COASTE | APR - MAY 2014

COASTE | PERSONALITIES COASTE | COMMUN TY

the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau is to attract sporting events year-round — the impact of spring training helps accomplish great things on the home front after the teams and their fans return north. “Not one dollar of local taxpayer money has been spent on either Jet Blue Park or Hammond Stadium,” he notes. “All of these projects have been funded through Lee County’s bed tax. These tourists have literally built our fantastic venues that we can use to generate tax dollars and jobs throughout the year.” In fact, according to Mielke, Lee County’s four baseball venues (including City of Palms Park and Terry Park) attracted 105 events last year — from the minor league Fort Myers Miracle to numerous college and high school tournaments, Senior Games and more — that pulled in 136,000-plus additional visitors, at an estimated $900,000-plus revenue per event. Clearly, both major league franchises are invested in Lee County, too. In her office at JetBlue Park, Boston Red Sox VP of Florida baseball operations Katie Haas is busy answering phone inquiries by local media while simultaneously scanning photos from a recent event where Red Sox players visited a local elementary school. This is only one of numerous local requests supported by the team, whose generosity has resulted in more than $8 million in aid to causes including Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida, and the Boys and Girls Club. But the bottom line of (February and) March Madness, Lee County style is best summarized by Neil Bonneson of Minneapolis, who with his 14-year- old son Jake made their first journey to Fort Myers to enjoy watching their beloved Twins up close.

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