Spring training 2017: Tigers give a first look at renovated Joker Marchant Stadium

The 2017 season will mark the 81st year of the Detroit Tigers using Joker Marchant stadium in Lakeland, Florida, as their spring training home. With all that time and history between the team and the city of Lakeland, it was inevitable that at some point Joker Marchant would need to upgrade itself in order to meet the Tigers’ modern needs.

Following the 2016 spring, the stadium began a year-long, $40 million process of getting the Tigers’ spring digs up to snuff for 2017. Since the stadium also serves as the summer home to the Tigers’ Class A affiliate team the Lakeland Flying Tigers, the new upgrades are not purely for the benefit of the major league players and staff.

Some of the new additions include a brand new administration and clubhouse building, a new 30-foot scoreboard, and a fancy 7,000-square-foot weight room where players can get into top form.

This week, as the team headed south to their spring home, glimpses inside the renovated space started to emerge, giving fans unrestricted access to the new Joker Marchant Stadium.

From the outside, their are obvious changes to the dugouts, which have been deepened and made to mirror those in Detroit.

The outfield scoreboard, at 30-feet, doesn’t come close to dwarfing the 80-foot scoreboard at Coca-Cola Field, home of the Blue Jays affiliate Buffalo Bisons, but it’s still a big upgrade. And the city of Lakeland itself was quick to brag about the new addition.

Of course a new scoreboard looks best in a renovated stadium, and Joker Marchant’s Publix Field is looking absolutely stunning after the upgrades.

The new administration building also houses the upgraded Tigers clubhouse.

The new clubhouse itself is stunning and state of the art, really taking advantage of showing off the old-English D logo. The on-site weight room is no joke.

Take a look behind the scenes at all the work that has gone into this ongoing project.

Looking great, Lakeland!