WrestleMania 37 lit up Raymond James Stadium in 2021.WWE
Résumé: Annual events include college football’s ReliaQuest Bowl (since 1986) and the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (2018); Valspar Championship (2000); and NFLPA Sandlot 7v7 Pro-Am Challenge (2022). Other recent events include: 2017 College Football Championship Game; 2018 NHL All-Star Game; 2019 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four; 2019 SheBelieves Cup; NFL Super Bowl LV; WrestleMania 37; 2022 U.S. Gymnastics Championships; 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four and Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship; 2023 USA Field Hockey National Hockey Festival; 2023 and 2024 USA Flag Adult Flag Football World Championships; and January’s WWE Royal Rumble.
Recent wins: 2023 and 2024 Youth Summit & Varsity All-Star Celebration (cheer); 2024 USL Academy Cup; 2024 IFBB Bodybuilding Championships; and 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four and 2026 Men’s Basketball first and second rounds.
Venues: The 85-acre SouthShore Sportsplex (which has one of the largest contiguous synthetic turf fields in the nation) and the 15-field Hillsborough County Tournament SportsPlex complement Tampa’s existing venues such as Amalie Arena and Raymond James Stadium, each of which has a history of hosting big events.
The city’s 99 youth and amateur sporting events across 28 sports in 2022-23 generated more than 250,000 hotel room nights. Visit Tampa Bay reported in January that more than 26.7 million visitors came through the area in fiscal year 2023 and that Hillsborough County was on pace to easily surpass the previous year’s record tourist development tax collections of $62 million.
Stay and play: The annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival, held almost every year since 1904, drew a record 320,000 revelers in January, and Busch Gardens, a 335-acre animal theme park, has been a top destination for more than six decades. — D.B.
