Municipal Stadium was located on Northeast 8th Street near the intersection of Northeast 18 Avenue in Pompano Beach, Florida.
The stadium was constructed in 1957 and dedicated that same year as City of Pompano Municipal Baseball Park, although it was more commonly referred to as Municipal Stadium.
In 1961 the ballpark became the spring training home of the expansion 1961 Washington Senators.
When the Washington Senators franchise moved to Texas in 1972, the Rangers continued to train at Pompano beach, where they remained through the 1986 spring season.
Municipal Stadium also hosted minor league baseball. From 1969 to 1973, the Florida State League Pompano Beach Mets played at the ballpark. In 1976, the FSL Pompano Beach Cubs moved to Municipal Stadium, having played the previous season at Wicker Stadium in Key West, Florida. The Cubs played in Pompano Beach through the 1978 season.
In 1987, the Rangers moved to what is now Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Florida. Known then as Rangers Stadium,the Rangers left Charlotte for Surprise, Arizona, after the 2002 season. After an extensive renovation, Charlotte Sports Park it is now the spring training home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
After the Rangers departed Pompano Beach, the Senior Professional Baseball Association Gold Coast Suns, managed by Earl Weaver, played their home games at the ballpark from 1989 to 1990.
After the Gold Coast Suns departed, and unable to find any other major league teams interested in training at Municipal Stadium, the city reconfigured the ballpark for soccer, although the field also was still used for high school and amateur baseball.
Municipal Stadium was damaged by two hurricanes, first in 1991 and then in 2005, yet miraculously most of the stadium structure remained at the site for an additional two decades.
The first significant stadium structure to be demolished was the modest grandstand behind home plate, which was removed at some point during the late 1990s.
The concrete and steel covered third base grandstand remained at the site.
The uncovered grandstand along the first base line remained at the site as well.
The first base dugout was located underneath the first base grandstand.
The third base dugout was located under the third base grandstand.
In 2005, Hurricane Wilma – the second hurricane to hit the stadium – destroyed the metal bleachers that sat along the first base foul line just past the first base grandstand.
By 2007, the stadium was in terrible shape. However, the field still was used for amateur baseball, as well as a baseball training academy.
In 2008, the City of Pompano demolished the stadium and the remaining structures.
The city refurbished the practice fields that surrounded Municipal Stadium and constructed a soccer field where once sat the entrance to the ballpark, the third base grandstand, and the home plate grandstand. An additional practice field was built with home plate located in the approximate site of what was once Pompano Stadium’s first base.
Pompano Beach Municipal Stadium is now just a memory, another lost ballpark. However, the practice fields where the Senators and the Rangers once trained remain at the site, as does a new field placed about 90 feet north of the original stadium playing field.
