First Data Field

Story

First Data Field is a baseball stadium located in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The stadium was built in time for the 1988 season and holds 7,160 people. It is the Spring training home of the New York Mets (who moved from St. Petersburg's Al Lang Stadium), as well as the home to the St. Lucie Mets Class A team and the Gulf Coast Mets Rookie League team.Naming rightsThomas J. White, the person for whom the stadium was originally named, was a real estate developer from St. Louis, Missouri who worked with sportswriter Jack Champion on the successful campaign to bring the Mets to Port St. Lucie. He was the master developer who gave birth to the town of St. Lucie West. In 2004 the Mets changed the name of the venue to Tradition Field.On March 23, 2010, during a Mets spring training game against the Atlanta Braves, it was announced that effective immediately the stadium would be renamed Digital Domain Park, as a result of a multi-year partnership between the Mets and Digital Domain.At the end of the 2012 season, the Mets announced that Digital Domain would no longer own the naming rights to the ballpark, and that the stadium would temporarily be renamed Mets Stadium. On February 7, 2013, the Mets struck a new deal with Tradition, Florida, and the ballpark was once again called Tradition Field, the park's name from 2004 to 2009.