Building a Hockey Town: Tampa Bay’s Growth on Ice

By Joey Johnston

Outdoor hockey in Tampa? 

Helmeted, padded pirates on blades — Gasparilla-style — invading cavernous Raymond James Stadium?

An ice rink protected by a tented temperature-controlled structure, allowing for the risky potential of unseasonable warmth or even rain? And then that tent being deconstructed shortly before the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Boston Bruins as a potential crowd of 65,000 gathers for the Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series on Feb. 1? 

That’s a lot of questions. Here’s another: What are the odds of such a spectacle?

Considering the three-decade love affair between hockey and Tampa Bay — “Hockey Bay’’ became an accurate moniker — it actually seems right on schedule.

After all, the rise of Tampa Bay’s hockey fortunes went from improbable to audacious in nothing flat. Want to see true affection? Wander the streets of downtown before a Lightning game. See the love manifested in the communal loyalty, the voluminous blue-and-white lightning-bolt sweaters, and the “Go Bolts’’ banners everywhere you look.

“I felt strongly the sport would catch on, but some of the things that have happened were beyond my imagination,’’ said Lightning founder Phil Esposito, the Hockey Hall of Famer, who headed a group that secured Tampa Bay’s NHL franchise in 1990.

Three Stanley Cup championships, two NHL All-Star Games, three NCAA Frozen Fours, and thousands of hockey-mad Tampa Bay kids later, why shouldn’t the area dream its biggest dreams on a frozen pond?

(Even if our ponds never, um, actually freeze).

“It took me a while to get used to wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops on the way to the rink,’’ former Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk said. “But it’s one heck of a nice lifestyle in Tampa Bay. And I do not question this area’s passion for our sport. It’s real.’’

But long before the boat parades, there was a boatload of critics. Before the sold-out crowds, before the Lightning’s ability to hit all the right community chords, there was the wonder if it could actually fly.

“People didn’t know if hockey would work in Florida … and look at it now,’’ said Esposito, who still works as a color analyst on the Lightning radio network. “I knew if people saw it live, they’d fall in love with the game.’’

On one of his first visits to Tampa, Esposito met with attorney Henry Paul, who became the Lightning’s general counsel and vice president.

“I asked Henry point-blank, ‘Do you think hockey can survive here?’ ‘’ Esposito said. “Henry looked at me and said, ‘We love football. We love boxing. We love car crashes. And we love wrestling. Seems to me hockey has all of that.’ We shook hands and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And we never looked back.’’

When Tampa was awarded the NHL franchise — “The Puck Stops Here!’’ screamed the 1990 Tampa Bay Times front-page headline, while a photograph featured Tampa mayor Sandy Freedman triumphantly lifting a hockey stick above her head — there were tons of memorable run-up moments.

Humble Beginnings

At a cocktail party hosted by Tampa attorney Bennie Lazzara before the franchise was awarded, Esposito was startled by one of Tampa’s familiar thunderstorms. Lazzara reminded everyone that Tampa Bay is considered the lightning capital of North America. “You ought to name the team the Lightning,’’ Lazzara’s mother told Esposito off-handedly. Esposito did a double-take. “That’s it!’’ he said. “That’s the name of this team!’’

Esposito brought Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings and Mario Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins to St. Petersburg’s Florida Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field) for an exhibition that attracted more than 25,000 fans. But the portable rink, installed in a stadium designed for baseball, had a malfunctioning cooling system that left puddles of water on the ice surface. The game was delayed.

As the inaugural 1992-93 season drew closer, Esposito realized the Lightning needed a place to play, and there wasn’t a flurry of great candidates. Details, details. The franchise settled on Expo Hall, located on the grounds of the Florida State Fairgrounds. It was a barn — literally. Elephants were often housed in the building. It was so cramped, the Zamboni was parked outside. The rink was just short of NHL regulation length (believe it or not, no one ever knew). And some of the locals needed orientation toward the game’s cherished traditions.

On Opening Night in 1992, Esposito wanted everything to be perfect. He implored the Expo Hall ushers to keep a tight rein on the crowd. If anybody threw anything on the ice, they were to be escorted out of the building. 

Of course, Tampa Bay’s Chris Kontos scored four goals in a Lightning victory. On Kontos’ third goal, to recognize the traditional “hat track,’’ seasoned fans tossed hats onto the ice.

“Those were the fans who knew hockey,’’ Esposito said. “So I see this big usher grabbing a guy and trying to take him out of the arena. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ The usher said, ‘You told us to throw anybody out if they threw something on the ice.’

“Yeah, that’s how we started. It was something else.’’

The Lightning played three seasons in St. Petersburg (the building then was called the ThunderDome) and hit a high point by drawing a record 25,945 fans for the team’s first home playoff game in 1996. That was a prelude to the opening of a downtown Tampa area, the scene of the Lightning’s Game 7 triumph during the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals. The organization thrived under Bill Davidson’s ownership with Coach John Tortorella’s team featuring Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis, Brad Richards, and Andreychuk, among others.

There were Stanley Cup titles in 2020 (during COVID) and 2021 (clinched in Tampa), plus Finals appearances in 2015 and 2022. Winning hockey wasn’t a rarity. It became expected. It’s now a tradition. 

Even more than that, though, since Jeff Vinik became the Lightning owner in 2010, the franchise has endeared itself by embracing the community.

“When Mr. Vinik bought the team, there was a period of time when it was almost on life support,’’ said Elizabeth Frazier, the Lightning’s executive vice president of community and social impact. “But from the beginning, we installed community in everything that we do. And that has made a huge difference. It opened a lot of pathways.’’ 

