Joker Marchant Stadium

Joker Marchant Stadium is the spring training home of the Detroit Tigers, and has been so since 1966. The stadium seats around 8,500 and offers the classic spring training experience — intimate, affordable, and casual in a way that regular season Major League Baseball is not. You can sit close to the field, watch players warm up, and generally have a baseball experience that feels genuinely connected to the game rather than to stadium commerce.

Spring training games run from mid-February through the end of March. Tickets are cheap by major league standards and usually available at the gate. The surrounding Lakeland Linder International Airport complex also hosts the Tigers' player development facilities, so during spring training you may see minor league players and prospects working out on adjacent fields.

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Joker Marchant Stadium was built in 1966 and is named after Robert "Joker" Marchant, Lakeland's parks and recreation director who negotiated the original spring training agreement with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers have trained in Lakeland longer than any other Major League Baseball team has trained continuously in the same city — the relationship dates to 1934, with only brief interruptions during World War II. Lakeland effectively becomes a Detroit suburb for six weeks every February and March.