Tampa Sportatorium

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The building once known as the Tampa Sportatorium in 2020 Tampa sportatorium 1.jpg
The building once known as the Tampa Sportatorium in 2020

The Tampa Sportatorium was a professional wrestling studio used by Championship Wrestling from Florida. The former television studio building may be demolished for a new building. [1]

Located at 106 N Albany Ave near downtown Tampa, Florida, the 7,500-square-foot stucco building was used for television tapings at 11am on Thursdays, which would air on the following Sundays. [2] Tampa native Hulk Hogan attended shows at the Sportatorium as a teenager and recalled that the studio could not fit more than 50 people in it and that it was not air conditioned despite Florida's often warm, subtropical, and humid climate. [3] To make the room seem bigger to the television audience, the walls were painted black. [4] Dory Funk Jr. praised the content to come out of the building, stating: "The Sportatorium was small, but the television it produced was so good." [4]

The upstairs of the building was used as an office by company executives Eddie and Mike Graham and Jim Barnett. [5] Championship Wrestling from Florida closed in 1987 and the Graham family sold the building a few years later. [2] A textile factory occupied the building for many years, until a foreclosure saw it go on auction in 2016. [4] [6] In 2020, it was purchased by a Miami-based development group. [2]

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References

  1. ↑ "The Tampa Sportatorium, where wrestling was filmed, might be demolished".
  2. 1 2 3 "The Sportatorium, site of TV's wrestling from Tampa, will be leased for business". Tampa Bay Times.
  3. ↑ Hogan, Hulk (2002). Hollywood Hulk Hogan. WWE Books. ISBN   978-0-7434-7556-3.
  4. 1 2 3 "The Sportatorium, an icon of Tampa wrestling, to be auctioned". Tampa Bay Times.
  5. ↑ Backlund, Bob (2015). Backlund. Sports Publishing. ISBN   978-1-61321-696-5.
  6. ↑ "TAMPA SPORTATORIUM, HOME OF CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING FROM FLORIDA, GOING ON SALE | PWInsider.com". www.pwinsider.com.
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