Football legend Tom Brady did it again. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Brady as the quarterback, won the 2021 Super Bowl LV and helped Tampa bring in some tourism. Although expectations were relatively low due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, football fans came out to celebrate. This was the fifth time Tampa hosted the Super Bowl and the third time hosting it during a challenging period; the first time being in 1991 during the Gulf War and the second time in 2009 during the Great Recession.
Tampa International Airport (TPA) saw a flood in air travel with private jets and was the busiest airport worldwide on Super Bowl Sunday. Usually, the airport experiences around 50 jets a day but saw that number increase by almost 250 percent on game day, with large crowds of fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs arriving to support their teams. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, TPA saw 870 general aviation planes operating and a total of 181 general aviation planes on the ground at the same time. Due to the large crowds that typically fly into Super Bowl host cities on game day, TPA said it began preparing for the Super Bowl and the arrival of private jets over a year ago.
Though fans were admitted to Raymond James Stadium, the home stadium of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in-person attendance was capped at an estimated one-third capacity. Of the 22,000 fans attending the nation’s largest sporting event of the year, 7,500 were frontline workers who were invited as guests to honor their continued service during the pandemic.
However, this time around, the Super Bowl was also important for economic reasons. With people across the nation talking and tweeting about the game, Tampa Bay saw plenty of free advertising. And although restrictions are still in place that limits capacity in businesses in the area, the hospitality industry in Tampa did better than it did in other parts of the country.
“During the pandemic, we’ve actually done better than many other destinations because we’ve been focused on safety,” Visit Tampa Bay President and CEO Santiago Corrada said. “Tampa is a safe destination to visit. We have local ordinances in place to keep our visitors safe and to keep us safe. We can just about guarantee if people are personally responsible that they can come here and enjoy this destination and be safe. There’s a great way to balance still enjoying life and public safety as well.”
Besides the arrival of excited fans of both teams, TPA also had about 2000 volunteer ambassadors helping fans and tourists find their way around and showering them with southern hospitality. According to TPA, their passenger traffic was up by 20 percent in the week prior to the Super Bowl.
When the Kansas City Chiefs arrived at TPA, the pilot and co-pilot waved the team’s flag out of the cockpit window while the plane taxied around the runway. Three days later, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas arrived at TPA and was greeted by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor with a parade of pirates and drums, as well as local gifts, such as craft beer and snacks.
Corrada tweeted, “No city rolls out the red carpet to host major events like the @CityofTampa! This weekend kicked off the #SBLV Experience and it’s been refreshing to see this kind of excitement back in our great city. This game will truly be special & one that #TeamTampaBay will always remember.”
As Dorothy would say, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
A few days after the Vince Lombardi Trophy found a new home in Tampa, Brady and the rest of the Buccaneers proudly showed off their newly won trophy and their excitement as they joyfully tossed the trophy from boat to boat while celebrating their success by cruising in a boat parade down a section of Hillsborough River near downtown Tampa.
“It’s better to have a Super Bowl at reduced levels than to not have one at all, so we’re fortunate,” Steve Hayes, President/CEO of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater said. “Our hotels and vacation rentals saw the highest rates and occupancy levels since pre-pandemic, so it was successful from an economic standpoint—not to mention the incredible amount of media coverage and attention our area got to boost its profile.”
Written by Isabell Rivera
