Raymond James Stadium Raymond James Stadium, also known as the "Ray
Jay", is a multi-purpose football stadium located in Tampa, Florida. It is home to the
NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as the NCAA's South Florida Bulls football team.
The stadium seats 65,908, and it is expandable to 75,000 for special events. The stadium
also hosts the annual Outback Bowl on New Year's Day; the annual pinnacle of USA equestrian
showjumping, the AGA/Budweiser American Invitational; and the Monster Jam monster truck event after
the end of football season in January or February. Raymond James Stadium hosted Super Bowl XXXV
on January 28, 2001 between the Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants and Super Bowl
XLIII on February 1, 2009 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals.
History Raymond James Stadium was built to replace
Tampa Stadium at the demand of new Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer. It is located adjacent to
the site of the old stadium on the former location of Al Lopez Field, a minor league
baseball stadium that had been demolished in 1989. Once completed, the final cost of
the new stadium was $168.5 million, with the entire cost publicly financed. It was
known as Tampa Community Stadium during construction, but the naming rights were bought for $32.5 million
for a thirteen–year deal by St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial in June 1998. On April
27, 2006 an extension was signed to maintain naming rights through 2015.
The stadium officially opened on September 20, 1998, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated
the Chicago Bears, 27–15. The stadium hosted its first soccer game on March 20, 1999, when
the Tampa Bay Mutiny lost to D.C. United, 5–2.
The stadium was selected to host the ACC Championship Game in 2008 and 2009.
On September 28, 2007, the (then ranked #18) University of South Florida Bulls set a record
at Raymond James Stadium with a crowd of 67,018 when they played (then ranked #5) West Virginia.
This record remained the largest non-Super Bowl crowd in the stadium's history until
September 29, 2012 when the University of South Florida Bulls played the Florida State
University Seminoles before a crowd of 69,383. The largest crowd ever recorded in Raymond
James Stadium came on October 9, 2009, with U2’s 360° Tour. More than 72,000 people
were in attendance. Until 2010, every Buccaneers game at Raymond
James Stadium sold out. In 2010, all home games failed to sell out and could not be
broadcast on local television. The streak carried over until week 4 of the 2011 season
when it sold enough tickets for its Monday Night game with the Indianapolis Colts on
October 3rd to avoid a local blackout. The stadium was also home to the former Tampa
Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer and continues to periodically host soccer matches due to
its accommodating field dimensions. For example, on June 8, 2012, it hosted the United States
men's national soccer team's opening qualifying match against Antigua and Barbuda for the
2014 World Cup where the US won 3-1. Features
One of the most recognizable features of the stadium is a 103-foot (31 m), 43–ton steel-and-concrete
replica pirate ship, which fires soft-rubber footballs and confetti each time that the
Bucs score points or enter the other team's red zone. The cannon fires once for each point
scored. In addition, when the Buccaneers enter their opponent's red zone, stadium hosts hoist
team flags around the perimeter of the upper deck. During various times throughout the
game, the song "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" is played on the stadium public address
system (taken from Pirates of the Caribbean), which signals patrons onboard the ship to
throw beads, t–shirts, and other free prizes to the people below. The segment is also known
as a "Mini Gasparilla" to most fans. An animated parrot sits on the stern of the pirate ship.
Controlled by radio and remote control, the parrot picks fans out of the crowd and talks
to those passing by. During Super Bowl XXXV on CBS, the pre–game,
halftime, and post–game desk reporting took place from aboard the pirate ship. NBC's Super
Bowl XLIII coverage also emanated from the ship.
The two Buc Vision 92-foot (28 m) wide Daktronics video displays are among the largest in the
league. Buccaneer Cove features a weathered, two–story fishing village facade, housing
stadium concessions and restrooms. All areas of the stadium are ADA compliant.
Temporary bleachers were erected in the endzones for Super Bowl XXXV, and the attendance was
a then-stadium record 71,921. In 2003, the corner billboards in the stadium
were replaced with rotating trilon billboards. Raymond James Stadium boasts the 2nd best
turf in the NFL, according to a 2009 biannual players' survey.
Nicknames The stadium is referred to as "Ray Jay" or
"The New Sombrero", a spinoff from "The Big Sombrero", the nickname of old Tampa Stadium.
Somewhat derisively, it is also sometimes referred to as "the CITS", a name coined by
long-time local sportscaster Chris Thomas which stands for "Community Investment Tax
Stadium". On occasion during radio broadcasts of games, Buccaneers' radio play-by-play man
Gene Deckerhoff refers to the stadium as "Jesse James Stadium".
Timeline Immediately upon purchasing the Bucs in 1995,
new owner Malcolm Glazer declared Tampa Stadium inadequate and began lobbying local government
for a replacement. When the community did not move quickly enough to suit the Glazer
family, the new owners openly contacted several other cities around the U.S. about possible
relocation. The city of Tampa and Hillsborough County
came up with a plan to fund a new stadium as part of a "Community Investment Tax", which
was voted on in a referendum in September 1996. As part of the campaign to pass the
referendum, Glazer promised to pay half the cost of the new stadium if fans put down 50,000
deposits on 10–year season ticket commitments. The drive fell 17,000 deposits short, the
offer was withdrawn, and the Bucs did not pay any of the stadium's construction cost.
