Upgrades coming to Roger Dean Stadium

Upgrades will be coming soon to Roger Dean Stadium, the home of the Palm Beach Cardinals and the Spring Training complex for both the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins.

The upgrades could have happened sooner but they were delayed because nobody knew the status of the proposed Spring Training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla. to be shared by the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. The Cardinals had a clause in their lease in which the team would be allowed to move the three other teams training in Eastern Florida had decided to move. Most of the Grapefruit League action takes place in the Tampa Bay vicinity so travel has become an issue for the Cardinals in recent years.

“Clearly, we’re excited that we’re going to have two teams join us down here, so purely from a travel standpoint, that’s a plus,” general manager John Mozeliak said according to MLB.com. “I do think we’ll get with the county and city during this next month and look at potential things we can do to this facility.”

When the Marlins and Cardinals signed a 16-year lease extension in 2011, a fund was established to upgrades to be made to the facility with the county giving $4 million and the teams covering the rest. Now that everybody knows what is going on with both Houston and Washington, they can move forward with starting to upgrade the complex–which is desperately needed.

"They don’t have adequate locker space to accommodate Minor League Spring Training and lack a kitchen area. As a result, the Cardinals have brought a food truck into camp this year so as to have a food preparation area. There is no players’ cafeteria, and the weight room sometimes struggles to accommodate everyone who wants to work out at the same time."

Next year when players arrive for Spring Training, one would think that things will be substantially different.