10 Signs the RNC Is a Way Bigger Deal for Tampa Than the Super Bowl

Mega-events are kind of old hat for Tampa. Over the last 30 years, the city has put on four Super Bowls. Only Miami has hosted more in that time, giving Cigar City something of a reputation for successfully accommodating, wining, dining (and stripping for) masses of out-of-towners.

But the Republican National Convention, which opens in Tampa on Monday, will be a different beast entirely. All those Super Bowls aside, for some city leaders, this is the one event they really wanted. "It will forever change people’s perception of the Tampa Bay area," a local economic development official told the Tampa Bay Times, in a lengthy story earlier this month detailing how the city had tried and failed, and tried and failed, and tried again to finally lure the RNC to town. (Ironically, Tampa was rejected last time around, when the Republicans went instead to St. Paul, Minnesota, because of "the possibility of a late-summer hurricane.")