Jackie Robinson Ballpark

Jackie Robinson Ballpark sits on City Island in the Halifax River, the urban island that also holds the Volusia County Courthouse, the main Daytona Beach Regional Library, and several civic buildings. The blocks immediately around the ballpark are civic and parkland — there is no walkable restaurant cluster on the island itself. Downtown Daytona Beach's Beach Street, a short walk west across the Orange Avenue Bridge, has the closest restaurants and bars and reads as a slowly-reviving small Florida downtown. The Daytona Beach Boardwalk, the Main Street Pier, and the Atlantic beachfront sit a short drive east across the Main Street Bridge — most visiting fans stay on the beach side and drive in. Daytona International Speedway, several miles west off Williamson Boulevard, is the regional tourism heavyweight; baseball at Jackie Robinson Ballpark reads as a quieter historic alternative.

Plan to arrive about 45-60 minutes before first pitch — City Island parking is compact and fills steadily on summer weekend home dates. Jackie Robinson Ballpark's defining significance is historic: on March 17, 1946, Jackie Robinson broke organized baseball's color barrier here when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers' Montreal Royals affiliate in a spring-training game against the parent Dodgers — the first integrated game in modern professional baseball history. A statue of Robinson stands outside the main gates, and the field was named in his honor in 1990. The ballpark itself opened in 1914 as City Island Ball Park, making it one of the oldest continuously-operating ballparks in the United States. Daytona Beach has not hosted MLB spring training since the Dodgers left in 2008, but the historic significance is the canonical reason to visit. Mobile-only tickets are the norm. Bag policy and gate-open times shift season to season; confirm on the Tortugas' site before going.

Jackie Robinson Ballpark opened in 1914 as City Island Ball Park and is among the oldest continuously-operating ballparks in the United States. On March 17, 1946, Jackie Robinson took the field here for the Brooklyn Dodgers' Triple-A Montreal Royals affiliate in a spring-training game against the parent Dodgers — the first integrated game in modern professional baseball, the moment that effectively broke the sport's color barrier a year before Robinson's MLB debut. The field was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark in his honor in 1990, and a statue of Robinson stands at the main gates. The Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers held part of their spring training at the ballpark through 2008 before consolidating in Glendale, Arizona. Since 2015 the Daytona Tortugas have been the ballpark's year-round tenant — the Cincinnati Reds' Single-A Florida State League affiliate (the franchise shifted from the High-A Florida State League to Single-A under MLB's 2021 minor-league reorganization). Capacity sits around 4,200. The ballpark is owned by the City of Daytona Beach.