How the host city of Tampa grew the Super Bowl from an ugly duckling to an American sports mecca – other sports

The Super Bowl is the largest number of American sports every year. The two best American football teams compete for the legendary Vince Lombardi Cup. The National Football Association (NFL) with the Super Bowl as the Holy Grail, the American Dream is grouped as a sport. Those who work hard, invest intelligently, and demonstrate patience will sooner or later reap the benefits in American sport. Missing factors such as money, status and moderate tax climate can be overcome.
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The Super Bowl is the largest number of American sports every year. The two best American football teams compete for the legendary Vince Lombardi Cup. The National Football Association (NFL) with the Super Bowl as the Holy Grail, the American Dream is grouped as a sport. Those who work hard, invest intelligently, and demonstrate patience will sooner or later reap the benefits in American sport. Lost factors such as money, status, and moderate tax climate can be overcome. However, Tampa and thus Tampa Bay, an umbrella term for the cities of Tampa and Saint Petersburg, has been an exception to this rule for decades. The area is only 18th by population in the United States but is nonetheless home to Ray’s baseball players, pirate footballers and Lightning ice hockey players. Together, they have won three championships, light years away from as many winners as Boston and Los Angeles. Mediators, inadequacies and squads without any identity have been synonymous with Tampa for decades. It is no coincidence that Forbes declared the city that Spanish immigrants had founded a few months earlier as the most miserable sporting city in the country. Almost all parts of Florida, sport is just one of many side issues, a social hobby and certainly not a matter of life and death like it is in Texas, for example. The only exception is college football, which, like other states in the southeast, has been raised to half a religion. The symbol for the Ugly Duckling was the idea of ​​a rotation system for the Rays home duels: half the matches in Tampa, the other half in Montreal, in Canada. Long before the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, horrifically empty stalls were the rule rather than the exception at the local Tropicana Field. Tampa is basically a magnet for retirees and it is not home to multinational companies or entrepreneurs who manage their money easily. Additionally, the warm climate attracts many Americans who are looking for a better home for work or to enjoy their retirement. Naturally, they keep their passion for the team from their hometown. That way, Tampa has been in a kind of vicious circle for years: no money, rare success and above all, a perpetual lack of interest. So it should come as no surprise that the three teams play their home matches in dilapidated stadiums. There is no prospect for innovation, and no one is willing to open the wallet generously. In a sporty climate where state-of-the-art stadium construction is seen as a discovery of a gold mine, Tampa continues to be left behind. In American collective sports memory, Tampa is primarily remembered as the location of the most American Super Bowl in history. Due to the Gulf War, the Super Bowl XXV in 1991 was overshadowed by strict security measures such as helicopters with snipers. However, the emotional performance of the Star Spangled Banner by Whitney Houston before kick-off turned the fear into a wave of national joy. Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, cards have been shuffled very differently for Tampa Sports City. In recent months, all of the puzzle pieces have suddenly fallen together: the three franchises have risen above themselves almost simultaneously. However, the sudden boom did not come out of thin air. In American sports, the law of the strongest and the greatest doesn’t always matter, but the law of the smartest. Despite a severe shortage of fans, Rays has been outperforming for years thanks to the now well-known Moneyball theory: attracting cheap players that other teams cannot underestimate, often based on stats. In this way, Tampa fought for the World Series in October, the final of the baseball season, as they were stranded against the Dodgers. No shame because the Los Angeles team has four times the salary budget. Lightning ice hockey players have always noticed a similar approach. A prolific but steady policy resulted in a second Stanley Cup in September, a stark difference from the start of the troubled team in the 1990s. Under the Japanese owner’s rule, more than $ 100 million in debt accumulated in the first five years. The highlight of those early days was the report that all uniforms, sticks and pucks may be seized to avoid bankruptcy. Fortunately, the risk of a financial meltdown lurks behind the current group of ice hockey players who have since grown into a cult club in the midst of a warm tropical setting. Ironically, fan groups only saw one minute of all victories in 2020. The National Hockey League (NHL) Final ended in the Corona Bubble in Edmonton, Canada, more than 4,000 kilometers north of Florida. Despite the support of thousands of cardboard fans, the Rays’ rays eventually collapsed on the neutral Corona terrain in Texas, thanks in particular to Tom Brady who took the NFL top spot this season. The living legend left Boston after 20 years to hunt down the seventh Super Bowl in Florida. The perpetual winner, Brady, faced his biggest challenge yet at the age of 43, and led the Pirates to a second Super Bowl victory as the eternal loser. The 43-year-old midfielder now proves to be the missing link unlocking carefully created potential for the group of players. However, the arrival of the greatest player of all time caused a landslide in the United States. The star who chose a career in Tampa was invisible. In addition to the 2002 Wound Season, Pirates are mainly known for accumulating negative records. The franchise was established in 1976 with the idea of ​​ridding the city of the image of sun, sea and sand. From the start, the pirates were given a wiper image: only after a season and a half and 26 games they won for the first time. Regardless of the outcome on Sunday night, the Super Bowl of the Buccaneers is at home in anyway the crown in a magical sports year. None of the 108 finalists played the Super Bowl at home. The flow of success does not have to end. Due to Canada’s strict Corona measures, Toronto Raptors basketball players currently play in Cigar City. It’s unlikely that the flow of success will continue to make Tampa a new sporting city. America itself is not thrilled with a fairytale at the moment. The world championship rankings as a meeting between David and Goliath have never been low since the 1960s. After the exciting series of games that brought Rays to the 2008 World Championships earlier, it seemed like the city had finally fallen in love with baseball. However, not much happened. The total number of spectators rose after one year by a meager four percent. In short, Tampa is not only the perfect location on a Sunday night, but also the perfect Super Bowl winner in Corona times. The empty the stands, the better.