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For Tampa Bay 28 Sports Anchor Kyle Burger, pride in our local teams goes beyond college and the pros. Sports connect us as communities and families. You can connect with Kyle to share your passion for your local athletes below.
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ annual draft party took up three city blocks on Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a Block Party,\u201d Bucs fan Derek Peete from Ft. Myers said. \u201cI\u2019ve been out here since two o\u2019clock. This is where you want to be. This is happenin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
In past draft parties, the Bucs hosted fans inside Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was fine and dandy because you got to go through the stadium and visit places where the team was,\u201d Bucs fan Dennis Shinabarger said. \u201cThis year, with this venue, they have here, I think it\u2019s fantastic. I\u2019m looking for a great turnout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bucs officials received \u201cwell over 10,000″ RSVPs for the free event.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we think about doing an event, we want to think about the entire Bay community,\u201d James Ruth, Bucs chief marketing officer, said.<\/p>\n
Some familiar fans were amongst the Bucs\u2019 faithful walking up and down Central Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the coolest thing ever. It\u2019s awesome,\u201d former Florida governor Charlie Crist told Tampa Bay 28 sports anchor Kyle Burger. \u201cAs you can see, there are thousands of people here. It\u2019s a beautiful night. Lots of great restaurants, lots of enthusiasm, and a big draft night.\u201d<\/p>\n
While fans were waiting to watch the Bucs make their first round draft pick on the massive video screen, there were plenty of things to do, including grabbing free giveaways, games or grab a bite to eat.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery bar on Central Ave is doing something unique for fans to come by and check out,\u201d Ruth added.<\/p>\n
Not just the bars, but the St. Pete Tattoo Company had an offer of its own.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a hard one to pass up, especially since it is free,\u201d Leo Watson said.<\/p>\n
The first 50 Bucs fans could pick one of several different tattoos for free.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are literally bleeding for the Bucs. How long have you been a Bucs fan?\u201d Burger asked Watson, who was lying face down while getting the Bucs logo tattooed on the back of his arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh, that is a good question,\u201d Watson said. \u201cEven since I moved here in 2017. Really, when Tom took over and won the Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n
A free offer might not be for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd did you know, they are giving away free Bucs tattoos right over there?\u201d Burger asked Crist. \u201cIs that right? Well, I\u2019ll have to think about that,\u201d Crist said.<\/p>\n
Share Your Story with Kyle Burger
For Tampa Bay 28 Sports Anchor Kyle Burger, pride in our local teams goes beyond college and the pros. Sports connect us as communities and families. You can connect with Kyle to share your passion for your local athletes below.
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![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ADAM.WALSER.png\"\/)
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Homeowner loses decade-long legal battle against St. Pete over unrecorded water pipelines<\/p>\n
An Odessa man lost his legal battle against the city of St. Petersburg today after a jury ruled that two massive water mains buried under his property can remain.<\/p>\n
Homeowner loses decade-long legal battle against St. Petersburg over unrecorded water pipelines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ annual draft party took up three city blocks on Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[107720,107721,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,9658,9659,208,9661],"class_list":["post-244545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-kevin-lewis","tag-kyle-burger","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-28-sports","tag-tampa-bay-sports","tag-wfts","tag-wfts-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244545","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=244545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}