{"id":274984,"date":"2026-05-18T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274984\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:00:14","slug":"best-sports-business-cities-no-13-tampa-st-petersburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274984\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Sports Business Cities: No. 13 Tampa-St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">As the Rays\u2019 ballpark efforts drag on, the Tampa area continues to lure events. The SEC Football Media Days will be in town for the first time in July. The Lightning\u2019s Benchmark International Arena has hosted multiple college basketball, volleyball and hockey championships, as well the 2022 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships. Raymond James Stadium has hosted Super Bowls, WrestleMania and the NHL Stadium Series (a Sport Business Awards nominee for Event of the Year), and the CFP National Championship game returns in 2029.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">Home Base: The area is home to Ironman; Raymond James Financial; Sports Facilities Group, the country\u2019s biggest operator of amateur sports facilities; United Soccer League; and the WTA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">Coming Soon: Amateur events are luring revenue, as the $26.5 million Sprowls Horizon Sports Park youth ballpark complex opened in February, and USF\u2019s new $407.5 million football stadium is on pace to open in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">Key Numbers: Six hotel projects (694 rooms) were announced in Tampa during 2026\u2019s first quarter, second only to Phoenix\u2019s nine. The market\u2019s per diem is $280 during spring training, but $231 the rest of the year, well below our study\u2019s average.<\/p>\n<p>Previous Rankings<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">2023: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Journal\/Issues\/2023\/03\/20\/In-Depth\/best-sports-business-cities-tampa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Journal\/Issues\/2023\/03\/20\/In-Depth\/best-sports-business-cities-tampa\/\">#13<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">2024 Event Hosting: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2024\/03\/18\/bsbc-tampa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2024\/03\/18\/bsbc-tampa\/\">#14<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">2025 Soccer: Not ranked<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ZZYGTMAJOVAKNIPNAGHUMURWRI.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"600\"\/>Best Sports Business Cities No. 13 Tampa-St. Petersburg: Benchmark International Arena hosted first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in March. (Courtesy of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission) <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/OFZKBBTCGFHMVG6S6VHQATXCOM.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"700\"\/>Best Sports Business Cities No. 13 Tampa-St. Petersburg: The Savannah Bananas filled Raymond James Stadium in March 2025. (Courtesy of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission) <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/NAN2AMCBR5GQHI2FLVNAVVZM5A.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"600\"\/>Best Sports Business Cities No. 13 Tampa-St. Petersburg:  The 2025 NCAA Women&#8217;s Final Four. (Courtesy of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Rays\u2019 ballpark efforts drag on, the Tampa area continues to lure events. The SEC Football Media&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[117402,10241,60896,117401,11708,23181,135,137,136,176,95317],"class_list":["post-274984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-best-sports-business-cities","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-data-and-insights","tag-print","tag-raymond-james-stadium","tag-rays","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-united-soccer-league","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274984","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=274984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}