Shaded Seating at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches

What You Need to Know About Shade at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches

CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches is a state-of-the-art, 160-acre spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, that serves as the shared home of the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals.

Opened in 2017, the facility was designed to offer an immersive experience where fans walk past practice fields and batting cages before even entering the 8,000-capacity stadium. The stadium’s centerpiece is its 360-degree concourse, which allows fans to see the field from any point in the park.

How Shade Actually Works Here

Because the stadium faces northeast, the sun moves behind the grandstand during a typical 1:05 PM game. The sun remains high and slightly to the south for the early innings, leaving most of the field and lower rows in direct light.

As the afternoon wears on, the press box and upper-level suites cast a growing shadow onto the seating bowl. This shadow expands more quickly onto the third-base side, while the first-base line remains in the sun the longest. By mid-game, many more seats on the third-base side become engulfed in shade as the sun’s angle changes.

The Best Sections for Shade is Under the Covered Roof

CACTI Park offers a lot of shade in the upper rows of sections behind home plate and on both the third and first-base sides:

• Sections 102 – 116: Pretty much any section that is underneath the roof is protected from the sun. Stay on the upper rows for the most reliable shade. Sections 102 – 106 in particular are shaded early.

• MD Anderson Cancer Center Shade Concourse: This is a fully shaded area behind sections 101–118 for walking or standing room sections.

Afternoon vs. Evening Games

For evening games, usually starting around 6:05 PM, the experience is far more forgiving as the sun begins to set behind the stadium, stretching shadows across the entire seating bowl.

While the heat is less intense, the low angle of the setting sun in the west can occasionally create a glare for those on the first-base side during the first few innings, but overall, the park becomes much more comfortable as the night progresses.