I was thumbing through one of the daily newspapers’ fan guides to the “NFL Experience.” It contained, among other things, a trivia quiz on Tampa Bay football. Things such as: “What was the Bucs’ inaugural season?” (1976) and “Who was the Super Bowl MVP for the Bucs?” (Dexter Jackson). And then there was this: “What is the University of Tampa Bay’s nickname?” (Spartans).
Say what? Aren’t we the market that is all too frequently frustrated by clueless outsiders, especially the media, who can’t understand or remember or care that there is a Tampa Bay body of water, a Tampa Bay region and a Tampa the city? So what does the Tampa Trib do? References the “University of Tampa Bay.”
That’s much more embarrassing than that grammatically incorrect welcome-to-Tampa sign (“THERE’S so many reasons to love it”) that was initially hung at Franklin and Platt streets.
THERE ARE so many reasons to differentiate Tampa and Tampa Bay.