Winter Home of the Blue Jays

Revamped entrance to Grant Field, Jun-2023.

The seating area as seen from down the third-base line.

The view from behind the plate during a Florida State League game.

Chronological Tour: Stop 40

• Location: Douglas Avenue at Beltrees Street, Dunedin, Fla. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1938 as Grant Field (1977 for professional baseball; stadium built 1990, renovated 2020)
• Additional names: Dunedin Stadium (1990), Knology Park (2004-08), Florida Auto Exchange Stadium (2010-17), TD Ballpark (2020)
• Home team: Dunedin Blue Jays, Florida State League (1978-79, 1987-2018, 2021-present); Toronto Blue Jays, Major League Baseball (some games in 2021); spring training, Toronto Blue Jays (1977-present); Dunedin HS Falcons, Pinellas Co. Athletic Conference
• Capacity: 5,509 (2011)

Rating: 2 baseballs

In fact, I was actually trying to make a game at the old park in Clearwater the night I was in the Tampa Bay area in 1993. However, I missed a turn and wound up here when I followed the light stanchions. I wasn’t disappointed, as the Dunedin Blue Jays beat the Fort Myers Miracle, 14-6.

In the spring, the field hosts the Toronto Blue Jays training camp; this means ads for Canadian businesses are on the wall here, and also that Canadian beer is served. How can you go wrong?

During spring training 2004, the park acquired its first corporate name. I returned that summer to attempt to photograph the park’s interior, but the D-Jays were on the road and I had no access. The park acquired a new naming sponsor in 2010, but that arrangement ended after the 2017 season. After the 2019 renovation (see below), it acquired another naming sponsor, as Toronto Dominion, the financial institution, put its name on the ballpark.

Following 2019 spring training, the ballpark underwent a significant renovation that included the addition of a wrap-around concourse and outfield berm seating areas. This has expanded capacity to roughly 8,500, though the number of fixed seats was not increased greatly. The Dunedin Blue Jays played the bulk of their 2019 home games at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium in Clearwater, three miles south. The park reopened in time for spring training in February 2020, which made it available when the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of the US-Canada border to casual traffic forced the Toronto Blue Jays to open their 2021 season here.

One thing I do not care for about the park is the relative lack of legroom. The 2020 renovation kept the same concrete superstructure, which left the stadium with tread (room between seating rows) that is much narrower than at many more recently built parks.

This has been a city park since 1938, when it opened as Grant Field, named for the mayor at the time. Thanks to that status, Dunedin High School is able to play many of its home games on the field. The Falcons have seen considerable success, most recently finishing second in Class 6A in the 2019 state tournament.