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Too much for Tampa?

With the Super Bowl already on Tampa's calendar for 2009, is the 2008 Republican National Convention ...

By JANET ZINK
Published June 12, 2006

[Times illustration: Simon Cox]

TAMPA - If Tampa lands the 2008 Republican National Convention, the city will face playing host to two massive events just five months apart.

The Super Bowl will come to Tampa in February 2009. The GOP confetti-fest is slated for September 2008.

Can one city handle so much love?

The GOP convention site selection committee in April posed just that question to a delegation pushing to bring the Republicans to Tampa.

"We responded and said we thought it would be a good thing. One will flow right into another. We'll be prepared," said Paul Catoe, president of the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We think it's to our advantage to have both events close together."

From his perspective, the biggest task in both cases is winning the event for Tampa. His team spends months figuring out how to meet requirements for hotel rooms, parking, security and space for the main and ancillary festivities. Bid packages are inches thick.

The Republican convention pitch included a video with an actor playing Theodore Roosevelt.

Mission accomplished, as far as the Super Bowl. The host city for the Republican National Convention won't be announced until January. But given Florida's 27 electoral votes, some political observers like Tampa's chances.

"When we get a major victory like the Super Bowl, the satisfaction, the emotional uplifting that goes on here is just tremendous," Catoe said.

But once a megaevent like the Super Bowl or the Republican National Convention decides to come to town, a host committee with a full-time staff takes over day-to-day details.

"They do the job. We're off trying to do something else. We're trying to get another Super Bowl or RNC," Catoe said.

The committees include representatives from the airport, fire and police departments and other public agencies.

With the help of an experienced staff, the committees arrange buses and limousines to carry people to and from hotels and events, transportation and security plans, airport logistics the 2001 Super Bowl brought 1,200 private aircraft to Tampa, volunteer training and fundraising, which includes cash contributions, corporate sponsorships and donations of services.

It is extra work for public officials and employees, but two events won't mean double the work, said Michael Kelly, who led the planning for the 2001 and 2005 Super Bowls in Tampa and Jacksonville and heads the 2007 Super Bowl effort in Miami.

"You'll have some of the same people involved on the public side, but you're gearing up with similar issues," he said. "I don't see it as a detriment at all. It would be a time of great momentum."

That doesn't mean there won't be challenges ahead.

When the 2001 Super Bowl came to town, game-day traffic around Raymond James Stadium was bumper-to-bumper, similar to typical Bucs games. But the night before, following the Gasparilla parade, gridlock hit popular entertainment districts like Howard Avenue and Ybor City.

Officials will have to come up with a workable plan for managing traffic during the GOP convention, which will require cordoning off streets around the St. Pete Times Forum and Tampa Convention Center as its bases.

That area is notorious for transportation problems. City officials created a special task force this year after tourism officials complained about traffic and parking nightmares in the neighborhood on New Year's Eve and during a one-day motivational seminar in March.

Maj. John Bennett, special operations division commander for the Tampa Police Department, will coordinate security and crowd control plans for both events.

"We'll be busy," Bennett acknowledged.

"It takes a lot of work to make sure you're going to have a safe event, and that's whether it's the Super Bowl, the RNC or the Shriners." (Tampa will host its largest convention ever when 20,000 people come to town for a Shriners gathering in July).

But the tasks are similar, Bennett said, and having the events relatively close together is a positive.

"All the people at the local, state and federal level will be the same. We always say the more time you spend together in the sandbox, the more cohesive planning becomes," he said. "Relationships are what make the difference in good security practices."

And five months between the events is plenty of time for security personnel to recover from a string of 12-hour days and extra shifts, he said.

"Once you're two weeks apart, you might as well be six weeks apart," he said.

Working huge gatherings is nothing new to his people.

Tampa has three Super Bowls under its belt, and every year local security forces handle Gasparilla, Guavaween, professional football and hockey games and visits from dignitaries.

"We're used to managing events," Bennett said. "We have a lot of regional cooperation."

Ultimately, all the work is worth it, Kelly said.

"When 100,000-plus people have a good time and see what your city has to offer, that's what's magical," Kelly said. "If they love us when they leave us, they'll be back."

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.

[Last modified June 12, 2006, 05:23:17]