St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the largest city in the state that is not a county seat. Along with Clearwater, these cities are part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-largest in Florida with a population of around 2.8 million. St. Petersburg is on the Pinellas peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and is connected to mainland Florida to the north.
Tampa is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County. With an estimated population of 398,173 in 2022, Tampa is the 49th most populous city in the country and the 3rd most populous city in Florida after Jacksonville and Miami.
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa and north of St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 117,292. Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County and is the smallest of the three principal cities in the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area.
The Tampa Bay Times, called the St. Petersburg Times until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single year for the first time in its history, one of which was for its PolitiFact project. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school directly adjacent to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus.
Times Publishing Company is a newspaper and magazine publisher. Its flagship publication is the Tampa Bay Times, a daily newspaper serving the Tampa Bay area. It also publishes the business magazine Florida Trend and the daily newspaper tbt*.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies were an American professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida, that competed in the original North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1975 to 1984. They enjoyed broad popular support in the Tampa Bay area until the NASL folded in 1984, after which the team played in various minor indoor and outdoor leagues before finally folding on January 31, 1994. The Rowdies played nearly all of their outdoor home games at Tampa Stadium and nearly all of their indoor games at the Bayfront Center Arena in nearby St. Petersburg, Florida. Although San Diego played indoors until 1996, the Rowdies were the last surviving NASL franchise that played outdoor soccer on a regular basis.
WFTS-TV, branded as ABC Action News, is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Bradenton-licensed Ion Television station WXPX-TV. WFTS-TV's studios are located on North Himes Avenue on Tampa's northwest side, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
Al Lang Stadium is a 7,500-seat sports stadium along the waterfront of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, United States which was used almost exclusively as a baseball park for over 60 years. Since 2011, it has been the home pitch of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship soccer league.
The Tampa Tribune was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing Tampa Bay Times, the Tampa Tribune was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area.
WTOG is a television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for the Tampa Bay area. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group, and maintains studios on Northeast 105th Terrace in St. Petersburg, near the west end of the Gandy Bridge; its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
Hyde Park is a historic neighborhood and district within the city limits of Tampa. It includes Bayshore Boulevard, Hyde Park Village and SoHo. Its ZIP code is 33606. Hyde Park includes many historic homes and bungalows. Its history and proximity to downtown Tampa make it a desirable residential neighborhood. Because of its convenient location, developments are being built in Hyde Park. Construction includes an expansion of Hyde Park Village, an upscale shopping and dining destination, as well as multifamily residential developments.
The Tampa Bay hurricane of 1921 was a major hurricane which affected Central Florida and the western Caribbean Sea in late October 1921. It was the major storm that stuck the continental United States latest in the calendar year until Hurricane Zeta in 2020. The eleventh tropical cyclone, sixth tropical storm, and fifth hurricane of the season, the storm developed from a trough in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 20. Initially a tropical storm, the system moved northwestward and intensified into a hurricane on October 22 and a major hurricane by October 23. Later that day, the hurricane peaked as a Category 4 on the modern day Saffir–Simpson scale with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (230 km/h). After entering the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane gradually curved northeastward and weakened to a Category 3 before making landfall near Tarpon Springs, Florida, late on October 25. It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area since the hurricane of 1848 and the last to date.
Sundial St. Pete, formerly known as The Shops at St. Pete, and BayWalk, is a shopping, dining and entertainment complex in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. It opened in May 2014 with a mixture of restaurants, markets, nightlife, and shopping. As of April 2015, businesses include Locale Market, Lululemon, White House Black Market, Tommy Bahama, Chico's, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Sea Salt restaurant and Jackie Z Style Co. The complex also features a 12-screen AMC Theatre which was originally a Muvico. While the outdoor Muvico signs remain intact for the time being, slight changes have been made inside to reflect the recent acquisition of Carmike Cinemas by AMC.
Beef O'Brady's is an American restaurant franchise, established in 1985 by Jim Mellody in Brandon, Florida, and headquartered in Tampa.
Rays Ballpark was the name used in project documents for a ballpark in the current location of Al Lang Stadium on the Tampa Bay waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, proposed by the Tampa Bay Rays as a replacement for Tropicana Field.
Harbour Island is an island neighborhood within the city limits of Tampa, Florida and the sub-district within Downtown Tampa. The ZIP Code serving the area is 33602.
The Fort Lauderdale–Tampa Bay rivalry, also known as the Florida Derby, refers to the suspended soccer rivalry that most recently involved the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the Tampa Bay Rowdies, both of whom played in the North American Soccer League through the 2016 season. Over the years the rivalry has spanned more than one hundred matches across eight soccer leagues and several tournaments, and involved nine different teams from the two regions of Florida. At times it has involved players, coaches, management and fans. Even the press has fanned the rivalry's flames at times. From 2010 through 2014, the winner of the regular season series automatically won the Coastal Cup as well. The status of the rivalry beyond 2016 remains unclear because the Rowdies have since joined the United Soccer League, while the Strikers ongoing ownership and legal battles of 2016 and 2017 have left them defunct.
Over the course of three weekends in March 1976, the North American Soccer League hosted its second league-wide indoor soccer tournament. Twelve of the twenty NASL teams participated.
Lucy Morgan is a long-time reporter and editorialist at the Tampa Bay Times.
