No stolen bases. No home runs. No Red Sox players.

Instead, it was country-music superstar Luke Bryan stepping onto the baseball field June 14 at Fort Myers’ JetBlue Park, accompanied by loud cheers from the thousands of fans packing the field and the stands in the Fenway South stadium.

“Fort Myers, Florida, what’s up?” a grinning Bryan hollered into the crowd from the concert stage set up against the center-field wall.

The crowd roared its approval as the “American Idol” judge launched into some of his biggest country-music hits: “Knockin’ Boots,” “That’s My Kinda Night,” “Country Song Came On,” “Kick The Dust Up,” “Drink A Beer” and many more.

Later, after playing the hit song “One Margarita,” Bryan smiled out into the nearly sold-out stadium.

“Do you realize this is the first-ever concert in this place?” he asked the audience. They loudly cheered in acknowledgment.

Then he flashed a mischievous grin.

“I have the attendance record tonight,” he joked.

Fort Myers history at JetBlue Park

Bryan’s headlining performance capped a night of country music that included opening acts Adrien Nunez, Ashland Craft and 2023 “American Idol” winner Iam Tongi (replacing the previously announced Conner Smith, who was involved in a June 8 Nashville traffic accident that killed a pedestrian).

Bryan’s concert made history in Fort Myers. He was the first major musical act to perform on the Fenway South baseball field — the popular spring training home of the Boston Red Sox. And more concerts are coming, according to Red Sox officials.

Alicia Holdren drove up from Naples to see Bryan and help break in the new venue. She and a friend watched the show from the stands overlooking the covered baseball diamond and the concert stage.

“It’s history in the making,” said Holdren, wearing a U.S. flag shirt for Flag Day. “It’s exciting!”

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She and friend Tina De Lorenzo looked forward to seeing Bryan take the stage. De Lorenzo’s a big fan and loves watching Bryan as a judge on “American Idol.

“He’s great,” she said. “He’s just a great performer. … I love the man.”

Red Sox tradition hits Fort Myers

The show marked Fenway South’s debut as the biggest new concert venue in Southwest Florida. The Fort Myers stadium can hold about 17,000 people for concerts, according to Shawn Smith, general manager of Florida operations for The Boston Red Sox. That’s bigger than Hammond Stadium (about 9,300 people), Hertz Arena (about 8,500) or just about any other concert venue in Southwest Florida.

The move brings a long-running Red Sox tradition from Boston’s Fenway Park to the smaller stadium in Fort Myers.

Huge concerts have been happening at Fenway Park since 2003, when Bruce Springsteen played two shows there, said Larry Cancro, senior vice president of Fenway concerts and entertainment for the Red Sox, earlier this month. That was followed by Jimmy Buffett, The Rolling Stones and more huge acts.

Now Fenway South is bringing huge acts to Southwest Florida, too, starting with Bryan.

Those concerts could mean a huge economic boost for Southwest Florida, Cancro said.

“Here in Boston, our shows do about $10 million of economic impact,” he said. “Until you study it, you don’t know how much. But there will be economic impact (in Fort Myers).”

Luke Bryan breaks in Fenway South as a concert venue

For the June 14 show, the stage was set up against the center-field wall, just like at Fenway Park, with huge TV screens on either side.

More than 7,000 folding metal seats sat on the field in front of the stage, according to organizers. Another 10,000 people could fit in the stands, surrounding the stage on three sides.

As the night’s first opening act performed, Jennifer Brown of Cape Coral stood in line and waited for her ticket to get scanned so she could take her seat on the ball field, along with the rest of the first audience to watch a show there.

Brown said she was excited to be making history at the new Fort Myers venue. “I’m super-stoked!”

She was also stoked to see the new venue open in Southwest Florida. “We finally have a big name and a big venue,” she said. “We don’t have to drive to Tampa or Miami.”

When Bryan took the stage at about 8:45 p.m. Saturday wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt, the stadium erupted into cheers and clapping from the fans — many of them wearing cowboy boots, cowboy hats and Luke Bryan shirts.

The audience danced and sang along as Bryan played hit after hit to the nearly sold-out stadium.

“How we doin’, JetBlue Park?” Bryan hollered into the enthusiastic crowd. “We’re gonna have some fun with y’all tonight!”

More concerts to come at Fenway South

The concerts are a collaboration between the Boston Red Sox and U.S. entertainment giant Live Nation. Most of those shows will likely happen in the spring and autumn, Smith said, when the weather is better, hurricane season is over and more people are here in Southwest Florida (including college kids — an audience JetBlue Park hopes to reach).

Many of those upcoming acts could already be on tour with Live Nation and playing similar, amphitheater-style venues in Tampa, Jacksonville and elsewhere.

No other concerts have been announced yet for Fenway South, but any acts hitting Florida amphitheaters would also be candidates for Fort Myers, says Cancro of the Red Sox.

Tampa’s MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater and Jacksonville’s Daily’s Place amphitheater, for example, have 2025 schedules that include Dierks Bentley, Vampire Weekend, The Offspring, Kesha, Blink-182, Little Big Town, Jason Aldean, Papa Roach, Shania Twain and Sting.

“There are distinct acts that tour those kind of venues every year, every other year, every third year,” Cancro says.

Sitting in the stands, De Lorenzo says she hopes to see more big country acts at the venue. “I can’t wait to see more concerts here. It’s a nice venue.”

Brown said she was just thrilled to see a big concert happening in the summer — usually a dead zone for entertainment in Southwest Florida. “For us locals, it’s like: ‘Hell yeah!’”

— Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email [email protected]. Follow or message him on social media: Facebook(@charles.ru