Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium

• Name: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium
• GPS-able Address: 2301 Lakeland Hills Boulevard, Lakeland, FL 33805
• Ballpark Owner: City of Lakeland
• Architects: Lakeland Engineering Associates
• Groundbreaking: September 1965
• Minor League Baseball Team: Lakeland Flying Tigers (A) 2021-present; Lakeland Flying Tigers (A+) 2017-2020; Lakeland Flying Tigers (A+) 2007-2015; Lakeland Flying Tigers (A+) 2003-2006; Lakeland Tigers (A+) 1990-2001; Lakeland Tigers (A) 1967-1989
• Class/League of MiLB Tenant(s): A/Florida State League 2022-present; A/Low-A Southeast 2021; A+/Florida State League 1967-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 3/12/1966; stadium spring debut of Tigers
• Others Playing or Operating Here: Detroit Tigers (spring training)
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 340 CF: 400 RF: 340
• Seats: 8,500
• Stated Capacity: 8,500
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 10,451, 3/29/2013 (courtesy of Nick Gandy, Florida Sports Foundation)

Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, FL, is the home of the Lakeland Flying Tigers, the Detroit Tigers' Single-A Florida State League farm team, and [[spring training}spring-training]] games of the Detroit Tigers. Opened in 1966, it was named for Marcus Thigpen "Joker" Marchant - the then-Parks and Recreation director who lived most of his life under a white cowboy hat.

Renovations to Marchant sent the Tigers to their former home, Henley Field, in 2002 and again in 2016. The 2017 re-opening run-up saw Publix Super Markets buy field naming rights, the placement of statues of Marchant and Publix founder George Jenkins shaking hands, and a new lease that keeps the Tigers - ironically, the first team ever to spring train in Arizona, in 1929 - in Lakeland through their 100th spring there.

Marchant appears in the HBO film Long Gone (1987).[1]. It is one of five Florida ballparks that then or had previously hosted affiliated or MLB spring-training baseball in the film; the others were Henley, Plant Field at the University of Tampa, Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, and McKechnie Field in Bradenton.

The Bengals were the first big league team to put spring MLB and summer affiliated clubs in the same facility - which is now, of course, the norm in Florida.