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Straz Center for the Performing Arts

1987 establishments in FloridaConcert halls in FloridaEvent venues established in 1987Landmarks in Tampa, FloridaMusic of Tampa, Florida
Music venues in FloridaNational Performance Network PartnersPerforming arts centers in FloridaTheatres in Tampa, Florida
Tampa architectural photos 257
Tampa architectural photos 257

The Straz Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts venue in Tampa, Florida, United States. It opened in 1987 as the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and was renamed in 2009.The Straz Center is located downtown on a 9-acre (36,000 m2) site along the east bank of the Hillsborough River. As the second largest performing arts complex in the Southeastern United States (behind the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts), the 335,000-square-foot (31,100 m2) venue provides an environment for a variety of events. It has a leading Broadway series and produces grand opera, as well as presenting a variety of concerts, performances and events. The center estimates that it has a statewide economic impact of $100 million annually, generates 100,000 hotel room nights a year, and has 110 full-time and 250 part-time employees. Attendance runs on average 600,000 guests per year.In 2009, the Straz Center officially began a new program entitled the "Broadway Genesis Project," which presents premieres of musicals and plays that might move to Broadway. In 2018 the Straz Center went under an extensive multi-million dollar renovation that included new wood floors on the stages, new cooler LED lighting, and improved dressing rooms for performers. Judith Lisi was the chief executive officer for 30 years through September 2022. Starting October 1st, 2022, The New CEO is Greg Holland.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Straz Center for the Performing Arts (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Straz Center for the Performing Arts
North W. C. Maciness Place, Tampa Harbour Island

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N 27.9515 ° E -82.4639 °
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Straz Center for The Performing Arts

North W. C. Maciness Place 1010
33602 Tampa, Harbour Island
Florida, United States
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strazcenter.org

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Phillips Field (Florida)
Phillips Field (Florida)

Phillips Field was a medium-sized stadium (maximum capacity approximately 20,000) located on the west bank of the Hillsborough River across from downtown Tampa, immediately adjacent to the University of Tampa. It opened on October 4, 1937 and was the home field of the University of Tampa Spartans football program from 1937 to 1967. The facility was named for local businessman I. W. Phillips, who donated the land to the school so that the Spartans would not have to share nearby Plant Field, which was often unavailable due to its use for many different sports and community events.Though it was expressly built for Spartans football, Phillips Field nevertheless played host to other college football contests. It was the site of the Cigar Bowl, the area's first college bowl game, which was played from 1946 to 1954. The Florida Gators scheduled several home games at the facility during the 1930s and 1940s, and the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats also played several home games there in the 1950s and 1960s.At the high school level, Middleton High School and Blake High School, two segregated local schools, shared Phillips Field for home games and ended their seasons there with a well-attended rivalry game. Hillsborough High School and Plant High School also played their annual rivalry at the site because neither schools' regular stadium could accommodate the large crowds that attended the game.At the professional level, Phillips Field was used by various local semi-pro football squads and hosted barnstorming and other exhibition games, including several NFL preseason contests in the mid-1960s that helped Tampa earn an eventual expansion franchise.Besides football, the field hosted stock car racing, boxing matches, and other sporting and community activities, though most such events were held at nearby Plant Field, which boasted a much larger playing surface.When Tampa Stadium was completed in 1967, the University of Tampa acquired Plant Field from the city of Tampa and Phillips Field fell into disuse. The land was sold and the stadium razed in the early 1970s, and Tampa Preparatory School and Julian Lane Park were built at its former location.

Plant Field

Plant Field was the first major athletic venue in Tampa, Florida. It was built in 1899 by Henry B. Plant on the grounds of his Tampa Bay Hotel to host various events and activities for guests, and it consisted of a large field ringed by an oval race track flanked by a large covered grandstand on the western straightaway with portable seating used to accommodate a wide variety of uses. Over the ensuing decades, Plant Field drew Tampa residents and visitors to see horse racing, car racing, baseball games, entertainers, and politicians. The stadium also hosted the first professional football and first spring training games in Tampa and was the long-time home of the Florida State Fair. Al Lopez Field opened in 1954 and Tampa Stadium opened in 1967, and they became the preferred venues for most of the events that had long been held at Plant Field. The aging facility was acquired by the adjacent University of Tampa (UT) in the late 1960s, and in 1971, the name of the grandstand was changed to Pepin-Rood Stadium in honor of university benefactors. After the Florida State Fair moved to a much larger site east of downtown in 1976, Plant Field fell into disuse. Beginning in the 1980s, the University of Tampa began gradually converting Plant Field to other uses. The race track was removed, a series of academic buildings and student housing were built on the periphery of the venue's large footprint, and the last remaining section of the old grandstand was torn down in 2002. However, portions of the original playing field have been incorporated into new venues for the university's athletic programs along with student recreation.