Florida Sports: The Statewide Guides

The Florida sports section holds five statewide guides: Florida college basketball, Florida college football history, Florida motorsports and Daytona, the Florida professional sports overview and Florida spring training baseball.

The Florida professional sports overview covers the state's major league franchises, when each league arrived and how the teams spread across the Miami, Tampa Bay, Orlando and Jacksonville markets. The Florida spring training baseball guide covers the Grapefruit League's history, its ballparks by region and its role in Florida tourism. The Florida motorsports guide covers Daytona, Sebring and Homestead race dates, Speedway tours and parking, and the beach racing story. The two college guides cover football's national titles, Heisman Trophy winners and first games, and basketball's three national championships and the state's other programs.

The answers below come from the Florida Sports Foundation, which promotes Florida's sports industry, from the Grapefruit League, from Volusia County's history pages and from each team, league, track or athletics program for its own facts. Every date and figure was read on October 15, 2026.

Florida is home to three NFL teams, two teams each in MLB, the NBA, the NHL and MLS, plus the Orlando Pride, and the Florida Sports Foundation lists every one of them on its professional teams page.

The Florida Sports Foundation lists the Florida Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins, Miami Heat, Orlando City Soccer Club, Orlando Pride, Orlando Magic, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Inter Miami CF, along with the PGA Tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the PGA, the Association of Tennis Professionals and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Florida Sports Foundation professional teams). The leagues' own team lists place the Jaguars, Dolphins and Buccaneers in the NFL, the Heat and Magic in the NBA, the Panthers and Lightning in the NHL, and Inter Miami CF and Orlando City in MLS (NFL teams, NBA teams, NHL teams, MLS clubs). MLB's team directory gives the two ballpark addresses: the Marlins at loanDepot park, 501 Marlins Way, Miami, and the Rays at Tropicana Field, One Tropicana Drive, St. Petersburg (MLB team directory).

How much sport is worth to Florida is a dated number. A study the Florida Sports Foundation commissioned, released December 20, 2022, put the sports industry's total economic impact at $146.5 billion across fiscal years 2019-20 and 2020-21, supporting 978,200 full and part-time jobs and $13.9 billion in state and local taxes (Florida Sports Foundation). The foundation also awards event grants; for the first quarter of 2026-27 it projects $267,089,335 in out-of-state economic impact and 272,352 out-of-state visitors from grant-awarded events (Florida Sports Foundation).

A state research office measured the return differently. In April 2024 the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR), under a law the Legislature passed in 2013 and revised in 2014 and section 288.0001 of the Florida Statutes, measured the return on investment, in state tax revenue per state dollar, of three sports programs over fiscal years 2019-20 to 2021-22 (EDR sports return on investment report). It scored the Florida Sports Foundation grant program at 1.21, the Professional Sports Franchise Incentive at negative 0.80 and the Spring Training Baseball Franchise Incentive at negative 0.90, and it tied the drop from earlier reviews to COVID limits on crowds. EDR noted that the foundation's grants fund events rather than facilities, with an average award of about $21,527. The Florida Sports Foundation itself is based at 1203 Governor's Square Blvd, Suite 300, in Tallahassee (Florida Sports Foundation).

The Florida professional sports overview covers each franchise's history and market.

Fifteen Major League Baseball teams hold spring training in Florida each February and March as the Grapefruit League, and over 1.4 million fans attended in 2025, per the Florida Sports Foundation.

The Florida Sports Foundation says the 15 MLB teams come to Florida for a preseason tune-up, that over 1.4 million fans went to Florida spring training sites in 2025, and that more than 37 million have attended since 2000 (Florida Sports Foundation spring training). The Grapefruit League's own home page uses a higher count, over 38 million fans since 2000, so the two counts differ by a million, and each is given here with its source. The league says 2027 schedules are posted on the individual team pages (Florida Grapefruit League).

The league's history page counts over 130 years of spring training in Florida at 35 different sites (Grapefruit League history). It notes that McKechnie Field was built in Bradenton in 1923, that by 1929 10 of the 16 major league teams trained in Florida, that teams stayed out of Florida during World War II because of wartime travel limits, and that in 1947 the Phillies settled in Clearwater while Branch Rickey bought a former Naval air base in Vero Beach, now known as Dodgertown. The Florida spring training baseball guide covers the full history and the ballparks by region.

The 69th Daytona 500 runs February 21, 2027, after the Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 28 to 31, 2027, and the 75th Twelve Hours of Sebring follows on March 17 to 20, 2027.

Daytona International Speedway lists the Daytona 500 on February 21, 2027 and the Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 28 to 31, 2027 (Daytona International Speedway). Sebring International Raceway lists the 2027 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 17 to 20, 2027, and is announcing the 75 most successful drivers in the race's history ahead of that 75th running (Sebring International Raceway).

Volusia County's Legacy of Speed history calls Ormond Beach the Birthplace of Speed: in 1902 a retired businessman, J.F. Hathaway, sent photographs of the hard packed beach to automobile journals, and the first timed trials were held on March 26, 1903 (Volusia County). The State Library of Florida's copy of the official program for the second annual Ormond-Daytona Beach Races, held January 25 to February 6, 1904 under the Florida East Coast Automobile Association, is online at Florida Memory, with lists of the contestants in the 1903 and 1904 races and the cars they drove (Florida Memory). In December 1947 Bill France, Bill Tuthill and 18 racing men met at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to form the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Volusia County, NASCAR Is Born). Construction of the superspeedway began in the summer of 1958, and the first Daytona 500 was run on the new track in 1959 (Volusia County).

The Florida motorsports and Daytona guide covers the full race calendar, Homestead-Miami Speedway, parking, directions and Speedway tours.

Florida college programs hold national titles in men's basketball and football: the Florida Gators won the NCAA men's basketball championship in 2006, 2007 and 2025, and the Miami Hurricanes won five football national championships between 1983 and 2001.

NCAA records list Florida as men's basketball champion in 2006 (73-57 over UCLA in Indianapolis), 2007 (84-75 over Ohio State in Atlanta) and 2025 (65-63 over Houston in San Antonio, under coach Todd Golden), and as runner-up to Michigan State in 2000 (NCAA championship history).

The University of Miami says it has captured 21 national team championships, five of them in football: 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 2001 (Miami Hurricanes). The Florida Gators claim the consensus 1996 football title, sealed with a 52-20 win over top-ranked Florida State in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 2, 1997 (Florida Gators).

The Florida college football history guide covers Florida programs' titles, Heisman Trophy winners and coaches, including Florida State's, and the Florida college basketball guide covers the Gators, the ACC programs and the growth of FAU, UCF and USF.