Never too early to plan a trip to Spring Training!

The Yankees issued a press release yesterday, outlining plans for Spring Training 2009.

You can find the Yankees complete Spring Training 2009 schedule here.

There is definitely some noteworthy information for those of you planning a trip down to Florida (like myself). According to the press release, this is the earliest start to Yankees Spring Training games in the past 60 years (apparently that is as far back as their data goes)- good news for those late February travelers to Florida who usually see nothing more than players working out! More importantly, the World Baseball Classic will be running from March 5 - March 23, so expect some of the headline players to be absent from Spring Training for a good portion of the schedule.

Headline games of Spring Training will likely be March 3rd, when the Yankees host team USA (which team will A-Rod and Jeter play for?!) at Steinbrenner Field and the 7:15 PM game against the Red Sox at home on March 24th. The seamless transition from Legends Field to Steinbrenner field is complete. It is truly the "House that Big Stein built."

Now is the time to start booking the hotel, plane, rental car etc. Season tickets for the entire home schedule of Yankees Spring Training 2009 go on sale in the 2nd week of December (date TBA) and individual game tickets go on sale sometime in January (date TBA).

See you in Tampa!

Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums! Read the full post, after the jump

Want to head down to Florida for Spring Training Baseball? Read this for some money saving tips!

As of now, I'm not heading down to Spring Training, but I have been pondering the idea and checking into pricing. In the spirit of the fast-approaching pitcher/catcher report date, I'll use this space to share some ways to get down there the most cost-effective way possible.

Airfare

Obviously, you are going to get the best deal if you travel mid-week. The most expensive round-trip fares will be the Friday-Sunday type of deals. If you want an AWESOME airfare comparison website, head on over to Kayak.com. It includes the Jet Blue, Spirit Air, and Southwest's of the world that aren't included on Orbitz.com or Expedia.com searches. Sample Airfare that I have found is for Wednesday March 12 - Wednesday March 15. You leave from JFK at 7:05 PM on the 12th and arrive in Tampa around 10 PM. Going back, is an evening flight on Saturday night. The Yankees play a Spring Training game against the Pirates on Thursday that you can catch. $179 round trip from NYC.


Hotel

Free re-bidding with Priceline.com is the way to go. Usually people are put off by Priceline, because you don't know where you are locking yourself into staying. Lucky for you, there is a way to take advantage of the Priceline system:

A great, straightforward and simple introduction to successful Priceline bidding is this 2003 article from the Washington Post by Michael Shapiro.

About.com has a good, clear explanation of how free re-bids work. That's probably the single most important 'trick' to learn.

The best uber resource for informed Priceline bidding is Bidding For Travel.com. Some users are unhappy with the level of moderation there, but it is indispensable successful and unsuccessful bids that have been posted. Their Hotel FAQ is also for the lists of hotels by zone and quality level and the tremendous amount of important reading to understand how to get the hotel(s) you want in the right location and at the best price. Furthermore, their discussion boards contain really interesting tips such as advanced rebidding techniques that increase your free re-bids beyond those conventionally recognized.

An alternative to Biddingfortravel.com is BetterBidding.com which is newer and not quite as extensive. It does cover Hotwire as well as Priceline, so adds some unique value

SOURCE

Rental Car

There are a LOT of discount codes out there that you can use, especially in a state like Florida.
There are discount codes with all of the different rental companies. Check out this thread from the best money-saving website out there - FatWallet.com


Yankee Spring Training Tickets

Tickets are still available for select Spring Training games on Yankees.com. When these games sell out (and they will sell out) you will need to secure tickets without getting ROBBED on Stub Hub. The BEST thing to do is to head on over to Craigs List Tampa and try to get some tickets from locals in the area for face value or below.


Like I said, it ALL depends on the dates you choose, but if you follow the steps I have outlined above, I GUARANTEE you can afford to head down to Spring Training. Feel free to post on the message boards about any luck you have had in booking a trip down to Tampa for Spring Traning so others can possibly do the same!

Less than two weeks until pitchers and catchers!!! Read the full post, after the jump