SWFL Sports

The landscape of professional sports in Southwest Florida has been marked by pivotal milestones, notably in the years 1925 and 2025.
Tracing back to 1925, the region made headlines when it became the spring training ground for the Philadelphia A’s, a Major League Baseball team, at Terry Park in Fort Myers.

Fast forward a century, in 2025, the area once again steps into the spotlight with the debut season of FC Naples in the USL League One, making the Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples its esteemed home.

FC Naples is in its formative stages. Open tryouts in early September attracted 60 job candidates from around Florida and beyond, eager to show they have what it takes.

The season begins in March when baseball’s Grapefruit League season will be in full swing.

Unlike spring training games, which are tune-ups for the real thing, FC Naples and its opponents will be playing for real for slots in the USL playoffs.

For now, FC Naples staff and coaches have been preparing for the inaugural season. A two-day fan fest was held in September.

The open tryout was a significant step in turning FC Naples from concept to reality. It was the first time balls were kicked under the FC Naples banner on the home pitch. FC Naples CEO Roberto Moreno liked the energy he witnessed.

“We saw the passion and the work ethic from all the players throughout the tryouts,” Moreno said.

As in all pro sports, many have the dream, but few have the talent. FC Naples will carry a roster of 23 and only 18 will be active on game days.

Another open tryout is slated and then a more select tryout near the end of the year is scheduled. That will be an invitation-only event. The best from that group will be invited to a pre-season camp.

“We have a database of over 200 players,” FC Naples coach Matt Poland said.

Moreno enjoyed the atmosphere of the fan fest.

“It was great to see people of all ages, all walks of life just coming out to have a good time,” Moreno said.

The good times will continue to roll into 2025.

FC Naples is in League One of the USL. It is one of six new clubs in the division, going into the league with teams such as the Portland (Maine) Heart of Pines, Santa Barbara Sky FC and Westchester SC.

Although the schedule has not been announced, Moreno and his staff on the club’s business side of the club have been preparing. They held a fan fest and fans selected seats in the 5,000-seat stadium. At the fan fest, the beer garden was open for the first time and FC Naples Blond Ale was available.

Moreno said more than 1,000 season tickets had been sold since late September.

The Southwest Florida sports landscape is as diverse as its population involving all sorts of sports. That diversity now includes pro soccer.

The pro sports landscape includes but is not limited to soccer, baseball, hockey, golf and pickleball. Pickleball didn’t exist in 1925 but is huge in 2024.

The Pros

Southwest Florida is the spring training home of four Major League Baseball franchises.

The Boston Red Sox are at JetBlue Park and the Minnesota Twins are at Hammond Stadium. Both facilities are in Lee County off I-75’s Exit 131, 30 miles north of the exit for FC Naples and the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.

The Tampa Bay Rays call the Charlotte Sports Park their spring home and a short drive away is CoolToday Park in North Port, the spring home of the Atlanta Braves.

Hertz Arena is located adjacent to I-75 in Lee County and is the home of the Florida Everblades of the ECHL. The Everblades won their third consecutive Kelly Cup earlier this year. In Game 5 of the finals, they beat the Kansas City Mavericks 4-3 in overtime before a sellout crowd of 7,910. It was the Everblades’ 18th sellout of the season.

Although Pickleball is still relatively young, it is also clearly an economic force. The 2025 Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships will be held from April 26 to May 3 at East Naples Community Park. It’s been held there since 2016 and generates an estimated $14 million in economic benefits for Collier County.

Earlier in the year, the Chubb Classic was played in Collier County. The 2025 stop on the PGA Tour Championship calendar is scheduled for Feb. 10-16 at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples. Winners of past events include names familiar to even the most casual of golf fans - Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples and Craig Stadler.

Southwest Florida is not the full-time home to big-time professional sports teams such as those found in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and the Tampa Bay Area. Those regions, though, are a short drive away.

The Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat, Miami Marlins, Florida Panthers and Inter Miami CF are roughly a couple hours east on I-75. The Tampa Bay Rays, Bucs and Lightning are about two hours to the north on I-75.

The Colleges

Florida Gulf Coast University is located between the Paradise Coast Sports Complex and the Fort Myers spring training venues.

The campus is 27 miles from the Paradise Coast Sports Complex and 8.6 miles from JetBlue Park.

FGCU does not have a football program, but it offers a variety of sports including basketball, softball, baseball, soccer, tennis, swimming and golf.

The program’s signature team is women’s basketball, coached by Karl Smesko, the only coach the program has ever had.

The Eagles have won seven consecutive ASUN titles. Over those seasons, the Eagles have an overall record of 207-48 and 108-4 in conference play.

Since 2014, the Eagles have won 11 ASUN titles.

The most prominent former FGCU athlete is not a basketball player. That is likely pitcher Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves. Sale was a first-round draft choice of the Chicago White Sox in 2010 out of FGCU.

The 6-foot-6 lefty enjoyed a banner 2024 season. By late September, as the regular season neared its conclusion, his record was 18-3 with a 2.38 earned run average, .857 winning percentage and 225 strikeouts. All those statistics led the National League.

A short drive from FGCU, about 12 miles, is Florida SouthWestern State College. It is a juggernaut on the world of JUCO sports and has built its success since reviving the school’s sports programs in 2016.

The softball team won national titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The volleyball team is two-time national champions and in September was ranked No. 1 in the nation. It compiled a 58-2 record over the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

FSW’s baseball program has sent 22 players into the pros and pitcher Carlos Rodriguez debuted this past summer with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The FSW men’s basketball team has sent 14 players into pro leagues around the world. Keon Ellis went on to play for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. The school’s women’s basketball program won five consecutive conference titles from 2017 to 2022.

FC Naples is new, but it has a great tradition of excellence on which to build.

What about those 1925 Philadelphia A’s?

They became a juggernaut within a few years of moving to Fort Myers for spring training. The A’s won the American League pennant in 1929, 1930 and 1931 and won the World Series the first two years of that run.