Downtown Tampa Images Captured During Super (Bowl) Week

I grabbed these pics while spinning around downtown Tampa on my bike during my lunch break this afternoon and posted them for those of you who couldn’t be in Tampa this week for the Super Bowl, but wanted to see what the action is looking like in the days before the big game.

I was out last night for a few minutes and the crowds down around the St Pete Times Forum were about 60% heavier than normal for a game night (The Lightning played beat down Montreal last night).  I’m going to try and head out again tonight to see what kind of pics I can grab under the city lights.

This is the Embassy Suites downtown.  Notice the graphic with this years Super Bowl logo and the Championship trophy.

This is the stage downtown where SportsCenter, Mike & Mike, Rome is Burning and other ESPN programs are being broadcast.  It is located in the public park to the south of the Forum and just east of the Marriott Waterside.

The daily schedule of events being broadcast on the stage pictured above.

The size of this image doesn’t really do this sculpture justice.  It is located in the same park where that ESPN stage is located and is part of the “
Lights on Tampa” exhibit that is happening in downtown Tampa throughout this month.

There are series of iron sculptures located beneath the larger sculpture above, each depicting a different NFL team in the perspective of the individual artist.  The one in the image above was created for the TB Buccaneers.  The one below was created for the Pittsburgh Steelers…

Flags for each of the NFL teams are displayed on the bridge spanning from the Tampa Convention Center to Harbour Island.  This image was taken from the Convention Center:

The Tampa Convention Center (Media HQ for the NFL)

This is another of the broadcast stages setup around downtown.  This one is at the Convention Center and is being used for NFL Network programs.

These starting QB images are hanging outside the main entrance of the Marriott Waterside.  This image doesn’t really do justice to their size, but the cars driving by do help to put them into perspective.