{"id":155222,"date":"2026-02-14T05:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155222\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T05:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:16:42","slug":"clearwater-gets-national-attention-as-tourism-season-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155222\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearwater gets national attention as tourism season starts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The spring tourism season has started in the Tampa area.<\/p>\n<p>From Major League Baseball to college softball, fans and athletes heading to the diamonds are bringing with them welcome exposure and an economic boost to the Bay area.<\/p>\n<p>While spring training for the MLB is already underway in Pinellas County for the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays, Clearwater kicked off the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clearwaterinvitational.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shriners Children\u2019s Clearwater Invitational<\/a> softball tournament at Eddie C. Moore Complex Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearwater\u2019s becoming the diamond capital of the county in the month of February,\u201d said Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector. \u201cDiamond sports, softball and baseball, so ESPN is broadcasting all 40 games on one of their various platforms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rector is proud the national attention shines the spotlight on Clearwater.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe road to the World Series starts in Clearwater,\u201d said Brian Lowack, President and CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitstpeteclearwater.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Visit St. Pete-Clearwater<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He says tickets to the tournament were sold through 47 states and three countries. Fans from across the country and around the world will cheer on 16 college softball teams \u2014 10 of them ranked top 25 in the country.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0212_bn9_clearwater_shriners_baseball.jpeg\" alt=\"The Shriners Children\u2019s Clearwater Invitational runs Feb. 12-15. (Spectrum News\/Melissa Eichman)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"The Shriners Children\u2019s Clearwater Invitational runs Feb. 12-15. (Spectrum News\/Melissa Eichman)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\" img-data-editing=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Shriners Children\u2019s Clearwater Invitational runs Feb. 12-15. (Spectrum News\/Melissa Eichman)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTens of thousands are going to be here over the course of the next four days. That\u2019s thousands of hotel room nights and ultimately leading towards over $10 million in economic impact,\u201d Lowack said of the impact.<\/p>\n<p>Lenny\u2019s Restaurant feels that impact, reporting that business more than doubles this time of year. Loraine Bates has been a server at Lenny\u2019s for more than 25 years and says the restaurant will be ready.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s means we\u2019re going to be fully staffed,\u201d said Bates. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be like a Sunday every day of the week. We\u2019re all hyped for it, we\u2019re all looking for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Visitors working up an appetite while cheering on their favorite teams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re hungry or hung over, come to Lenny\u2019s. We\u2019ll feed you and we\u2019ll take care of you,\u201d said Bates.<\/p>\n<p>A host city taking care of fans while they take in Tampa Bay\u2019s sunshine and beaches, whether it&#8217;s from the stands or while watching on TV.<\/p>\n<p>The Shriners Children\u2019s Clearwater Invitational runs Feb. 12-15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The spring tourism season has started in the Tampa area. From Major League Baseball to college&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3076,274,1548,1187,115,596,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-155222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-good-news","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-good-news","11":"tag-melissa-eichman","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas-county","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}