spanish mission-style look, in the early 1990s. Lights were added to the field in 2008.

The most significant renovations were made in 2013, MLB said. The Pirates partnered with the city of Bradenton and Manatee County on a $10 million renovations geared toward the fan experience. This included a 19,000-square-foot boardwalk along the outfield, updated restrooms, new concessions, improved seating and covered bleachers and a bigger Fan Plaza. In 2015, a new clubhouse and office were built.

LECOM Park was won Ballpark Digest’s 2018 Best of Ballparks fan vote, MLB added.