The Stadium at the ESPN Wide World of Sports is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

stadium located at the

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a multi-purpose sports complex located at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, United States, near Orlando. The complex allows families to combine tournaments and competition with a visit to ...

in the

Walt Disney World Resort The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company. ...

. The stadium was built in 1997. It was most recently the home of the Rookie-league GCL

Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. The club was founded in Boston, ...

, until they moved to CoolToday Park in North Port. The 7,500-seat stadium was designed by David M. Schwarz in a style the designer dubbed ''Florida Picturesque'' incorporating Venetian Gothic Revival, Mediterranean and Spanish influences with yellow-painted stucco, green-tile roofs, towers and arches.

Name

The Stadium at the ESPN Wide World of Sports was originally known as The Ballpark then Cracker Jack Stadium. When it was first built,

Frito-Lay Frito-Lay, Inc. (; ) is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and sells snack foods. It began in the early 1930s as two companies, Fritos, the Frito Company and Lay's, H.W. Lay & Company, that merged in 1961. Frito-Lay itself merg ...

purchased the naming rights to the venue for ten years and put its

Cracker Jack Cracker Jack is an American brand of snack food that consists of molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn balls and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of trivial value inside. The Cracker Jack name and slogan, "The More You E ...

brand on the stadium. Frito-Lay chose not to renew its naming rights deal. During most of 2007, it was referred to as The Ballpark at Disney's Wide World of Sports. On November 1 of that year, HanesBrands Inc. purchased the naming rights for ten years and renamed it

Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world champi ...

Stadium.

History

Originally, Disney planned for no MLB permanent spring training tenant for the stadium, instead using as a

Grapefruit League Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring ...

neutral site with rotating teams. However, the Braves organization became interested and moved in. Braves spring training2008

The Ballpark opened with the rest of

Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a multi-purpose sports complex located at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, United States, near Orlando. The complex allows families to combine tournaments and competition with a visit to v ...

on March 28, 1997, with an exhibition baseball game between the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

and the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

. The

Gulf Coast League Braves The Florida Complex League Braves are an American baseball team. They are the Rookie-level affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast Lea ...

began play at the stadium in 1997, while the Atlanta Braves started its 20-year spring training lease in 1998. In 2000, after years of poor attendance at

Tinker Field Tinker Field was an outdoor baseball stadium in Orlando, Florida, United States. Named after Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Joe Tinker, it was located in the West Lakes neighborhoods of Downtown Orlando. In April 2015, the City of Orlando tore d ...

, the

Orlando Rays The Orlando "Rays" and several different minor league baseball teams have called the city of Orlando, Florida home between 1919 and 2003. Most have played in the Florida State League. History The original Orlando franchise played between 1919 a ...

moved to the Ballpark. However, the Rays continued to draw barely 1,000 fans a game in their new stadium. Things improved somewhat over the next three seasons; the Rays drew 150,051 fans in 2003, more than twice what they had seen just a few years earlier at Tinker Field, but still last in the league. Following the 2003 season, the Rays moved (breaking a 10-year lease at Disney after just four years) and became the

Montgomery Biscuits The Montgomery Biscuits are a Minor League Baseball team based in Montgomery, Alabama. They are the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays and play in the Southern League. The team was founded in Orlando, Florida, in 1973 as the Orlando Twins ...

. The venue hosted the 2001

Atlantic 10 Conference baseball tournament The Atlantic 10 Conference baseball tournament, sometimes referred to simply as the A-10 tournament, is the conference baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Atlantic 10 Conference. The top seven finishers in the regular season of the confe ...

, won by

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. The old style manual score board was replaced in 2003 with a larger electronic scoreboard and message center. Champion Stadium was used during first-round games for the

2006 World Baseball Classic The 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 to 20 in stadiums in or around Tokyo, Japan, and the American cities o ...

. It hosted Pool D, and featured teams with professional players from

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The stadium hosted its first regular season

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

games from May 15 through 17,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

season when the Texas Rangers played the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one of two major league clubs based i ...

in a three-game series. The three games drew a total of 26,917 fans, and attendance went up each game. In April

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, the Rays moved another series, this time against the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

, to Orlando. In January 2017, the Braves announced a formal agreement to move their spring training home to CoolToday Park in

North Port, Florida North Port is a city located in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. The population was 74,793 at the 2020 US Census, up from 57,357 at the 2010 US Census. It is a principal city in the North Port– Bradenton–Sarasota, Florida Met ...

, which opened in 2019.

References

External links

Champion Stadium
Official Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stadium at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, The Minor league baseball venues Grapefruit League venues Sports venues in Orlando, Florida Spring training ballparks Walt Disney World Tampa Bay Rays stadiums Baseball venues in Florida Atlanta Braves spring training venues Frito-Lay Sports venues completed in 1997 1997 establishments in Florida Florida Complex League ballparks Olympic stadiums

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...