Raymond James Stadium repair issue red-flagged

Article posted by Coliseum, February 10^th, 2025

Image: Raymond James Stadium, 350z33, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Tampa Sports Authority which manages the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida (US) has commissioned a ‘Report On The venue’s maintenance costs over the next 20 years’ just as the stadium “approaches the typical replacement age for the National Football League (NFL) facilities”.

‘SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’ stated that the assessment is led by the stadium’s original architects Populous and is “slated to be released in early February”.

Tampa (US)-based the Tampa Sports Authority was created on May 28^th, 1965 for the purpose of planning, developing and maintaining a comprehensive complex of sports and recreational facilities for the Tampa Bay area. It is the Manager of the Raymond James Stadium.

The 75,000-capacity Raymond James Stadium is a multipurpose stadium in Tampa, Florida, United States. It opened in 1998 and is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) and the University of South Florida Bulls college football program.

New York (US)-based the National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league composed of 32 teams divided equally between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference.

Populous is a global architectural and design practice with regional headquarters in Kansas City (US), London (UK) and Brisbane (Australia) specializing in sports facilities, arenas and convention centers as well as in the planning and design of major special events.

‘SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’ further stated that the Tampa Sports Authority approved the $280,000 study in November 2024 when it “asked Populous to elaborate on an earlier 2024 report that estimated maintenance and repairs to cost $137M between 2028 and 2032”.

The Raymond James Stadium’s future has been “mired in speculation for the better part of 2024”. The stadium opened in 1998 and the Buccaneers’ lease on the facility expires in 2028.

But the Glazer family, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Owners, has “been mum on its plans for the stadium’s future”.

The Bucs declined an offer by the authority to “partner on a joint assessment of the stadium and instead are pursuing an inspection independently”.

The Tampa Sports Authority President and head honcho Eric Hart at the authority’s November 2024 meeting said that the “issues with the stadium have started to become apparent”.

The Tampa Sports Authority said that it would spend an estimated $32.7M on “repair and renovation projects between 2024 and 2027 and the county tax dollars will cover” around $6.6M of the expense.

The Raymond James Stadium is set to host the National Hockey League’s (NHL’s) Stadium Series in 2026 and is reportedly “in the running to host the College Football Playoff (a post-season college football bowl game) title game in 2029”.

New York (US)-based the National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams – 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional ice hockey league in the world.

The Stadium Series is one of the series of regular season outdoor games played in the National Hockey League (NHL). This event is distinct from the NHL’s other two series of outdoor games – the NHL Winter Classic, played in a different NHL City every year and the NHL Heritage Classic (played occasionally at different Canadian stadiums). The games in the Stadium Series have been held in either late January, February, or early March in a football or baseball stadium in the United States.

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