Raymond James Stadium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Raymond James Stadium | |
|---|---|
| Ray Jay, The New Sombrero, The CITS | |
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| Location | One Buccaneer Place Tampa, Florida 33607 |
| Broke ground | Fall 1996 |
| Opened | September 20, 1998 |
| Owner | Tampa Sports Authority |
| Operator | Tampa Sports Authority |
| Surface | Bermuda Grass |
| Construction cost | $168.5 million |
| Architect | HOK Sport |
| Former names | |
| Tampa Community Stadium (1996-1997) | |
| Tenants | |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL) (1998-present) Tampa Bay Mutiny (MLS) (1999-2001) USF Bulls (NCAA) (1998-present) Outback Bowl (NCAA) (1999-present) |
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| Capacity | |
| 66,321 (expandable to 75,000) | |
Raymond James Stadium is a football and soccer stadium located in Tampa, Florida. It is home to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as the University of South Florida football team, and was formerly home to the MLS's Tampa Bay Mutiny. The stadium seats just over 66,000, and it is expandable to 75,000 for special events, making it much smaller than the stadiums in Gainesville, Miami and Tallahassee. The stadium also hosts the annual Outback Bowl on New Year's Day, and the Superbowl of Motorsports monster truck event in mid-January. Super Bowl XXXV was held there on January 28, 2001 between the Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants. It will host Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.
Raymond James Stadium was built primarily to replace the aging Houlihan's Stadium, formerly located adjacent to the property. It is located on the former site of the now-demolished Al Lopez Field. The stadium officially opened September 20, 1998, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Chicago Bears, 27-15. The final cost of the stadium was $168.5 million, publicly financed. Originally referred to as Tampa Community Stadium, the naming rights were bought for $32.5 million for a thirteen-year deal by St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial. On April 27, 2006 an extension was signed to maintain naming rights through 2015.
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[edit] Features
One of the most recognizable features of the stadium is a 103-foot, 43-ton steel-and-concrete replica pirate ship, which fires soft-rubber footballs and confetti each time that the Bucs score points. The cannons fire six times for a touchdown, once for an extra point or if the Bucs get into their opponent's red zone, twice for a safety or two point conversion, and three times for a field goal. In addition, when the Buccaneers enter their opponent's red zone, stadium hosts hoist team flags around the perimeter of the upper deck.
When it opened, Raymond James Stadium was dubbed the "crown jewel" of the NFL. Buc Vision, a pair of 92-foot wide video screens, are among the largest in the league. Buccaneer Cove features a weathered, two-story fishing village facade, housing stadium concessions and restrooms. All areas of the stadium are ADA compliant.
Temporary bleachers were erected in the endzones for Super Bowl XXXV, and the attendance was a stadium record 71,921.
In 2003, the corner billboards in the stadium were replaced with rotating trilon billboards.
[edit] Historical Notes
On September 3, 1996, the voters of Hillsborough County, Florida approved, by 53% to 47% margin, a thirty-year, half-cent sales tax to build new schools, improve public safety and infrastructure, along with building the new stadium. Voting precincts reported record turnout.
On October 31, 1996, the NFL owners met in New Orleans to select the host site for Super Bowl XXXIII and Super Bowl XXXIV. Pro Player Stadium in the Miami area was selected to host Super Bowl XXXIII. Atlanta, Tempe and Tampa were candidates for Super Bowl XXXIV, with Tampa the favorite, following the successful tax referendum. The Georgia Dome in Atlanta, however, was awarded the game. As a compromise, Tampa was awarded Super Bowl XXXV, which the NFL had not originally planned to select that day.
On May 25, 2005, NFL owners met in Washington, D.C. to select the host site for Super Bowl XLIII. During the balloting, Raymond James Stadium defeated the Georgia Dome (Atlanta), Reliant Stadium (Houston), and Dolphin Stadium (Miami Gardens).
After a nearly two-year legal battle, the Tampa Sports Authority came to a settlement with popular sports-seating and telescopic platform/bleacher company Hussey Seating of North Berwick, Maine. Following the stadium’s opening in 1998, roughly 50,000 Hussey-manufactured seats at Raymond James Stadium began to fade from their original color – a bright, vibrant shade of red – to a shade of washed-out pink. Spotting this obvious defect, the Buccaneers organization pleaded to the TSA to sue the seating manufacturing company for the cost to replace the affected chairs in 2003. Initially, in May of 2004, after testing samples of the seats, Hussey Seating did not find any cause for the fading, and thus, found no reason to replace the seats at the company’s cost under the current 10-year warranty. After the TSA cited a portion of the warranty which did, in fact, state that Hussey would replace seats if any fading were to occur, Hussey president Tim Hussey admitted an error in the research and eventually would come to a $1.5-million agreement with the TSA to replace the problem seats. Reportedly, the seat-fading occurred due to a manufacturing error by Hussey, as a UV inhibitor – a sunscreen-like component for the plastic – was forgotten in the mixture used to create the seats. All of the problem seats were replaced by new, non-pink seats in the spring of 2006.
Although there are no official nicknames, the stadium is sometimes referred to as "Ray Jay", "The New Sombrero" (a spinoff of the former Bucs' home, as coined by Chris Berman of ESPN), or humorously by local residents as "the CITS", which stands for the Community Investment Tax Stadium. The name coming from the tax referendum that was created to fund its construction.
[edit] Major Football Games
Super Bowls
- Super Bowl XXXV: January 28, 2001 (Baltimore Ravens 34, New York Giants 7)
- Super Bowl XLIII: February 1, 2009
NFL Playoff Games
- NFC Divisional Playoff: January 15, 2000 (Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14, Washington Redskins 13)
- NFC Divisional Playoff: January 12, 2003 (Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31, San Francisco 49ers 6)
- NFC Wild Card Playoff: January 7, 2006 (Washington Redskins 17, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10)
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Tampa Stadium/Houlihan's Stadium 1976-1997 |
Home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1998-present |
Succeeded by current |
| Preceded by Tampa Stadium/Houlihan's Stadium 1996-1999 |
Home of the Tampa Bay Mutiny 1999-2001 |
Succeeded by last stadium |
| Football Stadiums of the Big East Conference |
|---|
| Carrier Dome (Syracuse) • Heinz Field (Pittsburgh) • Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium (West Virginia) • Nippert Stadium (Cincinnati) • Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (Louisville) • Raymond James Stadium (South Florida) • Rentschler Field (Connecticut) • Rutgers Stadium (Rutgers) |
Categories: Big East Conference | 1998 establishments | Buildings and structures in Tampa | College football venues | Current NCAA bowl game venues | National Football League venues | Soccer venues in the United States | South Florida Bulls football | Sports in Tampa | Sports venues in Florida | Super Bowl venues | Tampa, Florida | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Tampa Bay Mutiny
