Two, three tier grandstands are located on both sides on the playing field, and additional seating is located past both endzones. The stadium includes many amenities including 12, club seats, luxury suites, and the main feature, Buccaneer Cove.
Located beyond the north endzone at Raymond James Stadium, Buccaneer Cove, is modeled after a 19 th century Pirate village. The stadium was named Raymond James Stadium. It was an exciting, anticipated event as over 65, fans filled the stadium. Two, three tier grandstands are located on both sides on the playing field, and additional seating is located past both endzones. The stadium has many amenities including 12, club seats, luxury suites and the main feature, Buccaneer Cove.
Located beyond the north endzone at Raymond James Stadium, Buccaneer Cove, is modeled after a 19 th century Pirate village. The ship serves as a entertainment area for fans. Also located throughout the area are a variety of beach hut kiosks offering additional concessions, a 9 foot x 7 foot skull, and other game enhancements.
It also hosted two Super Bowls, in and It also hosted many large concerts, and for a time, it held the record for the largest audience to ever see a single artist when a crowd of almost 57, witnessed a Led Zeppelin show in the facility in In , the city of Tampa bought a acre grassy parcel between the airport and West Tampa from the federal government with the idea of eventually building a community sports complex.
Al Lopez Field was the first phase of the project, opening in By the early s, Tampa's civic leaders were interested in attracting a National Football League team to the area. Several well-attended NFL exhibition games were held at Phillips Field near downtown, but the venue was too small to support a professional football franchise.
So with the encouragement of NFL officials, the city decided to build a larger facility which could be used by the University of Tampa's football team in the short term and could be expanded for use by a theoretical pro team in the future. Construction of Tampa Stadium began in the fall of directly adjacent to Al Lopez Field, which was by then the home of the Tampa Tarpons of the Florida State League and the spring training home of the Cincinnati Reds.
Even though it contained separate football and baseball venues plus the Reds' training grounds, the lot purchased in was still large enough to allow for ample parking in the open land surrounding both facilities.
When it opened in , Tampa Stadium consisted of a matching pair of large arch-shaped concrete grandstands with open endzones. The seating consisted of long, backless aluminum benches that were accessed via short tunnels vomitoriums which connected the seating area to wide, open concourses at the rear of the grandstands.
The benches were arranged in two large tiers divided by a horizontal walkway about halfway up the grandstands. The slope of the grandstands was relatively steep, giving every seat a direct and unobstructed view of the field. The official capacity was 46,, though temporary bleachers could be placed in one or both endzones if needed. Over the lifetime of Tampa Stadium, the natural grass turf consisted of several varieties of Bermuda grass, most notably Tifway The playing surface was consistently one of the best in the NFL, and was regularly named a players' favorite in surveys conducted by the National Football League Players Association.
Tampa Stadium was built almost exclusively of concrete. Throughout its existence, exterior walls were painted light tan or white or left as bare concrete, as were the flooring surfaces. Seating consisted of long aluminum benches, and there was no roof or overhang of any kind over the field or seating areas. While the stadium's minimalist design allowed for very good sight lines, it also exposed both spectators and players to the full brunt of Tampa's subtropical climate.
This was especially true after the stadium was fully enclosed for the Bucs' inaugural season, cutting off breezes which had flowed through the open endzones. While fans could retreat under the grandstands to the shade of the wide concourses where concessions and restrooms were located, players and personnel on the field had no such recourse.
Cooling equipment was usually placed near the sideline benches. The Buccaneers were also allowed to wear their white jerseys at home, forcing their opponents to suffer in their darker and hotter jerseys. During the summer and early autumn, events in the stadium were often scheduled in the evening hours to avoid the often oppressive afternoon heat and humidity. In another nod to local weather, the natural grass playing surface was highly crowned to provide rapid drainage during Tampa's intense thunderstorms, with the sidelines almost 18 inches lower than the center of the field.
Years Official Capacity — 46, — 71, — 72, — 72, — 74, — 74, — 74, Tampa Stadium underwent an extensive expansion project in — after the city was awarded an NFL expansion team. Over 27, seats were added by completely enclosing the open end zones, making the venue one of the largest in the NFL with a capacity of 71, The resulting arena was not in the shape of a simple bowl.
It was highest at the center of the two sideline grandstands and gently sloped downward to a rounded corner where it met the new sections, which were about half as tall. The last major renovation took place in the early s when, in preparation for its first Super Bowl in January , the press box atop the west grandstand was updated and a large suite of luxury boxes was added atop the east grandstand.
This configuration gave the facility its maximum seating capacity of 74, For the season, large flagpoles were mounted on the upper rim of the stadium as part of a stadium update that included the addition of a JumboTron screen in the south end zone and smaller scoreboards above the field-level tunnels in two corners of the stadium. The poles were used to fly large flags for each of the NFL's teams until , when the Buccaneers adopted a uniform redesign featuring a red flag on their helmets.
Large versions of the flag were hoisted on the stadium's flagpoles when the Buccaneers penetrated their opponents' yard line.
The franchise continued this practice when it moved to Raymond James Stadium next door a year later. Tampa Stadium was completed just in time to host its first sporting event — a football game between the University of Tampa Spartans and the 3 ranked University of Tennessee Volunteers on November 4, While the Spartans lost that game , they would enjoy later success in their new home, moving up to Division I football in and sending several players to the NFL, including Freddie Solomon and John Matuszak.
However, university officials were unsure of continued community support after Tampa was awarded an NFL expansion franchise. Owens ended the football program after the season, saying that the school would face bankruptcy if it had to subsidize the sport. The Tampa Bay Rowdies were the stadium's first professional tenant, starting play in and winning their only outdoor championship in their inaugural season.
The team also won several indoor soccer championships playing at the Bayfront Center across Tampa Bay in St. Looking to showcase the city's new facility for the NFL, community leaders arranged for several exhibition games in Tampa Stadium in the late s and early s.
The first such game featured the Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins in August and drew a near-sellout crowd. Eleven more games were held in the following seasons with similarly enthusiastic crowds, including three featuring the Baltimore Colts in , when the team trained in Tampa during the NFL preseason. These preseason games gave NFL owners and officials ample opportunity to assess the Tampa Bay area and the stadium, and on April 24, , Tampa was awarded an NFL expansion team to begin play in the season.
The Buccaneers' first regular season home game was held on September 19, , when the Bucs lost to the San Diego Chargers That would become a trend, as the team began their existence with an NFL-record game losing streak. They would not win a game on their home field until defeating the St.
Louis Cardinals on the last game of the following season, December 18, Jubilant fans swarmed the Tampa Stadium turf and tore down the goal posts.
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