2 min read September 2023 — Invest: spoke with Brian Ford, COO of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, about how Raymond James Stadium and the team act as economic engines in the Tampa region. He also discussed partnerships and how the Bucs are making the game experience more interactive for fans.
How do Raymond James Stadium and the Bucs franchise factor into growth and development plans for the area?
As things develop, we want to be there every step of the way. We’re constantly trying to strategically position ourselves so we can be good partners in the community.
The Tampa Bay region is home to three very successful major professional sports teams, and we are very proud of the role we have played in helping elevate the area’s national image as well as spur economic growth and development. We are entering our 26th season at Raymond James Stadium and the Glazer family has been committed to ensuring that the stadium was well-equipped to host major events like Super Bowls, major concerts and other large-scale events. A good recent example of that was the role that Raymond James Stadium, and all of Tampa Bay, played in hosting Super Bowl LV in 2020 during the pandemic. Despite very challenging conditions, and with limited fans in attendance due to safety protocols, we were able to showcase the stadium and our entire region by demonstrating that we could pull off the largest sporting event in the world in a safe and first-class manner. It was a tremendous testament to what can be accomplished when community leaders from all backgrounds come together with one common goal.
More recently, Taylor Swift hosted three concerts and we also had Ed Sheeran, Luke Combs and George Strait perform large concerts that contributed greatly to the local economy. These are just some of the examples of how the Bucs have partnered with the Tampa Sports Authority and Raymond James Stadium to provide a backdrop for growth, economic success and opportunities for our community. The stadium is just concrete and steel without the people that do so much to ensure its success as a venue. It is a collective effort with the city, county and the team all working together, and we will always remain focused on continuing to be good community partners.
What are some of the ways that you’re making the game experience more interactive for fans?
Firstly, we’re listening to what our fans are looking for and finding new ways to exceed their expectations. Technology plays a large role in our ability to make the game experience interactive. To that end, the Glazer family has spent more than $130 million in recent years to ensure that our technology at Raymond James Stadium kept up with all of the new venues that have sprung up around the country. We have invested in large, high-definition video boards, a state-of-the-art sound system, ensuring reliable Wi-Fi service, and even wireless point of sale systems with the goal of providing a seamless and unmatched gameday experience. All of those things add greatly to the level of service that our fans have come to expect from us.
In addition to technology, we pour a lot of resources into our customer service programs by continually looking for ways to enhance the experience from the moment a fan arrives at the stadium until they exit the parking lot. That attention to detail has earned us a top ranking in the NFL for nine of the past 11 years in the all-important category of overall customer satisfaction. We are extremely proud of those accomplishments and we challenge ourselves every season to keep finding new ways of improving.
What major local partnerships do you have and how do you work to cultivate those successful relationships?
When we opened the stadium in 1998, we were fortunate to partner with a great local company in Raymond James Financial for the stadium naming rights. That partnership has evolved over the years and is currently the longest-running naming rights partnership in all sports. In recent years, we have added more large-scale partnerships such as AdventHealth, which owns the naming rights to our training facilities and team headquarters, as well as Fifth Third Bank, which has a big footprint at the stadium as well. Those are just two recent examples, but we have a great group of partners who we work closely with to ensure they achieve maximum benefit through their partnerships with us. One thing we always try to incorporate into our sponsorships is the idea of giving back to the community and we are extremely proud of the work we have done with our partners to improve our communities throughout Tampa Bay.
What’s next for the franchise?
In some ways, what’s next for us is simply a continuation of our never-ending pursuit to keep improving on the customer experience in every facet of our organization. We want to maintain our No. 1 ranking for overall customer satisfaction. We will continue looking for ways to keep strengthening our bond with our fans and this community. One of the exciting new things that we have in store for our fans is a celebration of our long and rich history that dates back to 1976. This season we will bring back our iconic creamsicle uniforms that we wore in those early years of the franchise for a special throwback game against the Detroit Lions on October 15th. Our fans have been passionately expressing their desire to bring back those uniforms for over a decade and we are very excited to bring them back for that special game.
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