TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa area leaders say next year’s Super Bowl will be an opportunity to re-introduce our area to the world.
A lot has changed in the 12 years since Tampa Bay’s last Super Bowl and leaders on both sides of the Bay are scrambling to finish up projects and get ready to shine on the world’s largest stage.
Rob Higgins is heading up the Tampa Bay Host Committee. He remembers back to the mid-2000s when he helped with Tampa Bay’s winning bid.
“We got the news that we were going to host the Super Bowl in 2009 and the celebration broke out,” Higgins recalls. “You look at what a huge spectacle it has been.
"It is the biggest sporting event in America and so to get a chance to be able to host that and bring it home for our community is incredible.”
Fast forward—and 12 years later, Tampa Bay will once again play host this time for Super Bowl LV. But for those who remember our last Super Bowl, this time around will be massively bigger.
“It’s an event that’s grown year over year,” Higgins said. “It has snowballed in a really unique way. To think we haven’t hosted in a 12-year time frame, I think people locally here are going to be blown away from a size standpoint.”
But Higgins hopes the NFL is equally as impressed with the growth and evolution of Tampa Bay.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Super Bowl LV as a platform to show how far we’ve come since 2009 and more importantly where we’re going,” Higgins said. “You look at all these developments that are coming together, you look at how far we continue to transform, whether it’s the downtown the airport, Ray Jay, this is a new and different community and to be able to showcase that on the biggest and brightest of stages is an awesome, awesome opportunity.”
But will Tampa Bay be ready? Higgins says despite all the construction -- like the St. Pete Pier, Water Street and ongoing work at Tampa International Airport, the deadline to be ready for Super Bowl LV could actually help speed up some projects.
“I think a lot of folks from a stakeholder standpoint are using the Super Bowl as a deadline of sorts to get as complete as possible if not finished," he said. "I don’t think anybody that has a chance of being done by Feb of 2021, isn’t going to do everything they can to get there.”
As for the game itself, the half time show and who will sing the National Anthem, all of that if left up to the NFL. But when it comes to “Team Tampa” Higgins says we’ll be ready for something bigger than the Bay area has ever seen.
“With any luck, it’s an unprecedented Super Bowl experience," Higgins said. "We just encourage people to be ready, brace yourself for what is going to be one heck of a week come February of 2021."
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