In 1946, Branch Rickey speaks of plans for Brooklyn Dodgers Spring Training in California and Florida. He then submits the potential lease of land for spring training from the city of Vero Beach to the Brooklyn Dodger Board of Directors in 1947. The Dodgers' Fort Worth minor league club is among the first Dodger minor league clubs to open the first spring training in Dodgertown in 1948. First Spring Training held in Dodgertown in 1948. Â
Dates
In 1952, The Dodgers and the city of Vero Beach agreed to a long term lease of Dodgertown for Spring Training. The Dodgers won their first World Series in 1955 and finished the decade with their second title. The first night game for Holman Stadium and Dodgertown is scheduled for March 27th, 1953
The Dodgers added two more World Series championships in 1963 and 1965. In 1965, construction began on a nine-hole golf course in Vero Beach with land recently purchased by the Dodgers. In 1967, The Dodgers increased the size of Dodgertown by purchasing 220 acres of land in Vero Beach.Â
In 1971, Walter O'Malley indirectly suggested this Spring Training will be the last for the Dodgertown barracks to house staff and team personnel. in 1974, The New Orleans Saints of the National Football League announced they would conduct their summer training camp at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida.Â
The Dodgers won their most recent title in 1981 and 1988. In 1982, despite losing two dates to rain at Holman Stadium, the Dodgers set a Florida Spring Training attendance record as 59,587 fans came to see the 1981 World Champions play 11 games at Dodgertown
Baseball America magazine named Dodgertown the No. 1 Spring Training site in the major leagues in their March, 1998 issue.