SEC tourney in Tampa: Big bucks or big bust?

Tampa, Florida - Tampa Bay has seen a lot of sports lately.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg market is a hotbed for sports venues. Fans seem to flock to the Bay area during sporting events.

Just look at the last six months.

First, it was the World Series. Then, we had the Bowl Championship Series. After that, it was Super Bowl 43.

Now, Downtown Tampa is seeing big crowds once again with the SEC Tournament.

But, is the economy putting a damper on all the fun?

Even though the sports spirit is everywhere right now, the recession is never far from anyone's mind.

Kim Polling and her husband are from Lakeland and decided to splurge for her birthday. They got tickets to the tournament and are making a night of it in Tampa.

As they waited for the Tennessee game to begin on Friday night, Kim smiled and told us, "I think if it had not been for my birthday, I wouldn't have come because of the economy, but since it's my birthday I'm splurging."

That seems to be a common statement among fans at the tournament. Coming here is a special occasion.

An Auburn fan dressed up as Elvis got cheers and smiles as he approached the front doors at the St. Pete Times Forum on Friday. Wearing a black wig, sideburns, Hawaiian shirt and lei, "Elvis" told us he does this every year, but it costs him.

"The true fans will always show up. We look at it as a nice vacation. You'll do this, no matter what the economy is," the Auburn fan told us.

Another fan said, "I think people are scrutinizing where they spend their money now."

Proof that they are doing just that is the hotel occupancy downtown. We called several places to check on the status of full capacity. We found rooms still available.

One Tennessee fans put it simply, "If you don't have it, you're not going to spend it probably."

Rob Higgins, the executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission admitted that the numbers were down this year from previous years.

In 2007, the ACC tournament was in town and had higher attendance than this year, although the final numbers for this tournament still have to be compiled.

Higgins agrees that many fans are treating this as a vacation. "You know, in previous years, you would take a vacation and go follow your sports team here. Like I said before, you have people making this their vacation."

As of Friday afternoon, three thousand tickets were still available, according to the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. They are $50 for two games on Saturday. The championship game will be played on Sunday.