Growing The Game

Reflecting fan interest that featured 325 consecutive sellouts (a streak halted only by COVID), the Lightning instituted a “Build The Thunder’’ program to grow the game. The Lightning have visited more than 1,160 schools to promote hockey and teach the game to students, while giving away more than 250,000 street-hockey sticks and helping to build 13 outdoor street-hockey rinks throughout the region and beyond.

When the Lightning arrived, the area had two ice hockey rinks. Now it has 14.

Among the Lightning community programs: Learn to Play (where 800 sets of hockey gear are donated annually), Learn to Skate, Camps and Clinics, Girls Hockey, and Lightning Warriors (with about 160 veterans participating). As part of the Stadium Series legacy project, the Lightning has launched several Adaptive Hockey programs, which include expansion of Adult Sled Hockey, plus the addition of programs for Deaf/Hearing Impaired, Blind, Standing Amputee, and Special Hockey.

“When we talk about growing the game, we want to make sure hockey is available as a sport to anybody, regardless of ability, and there are no barriers to accessing it,’’ Frazier said.

Meanwhile, at each home game, the Lightning presents a $50,000 grant to a nonprofit organization through its Community Hero program. It has donated $35.07-million to more than 800 nonprofits. The organization has pushed a culture of volunteerism, and its employees donate more than 5,000 hours annually to the community (it’s up to 47,000 hours total).

The game presentation is top-notch with lightning-throwing Tesla coils and digital pipe-organ music. And in recent seasons, the likes of Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, and Andrei Vasilevskiy maintained the standard of on-ice excellence. 

“It’s a wonderful place to play and a wonderful place to coach,’’ said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, in his full 12th season, making him the longest-running professional sports coach in Tampa Bay history. “I can’t ever forget the fans of Tampa because they’ve watched us grow. They’ve been with us through the ups and downs. In the end, they’ve just got the team at heart. I think it’s just one big family.’’

A family that’s all about keeping hockey at the forefront.

Following the Lightning’s first Stanley Cup championship in 2004, Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director Rob Higgins and Lightning executive Bill Wickett took a side trip from the 2005 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament and visited the University of Alabama-Huntsville (then the nearest hockey-playing school to Tampa). Maybe the Frozen Four to Tampa Bay was a complete long shot at best. But Jim Harris, then the UA-H athletic director, was on board as the host school.

Higgins asked St. Louis, an all-time Lightning favorite, to help with the formal pitch to the NCAA Committee. St. Louis wowed everyone by extolling the area’s virtues and sharing his experiences as a University of Vermont player.

Tampa Bay got its Frozen Four in 2012. It returned in 2015. And the most recent event in 2023 — Quinnipiac’s dramatic overtime upset of Minnesota in the final — was quite the charm. Higgins called it Tampa Bay’s opportunity to host a once-in-a-lifetime event for a third time.

“This is a great, great place for a Frozen Four,’’ Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “I hope we keep coming back and back and back to Tampa Bay.’’

In 2012, one of the biggest Frozen Four skeptics was Boston College coach Jerry York.

“We were really concerned going to Tampa, and most of college hockey was,’’ York said in the aftermath of his Eagles capturing the 2012 event. “We were concerned it wouldn’t fly. Was it too far for people to go? The majority of our programs were Northern and Midwestern. Would it sell? Were the Lightning going to be receptive?

“Everything was so non-traditional. But the reception we got, the walkability from the hotel to the rink, how the fan base took over the whole area … it was a surprise, and we all felt very, very welcome.’’

It’s no longer unusual to see a Florida-bred player in the Frozen Four or even the NHL. The Lightning’s commitment to grassroots hockey has helped to grow the game.

Frazier said about 10,000 kids are playing ball hockey because “we have a lot more concrete than we have ice here in Tampa,’’ but there are also about 800 participants in the Lightning’s high-school ice-hockey leagues (up from 300 about a decade ago).

“Those are fun things to measure,’’ Frazier said. “Our staff will see someone they remember from 10 years earlier, when they learned to skate and learned to play. And now they’re playing high-school hockey. We’re committed to growing the game in all forms, whether it’s boys, girls, or co-ed.

“We are now a Hockey Town, but it took us some time to get there. We were able to transform our Lightning team, on and off the ice. We felt that when our USA Hockey registrations went up, our fan support went up. If the fans in our community support us, we can do even more good. We can use the platform of hockey to educate our fans in ways they can use their lives to help others.

“At games, sometimes people enter the 50/50 (raffle) and say they don’t even care if they win. They just want to help the Lightning Foundation. That is very rewarding. It shows us that the Lightning are about more than just the hockey. We’re always looking to bring our community together. People who might otherwise have nothing in common are high-fiving each other. We believe all of our sports teams do that, and we’re really proud to be part of Team Tampa Bay.’’ 

Whether it’s Hockey Bay or Hockey Town, it’s clear that the game has long advanced past the novelty stage in Tampa Bay. It’s now a defining characteristic of the area, a point of pride, part of the culture. 

“Hockey has worked some real magic around here, if you ask me,’’ Esposito said.

The NHL’s Stadium Series is the latest step in that evolution. There are questions galore. Combining Gasparilla and hockey on a show-stopping weekend? A tent-protected rink that was termed an “engineering marvel’’ by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman? Is all of this for real? Outdoor hockey in Tampa? 

Final question: Hey, why not?