Tampa Stadium (The Big Sombrero)

Tampa Stadium was the football stadium the Tampa Sports Authority opened in 1967 and demolished in 1999, according to the authority timeline.

It went by several names. NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt calls it Tampa Stadium, also known as the Big Sombrero, and a 2023 City of Tampa proclamation says the Buccaneers' inaugural 1976 season was played at the stadium known to all as The Big Sombrero. The authority timeline records that the name changed to Houlihan Stadium on March 21, 1995, by right of the Buccaneers contract, and it uses that name for the stadium's final seasons.

The stadium's life ran in three phases: a college venue opened with a University of Tampa game in 1967, an NFL stadium after Tampa Bay won a franchise in 1974, and a short final stretch under the Houlihan name before Raymond James Stadium took over in 1998. Brandt, who attended its Super Bowls, remembers it as not a big stadium, one that felt more like a bunch of orange crates thrown together compared to modern venues.

The Tampa Sports Authority ordered construction to begin on October 18, 1966, the day it took delivery of a check for $4,449,413.89, and set November 8, 1967 as the completion date, according to its timeline.

The authority was barely a year old. Governor Hayden Burns signed the bill creating it on May 28, 1965, and on October 1, 1965 it took over the Al Lopez Field baseball facilities and the surrounding acreage from Columbus Drive to Buffalo Avenue and from Dale Mabry Highway to Himes Avenue. The first game at Tampa Stadium followed on November 4, 1967, a Tennessee win over the University of Tampa, and the first professional football game came on August 10, 1968, when Washington beat the Atlanta Falcons 16-14 before 40,915 people.

The University of Tampa athletics department describes the 1967 building as a 46,481-seat venue with two freestanding sides and puts the opening score at Tennessee 38, Tampa 0. The NFL franchise awarded to Tampa Bay on April 24, 1974 changed its scale: the same University of Tampa history says the new team meant an expansion of Tampa Stadium to 74,000 seats. The City of Tampa proclamation calls the Buccaneers the NFL's 27th franchise.

The University of Tampa Spartans, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Bandits and the University of South Florida Bulls all played at Tampa Stadium, according to the authority timeline and University of Tampa records.

The Spartans' best Tampa Stadium days came in the early 1970s. The University of Tampa history says the team beat the Miami Hurricanes 7-0 there in 1972, and that a 1974 rematch at Tampa Stadium drew 40,678 before Miami won 28-26 when a late Spartans field goal attempt bounced out off the upright and crossbar. Following that 1974 season, the university's trustees voted 16-9 to drop football, which the athletics department attributes to financial reasons.

The Buccaneers signed a lease with the authority through 2000 on April 27, 1990, and their first game at Raymond James Stadium was on September 20, 1998. USF had signed a 10-year agreement on October 20, 1995 to play home games at the stadium starting in 1997, and played one season at the old building before following the Bucs.

Tampa Stadium hosted two Super Bowls, the 1984 USFL championship and the first Hall of Fame Bowl, according to the Tampa Sports Authority timeline.

Super Bowl XVIII was played there on January 22, 1984, and the Los Angeles Raiders beat Washington 38-9, as Brandt records. Six months later, on July 15, 1984, the USFL championship came to the same field, and Philadelphia defeated Arizona 23-3. The NFL returned on January 27, 1991 for Super Bowl XXV, the Giants' 20-19 win over Buffalo, played during the Gulf War with what Brandt remembers as extremely heavy security.

College bowl football also started there. The timeline records the first Hall of Fame Bowl on December 23, 1986, when Boston College beat Georgia 27-24. The game was renamed the Outback Bowl in April 1995, and the first Outback Bowl, on January 1, 1996, ended Penn State 43, Auburn 14. The bowl moved to Raymond James Stadium for its January 1, 1999 edition.

Tampa Stadium was torn down in 1999 after a new county-owned stadium, paid for in part by the 1996 Community Investment Tax, replaced it, according to Hillsborough County and the authority timeline.

The county says voters approved the half-percent sales tax in September 1996 for 30 years, with 53% of the vote, and that the ballot language listed a community stadium among the jails, fire stations, schools, libraries and parks it would finance. The county adds that the tax made possible the construction of Raymond James Stadium, a facility owned by Hillsborough County.

The authority timeline shows the deal taking shape that spring. The authority backed a stadium deal on March 27, 1996; the authority and the Tampa City Council approved it on April 1, 1996; and on April 19, 1996 the timeline notes taxpayers on the hook for stadium design, with the authority paying $2 million and the Buccaneers $4 million. Groundbreaking for the new Tampa Community Stadium began on October 15, 1996.

The end came in two steps. Demolition of Houlihan Stadium began on January 18, 1999, when Tampa Mayor Dick Greco dropped the first wrecking ball, and on April 11, 1999 the last portion, the lounge box structure, was detonated in an explosion witnessed by thousands nearby.

Raymond James Stadium replaced Tampa Stadium, and the Tampa Sports Authority still runs it for Hillsborough County with about $9 million a year in Community Investment Tax money for stadium debt service, according to Hillsborough County.

The authority conveyed ownership of Raymond James Stadium to the county on December 19, 2003 but kept the job of managing it, the timeline says. The tax that built it expires November 30, 2026, and county voters approved a renewal on November 5, 2024 that runs from December 1, 2026 through December 31, 2041. The county's page, last modified in November 2024, says the tax provided about $2.77 billion for 784 capital projects in its first 28 years.

Official sources do not agree on how the two stadiums relate. The 2023 City of Tampa proclamation says Tampa Stadium was later renamed Raymond James Stadium. The Tampa Sports Authority timeline instead records a separate groundbreaking for the new stadium in 1996 and the demolition of the old one in 1999, which describes two different buildings. The authority owned and ran both, so its record is the more detailed account, but the city document says otherwise.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Tampa Sports Authority timeline, the Hillsborough County Community Investment Tax page, the University of Tampa football history, NFL.com's Tampa Super Bowl recollections and the City of Tampa's 2023 Buccaneers proclamation.