Expect heavy traffic this weekend as March Madness rolls into Tampa, with the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship taking place at Benchmark International Arena on Friday and Sunday. Thousands of fans from eight universities, including the defending champion Florida Gators, will be in town for the games.<\/p>\n
Plan ahead for congestion and large crowds in and around Benchmark International Arena. Alongside basketball, conventions, plays and other activities will make for an extremely busy weekend.<\/p>\n
Pro tip: Consider alternative transportation options \u2014 including the Free TECO Streetcar, DASH service, HART buses, and rentable scooters and bikes \u2014 to avoid congestion and the race to find parking.<\/p>\n
This Weekend’s EventsFriday, March 20Thespians \u2014 Tampa Convention Center, 8:00 a.m.Major League Paintball \u2014 Raymond James Stadium, 8:00 a.m.\u201310:00 p.m.Great American Franchise Show \u2014 Tampa Convention Center, 11:00 a.m.\ud83c\udfc0 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Round 1 \u2014 Benchmark International Arena, 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.Yankees Spring Training \u2014 Steinbrenner Field, 6:30 p.m.Straz Center shows \u2014 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.Saturday, March 21Thespians \u2014 Tampa Convention Center, 8:00 a.m.Major League Paintball \u2014 Raymond James Stadium, 8:00 a.m.\u201310:00 p.m.Tampa Girls Market \u2014 Water Works Park, 9:30 a.m.Hyde Park Art Fair, 10:00 a.m.Tampa Home Show \u2014 Tampa Convention Center, 10:00 a.m.Great American Franchise Show \u2014 Tampa Convention Center, 11:00 a.m.Straz Center shows \u2014 4:00 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.Yankees Spring Breakout \u2014 Steinbrenner Field, 6:30 p.m.Sunday, March 22Major League Paintball \u2014 Raymond James Stadium, 8:00 a.m.\u201310:00 p.m.Hyde Park Art Fair, 10:00 a.m.Tampa Home Show \u2014 Tampa Convention Center, 10:00 a.m.\ud83c\udfc0 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Round 2 \u2014 Benchmark International Arena, 12:00 p.m.Yankees Spring Training \u2014 Steinbrenner Field, 1:00 p.m.Straz Center shows \u2014 2:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
To see the latest road closures that may impact your commute, visit Tampa.gov\/road-closures<\/a>. To view City of Tampa parking options, visit Tampa.gov\/parking<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expect heavy traffic this weekend as March Madness rolls into Tampa, with the first and second rounds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-196766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196766","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=196766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}