NASHVILLE, TN – Major League Baseball today announced that the Andre Dawson Classic will officially relocate to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex (JRTC) in Vero Beach, FL, beginning in 2024. The Andre Dawson Classic is MLB’s annual showcase of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) to celebrate the start of the college baseball season.

Six programs will participate in the 16^th annual round-robin tournament, scheduled for February 23^rd-25^th, at JRTC’s Historic Holman Stadium, with MLB Network Airing a LIVE Doubleheader Showcase on Friday, February 23^rd. The participating programs are as follows:

• Alabama State University (Montgomery, Ala.) – 8^th appearance; 2012-2013, 2018-2020, 2022-2024
• Florida A&M University (Tallahassee, Fla.) – 4^th appearance; 2019, 2022-2024
• Grambling State University (Grambling, La.) – 12^th appearance; 2011-2012, 2014-2020, 2022-2024
• North Carolina A&T University (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1^st appearance; 2024
• Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, Texas) – 9^th appearance; 2012-2013, 2016-2020, 2022-2024
• Southern University (Baton Rouge, La.) – 16^th appearance; 2008-2020, 2022-2024

Dawson, who is one of only three Baseball Hall of Famers who are HBCU alumni (including Lou Brock and Larry Doby) having attended Florida A&M University, is expected to headline the special guests to celebrate the event’s relocation to the former Spring Training Home of the Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers.

In April 2019, Major League Baseball assumed operations of the former Historic Dodgertown and renamed it to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex. The facility serves as a youth hub for a wide array of initiatives led by MLB and supported by various youth baseball/softball partners, including USA Baseball, USA Softball and the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation. These events span boys baseball, girls softball and girls baseball development experiences, including the Breakthrough Series, Hank Aaron Invitational (collaboration with the MLB-MLBPA YDF), Elite Development Invitational, and Trailblazer Series. The JRTC is also the home of the Nike RBI World Series, an international championship tournament of baseball and softball teams within the Nike Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program.

The Andre Dawson Classic is joined in celebrating HBCU baseball and its players by the HBCU Swingman Classic presented by T-Mobile & powered by the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation, a collaborative All-Star Week event with Hall of Famer Ken Griffey J. The inaugural event successfully launched in Seattle in 2023.