Tampa Bay Area - Culture, Recreation, and Sports

Culture, Recreation, and Sports

Arts and culture make a big impact in Tampa Bay. In a single year, the economic impact of the cultural institutions in the Tampa Bay area was $521.3 million, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study. In 2004, 5.6 million people attended plays, musical performances, museum exhibits and other cultural institutions in Tampa Bay, supporting 7,800 jobs.

The area is home to an unusually high concentration of quality art museums. Long established communities, particularly those near the bay such as Cuban flavored Ybor City, Old Northeast in St. Petersburg, and Palma Ceia and Hyde Park in Tampa contain historic architecture. Florida Southern College in Lakeland is home of the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. Fresh seafood and locally grown produce are available in many restaurants and in weekly farmer's markets in multiple urban centers in the area. Yuengling, the largest American-owned brewer, operates a brewery in Tampa, as does the highly regarded craft brewer Cigar City Brewing. Sports attractions, in addition to the teams listed below, include many professional quality golf courses, tennis courts, and pools. Ybor and the Channel District in Tampa, Downtown St. Petersburg, and the beaches all along the coast all attract a vibrant nightlife.

The area is highly noted for its beaches, with the warm, blue gulf waters and nearly 70 miles of barriers islands from North Pinellas south to Venice attracting tourists from all over the world. Three of the beaches in this area, Fort De Soto's North Beach (2005), Caladesi Island (2008), and Sarasota's Siesta Key (2011) have been named by Dr. Beach as America's Top Beach.