PORT ST LUCIE, Fla. — It's that time of year when the New York Mets, like all teams across our area, kick off spring training in Port St Lucie. This year, Port St. Lucie Police are handling it differently.
The Mets will play their opening game Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals at Clover Park. WPTV already saw crowds forming Friday ahead of the game.
"I was shocked. We pulled in and there were so many cars in the parking lot," Janet Wagner, a baseball fan from New Jersey, said. "They're lined up getting tickets, the store was packed."
"We've got winter break up north and everybody's out of school, out of work, so we're seeing great crowds," Paul Taglieri, the vice president of minor league facilities, added. "The excitement, the energy is incredible."
Taglieri said ticket sales have been soaring. Saturday's opening game and the game against the Yankees on March 5 is already sold out.
"Because we get to watch baseball and the amazing game!" 10-year-old fan Carter Geerdts said. "[I am] really excited."
"It is going to be a wonderful time, and I can't wait for a sausage sandwich from Primos for this," Wagner added. "I've been waiting all year"
With the excitement, however, comes a lot of apprehension for those living and working in the area. Among those is Joey Lee, who deals with the already hectic traffic.
"It sucks," Lee said. "It's a really congested area. I've been working here for about a year, and every time there's an event at the stadium it gets worse."
Here's a ballpark figure: according to preliminary population data, Port St Lucie is estimated to have grown by about 10,000 people from 2022 to 2023.
Since 2010, the city has nearly 100,000 more people, going from 164,000 to an estimated 256,000 in 2023, according to the U.S. Census.
Add on an additional 7,000 people likely traveling into the city from up north to watch the games, and it's a lot for roads to handle.
"Very crazy, yeah, it's gotten really hectic," Liz Petit said. "It just so happens I work across the street from that stadium, so I guess I'll leave an hour earlier."
It's the reason Port St. Lucie Police Chief Richard Del Toro said, for the first time this year, he's launching an officer detail tasked with just handling spring training traffic. In the past, Del Toro said officers working the game used to split their time between providing security detail inside and directing cars outside.
"We can't apply the same things we did when we were 75,000 [people] now that were 240,000 to 250,000 people," Del Toro said. "This is going to be increased manpower specifically at this traffic detail."
Del Toro said there will also be officers providing security at all times inside the stadium, and said the increased patrols outside won't pull resources away from any other part of the city.
He also said officers will be utilizing drones to help keep tabs on the traffic, which officers demonstrated for WPTV Friday.
"It's going to give us an aerial view of the traffic to see where we need to adjust our manpower, where to adjust our lights, working with traffic engineering," Del Toro said. "There's already a lot of traffic on those roadways. We have to make sure it's moving as efficiently as possible. No pun intended, but we think it's going to be a home run."
Del Toro and Taglieri also asked fans to arrive extra early to games to avoid traffic backups and asked for patience.
Anyone not attending the games should plan to use alternate routes on game days, if possible since Northwest St. Lucie West Boulevard., Northwest Peacock Boulevard, Northwest California Boulevard and Northwest University Boulevard will see increased traffic.