On September 3, 1996, the voters of Hillsborough County, Florida approved, by 53% to 47% margin,
a thirty–year, half–cent sales tax to build new schools, improve public safety and
infrastructure, and to build the Buccaneers a $192 million new stadium entirely with public
money. The team signed a stadium lease in which the local government must pay for almost
all of the stadium expenses while the franchise keeps almost all of the proceeds. Former Tampa
mayor Bill Poe sued to stop the deal, claiming that giving such a "sweetheart deal" to a
private business violated Florida's state constitution. A local court agreed with Poe,
but the Bucs and local government appealed. Eventually, the Supreme Court of Florida ruled
that the agreement was constitutional, and construction continued as planned
On October 31, 1996, the NFL owners met in New Orleans to select the host site for Super
Bowl XXXIII and Super Bowl XXXIV. Pro Player Stadium in the Miami area was selected to
host Super Bowl XXXIII. Atlanta, Tempe and Tampa were candidates for Super Bowl XXXIV,
with Tampa the favorite, following the successful tax referendum. The Georgia Dome in Atlanta,
however, was awarded the game. As a compromise, Tampa was awarded Super Bowl XXXV, which the
NFL had not originally planned to select that day.
The last Major League Soccer game played at Raymond James Stadium was on September 9,
2001 when the Mutiny lost to the Columbus Crew, 2–1, in front of 9,932 people. Although
the September 11 attacks resulted in the cancellation of the remainder of the 2001 MLS regular season,
the Mutiny did not have any more home games scheduled anyway. The Mutiny were subsequently
disbanded by the league. National-level soccer matches are still occasionally played at Raymond
James, as its wide field makes it ideal for hosting soccer.
In April 2003, the Tampa Sports Authority proposed passing ownership of the stadium
to Hillsborough County to avoid having to pay millions of dollars in property taxes
(The Bucs' lease agreement dictated that they not have to pay property taxes). However,
Bucs had a right of refusal and refused to sign off on the plan unless the local government
paid more of the cost for game–day security and increased the amount of (county-purchased)
insurance coverage for the stadium. The dispute continued for months until December 2003,
when the county legally declared the stadium a condominium and took ownership. As part
of the change, the Bucs were given ownership of portions of the structure. To win the Bucs'
approval, the county agreed to refund the team's resultant property tax payments annually.
On May 25, 2005, NFL owners met in Washington, D.C. to select the host site for Super Bowl
XLIII. During the balloting, Raymond James Stadium defeated the Georgia Dome (Atlanta),
Reliant Stadium (Houston), and LandShark Stadium (Miami Gardens).
After a nearly two-year legal battle, the Tampa Sports Authority came to a settlement
with popular sports-seating and telescopic platform/bleacher company Hussey Seating of
North Berwick, Maine. Following the stadium’s opening in 1998, roughly 50,000 Hussey-manufactured
seats at Raymond James Stadium began to fade from their original color – a bright, vibrant
shade of red – to a shade of washed-out pink. Spotting this obvious defect, the Buccaneers
organization pleaded to the TSA to sue the seating manufacturing company for the cost
to replace the affected chairs in 2003. Initially, in May 2004, after testing samples of the
seats, Hussey Seating did not find any cause for the fading, and thus, found no reason
to replace the seats at the company’s cost under the current 10–year warranty. After
the TSA cited a portion of the warranty which did, in fact, state that Hussey would replace
seats if any fading were to occur, Hussey president Tim Hussey admitted an error in
the research and eventually would come to a $1.5–million agreement with the TSA to
replace the problem seats. Reportedly, the seat-fading occurred due to a manufacturing
error by Hussey, as a UV inhibitor – a sunscreen-like component for the plastic – was forgotten
in the mixture used to create the seats. All of the problem seats were replaced by new,
non–pink seats in the spring of 2006. Notable football games
Super Bowls Super Bowl XXXV: January 28, 2001 (Baltimore
Ravens 34, New York Giants 7 – all-time stadium record attendance 71,921)
Super Bowl XLIII: February 1, 2009 (Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Arizona Cardinals 23 - attendance
70,774) NFL Playoff Games
NFC Divisional Playoff: January 15, 2000 (Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14, Washington Redskins 13
– Buccaneers record attendance 65,835) NFC Divisional Playoff: January 12, 2003 (Tampa
Bay Buccaneers 31, San Francisco 49ers 6) attendance - 65,599
NFC Wild Card Playoff: January 7, 2006 (Washington Redskins 17, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10) attendance
- 65,514 NFC Wild Card Playoff: January 6, 2008 (New
York Giants 24 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14) attendance - 65,621
College Football Games #14 South Carolina 31, vs. #22 Ohio State
28: January 1, 2002 (Outback Bowl stadium record attendance – 66,249)
#18 USF 21, vs. #5 West Virginia 13: September 28, 2007 (largest non–Super Bowl crowd in
stadium history – 67,018)