Tampa Bay Would make Finest of Super Bowl 7 days Amid Sour Overall economy | Business enterprise News

By CURT ANDERSON, Linked Press

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — There have been 4 previous Super Bowls in Tampa, some amid war and economic distress, but none have faced the worries this year’s occasion encounters since of the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout.

Tickets for Sunday’s recreation are constrained to about a third of the potential of Raymond James Stadium. There will be no tailgating. Though the typical admirer festival and other side points of interest are going on, masks and social distancing are demanded. Most player appearances will be remote.

Last year’s pre-pandemic Tremendous Bowl in the Miami place generated an estimated $572 million in new paying in the 3 main South Florida counties, in accordance to that game’s host committee. This calendar year, the Tampa Bay area most likely will never crank out even 50 % that, said Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting.

The typical economic choose for a Super Bowl is somewhere between $300 million and $500 million for the host locations, he reported.

For case in point, significant corporate and sponsor activities will be minimal if they are held at all, he claimed. Bars and dining establishments are open up but with some restrictions on seating and an emphasis on social distancing.

“A good deal of issues you associate with a Super Bowl usually are not heading to come about,” Snaith stated. “That’s going to have an effects economically. The situation put type of a damp blanket on it.”

Tourist progress tax collections in Hillsborough County, the place Tampa is located, exhibit the strike the area has taken throughout the pandemic. This is a tax on quick-time period rentals, such as resorts.

In advance of the pandemic, tax collections for income in January to February ended up at an improve of about 30% in comparison to 2019 in the course of the identical time time period, in accordance to county information.

Right after the pandemic strike, tourist tax collections for gross sales in March to November lessened by almost 49% in comparison to 2019 for the duration of the very same time time period.

Hillsborough missing at least $11.1 million in vacationer tax collections for revenue from January to November, if not far more when in comparison to figures from 2019 for the very same time period of time.

Across the bay, Pinellas County professional a similar tax downturn, dropping at the very least $17.9 million in vacationer tax collections for profits from January to November.

But leaders in the Tampa Bay region are putting a courageous facial area on web hosting the game, which was originally intended to be held in the Los Angeles spot until stadium building there strike a snag that led the NFL to appear elswhere. L.A. is getting following year’s recreation.

The region is thrilled that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by quarterback Tom Brady in his initially 12 months with the staff, will confront with the defending winner Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and their younger star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Folks have previously been lining up at sporting items shops to acquire staff items.

Over and above that, officials say it can be tricky to set a cost tag on the publicity the Super Bowl will produce for the total region, its shorelines and other sights. Disney Globe and the other Orlando topic parks aren’t far away, either.

Rob Higgins, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Super Bowl host committee, explained the region is hunting at the Tremendous Bowl as an unparalleled advertising and marketing chance.

Higgins reported the occasion will mark the most hotel rooms occupied since the pandemic began in the region — some estimates say probably as numerous as 100,000 visitor area nights — and that flights to Tampa are setting up to fill up.

“We have an possibility to inform our story,” he stated, noting that the previous Tremendous Bowl in Tampa was in 2009, all through the Great Economic downturn. “This is truly a system to share how significantly we’ve arrive as a local community.”

Still, it is high-priced to set collectively a Tremendous Bowl and its connected situations. Officers estimate area governments and entities this sort of as the Visit Tampa Bay vacationer marketing business are shelling out at least $7.5 million, not counting in-sort providers.

Lodge occupancy in the Tampa spot was about 53% in the course of the 1st three weeks of January this calendar year, mentioned Stop by Tampa Bay CEO Santiago Corrada. Final yr through the exact same time, it was 74%.

“We have endured around the final 11 to 12 months. We also have been incredibly resilient,” Corrada claimed. “Every thirty day period has found a gradual and regular increase in occupancy.”

It is been a strange sporting activities 12 months or so for Tampa Bay during the coronavirus pandemic. It was particularly successful by any measure for the region’s groups, besides not owning home games throughout the title runs and followers in the seats.

Initially, the NHL’s Lightning received the Stanley Cup, but the championship was played in Edmonton, Canada. Tampa didn’t get to host any of those online games. Same with baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, who shed the Globe Sequence to the Los Angeles Dodgers — in Arlington, Texas.

To top that off, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors are playing their household online games in the beginning at Tampa’s Amalie Arena mainly because of coronavirus limits in Canada. Yet again, no supporters permitted within at minimum for now.

Now it is really Brady and the Buccaneers’ flip in Tampa’s personal Tremendous Bowl that will never be the similar as the preceding 54 title game titles. No team has at any time ahead of played a Super Bowl in its property stadium.

Place all of this down as economic options lost.

Involved Press author Anila Yoganathan contributed to this tale.

This version corrects the date of the match.

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