Interview: Benjamin Tran

in February 2021 as the only Hyatt product in the Downtown submarket and the Tampa Edition hotel will also open in 2021. Hotel Haya is a newly opened 178-room four-story boutique hotel on Seventh Avenue. Other recent openings include a Home2Suites and Hampton Inn, Hyatt House on Avion Park and the Hotel Alba, which replaces the old Crowne Plaza Westshore.

Arts and culture The Tampa Bay region has always been known as a city of culture. The St. Petersburg-Clearwater area is the top tourist destination in the Gulf of Mexico, drawing in over 15 million visitors per year. The nonprofit arts and culture sector is a $241 million industry in Pinellas County, supporting over 7,000 fulltime equivalent jobs and generating $29.8 million in local and state government revenue. The region has a variety of cultural and arts-related offerings, including museums, performing arts halls, cultural events, theme parks, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and notable public parks. The Florida Museum of Photographic Art preserves and exhibits works by nationally and internationally recognized artists and the Straz Center for the Performing Arts brings Broadway tours to Tampa Bay. Art in Tampa Bay can be seen along the 2.6-mile Tampa Riverwalk and the Latin and Cuban influence of the city’s early cigar workers can be found in Ybor City, complementing the hustle and bustle of the famous GaYbor District.

In terms of recovery, Tampa Bay has been slightly better positioned than other regions given the state government pushing ahead to reopen the economy as quickly as possible. As a result, residents were allowed to safely go back to work,while shopping and leisure activities opened with fewer restrictions than some other cities. Financial support also was made available to the sector, including the Hillsborough Artist Relief Program, which provided emergency funds.

Still, there were many setbacks for the sector in 2020. One blow was delivered in April when Hillsborough County authorities announced they would delay the construction contract on the new $7.3 million Tampa Performing Arts Center. And shrinking state budgets often mean that the first casualty will be arts and culture spending. The final $92.2 billion 2021 budget approved by Gov. DeSantis includes $13.6 million for arts and cultural affairs, down from $21.2 million last year.

Events and festivals Tampa Bay saw most of its events in 2020 either ( ) Benjamin Tran

Owner Representative West Wing Boutique Hotel

What role does the West Wing Boutique Hotel play in Tampa Bay’s hospitality industry?

Our facility used to be a vacant building and we did a full renovation in 2017. We were trying to create something different for the community so we went with a more boutique, modern style that reflects a lot of the design characteristics seen in Asia, pushing the design envelope in the smallest footprints. We also tried to launch several green initiatives and technology. Some of the key elements we implemented include Tesla chargers and a robotic butler that delivers products to the rooms.

What opportunities has the pandemic unlocked for the hospitality sector?

We definitely see 2021 being a year in which there will be several distressed or heavily leveraged properties coming onto the market at a discounted rate, which will unlock significant opportunities otherwise unavailable. In terms of new development, COVID-19 has highlighted where a lot of the strength in the market is. Markets such as midscale and extended stays weren’t as heavily impacted as the luxury or upscale market. We have been looking at the extended stay market as well as core brands in different chains.

How does a hotel like the West Wing Boutique prepare for the unknown?

We have our sales managers and teams out there in the market listening in and participating in the platforms provided by different organizations and associations to consolidate a boots-on-the-ground perspective and remain alert to ongoing developments.

Based on that intel, we relay information to our operations team so they can better prepare themselves for any events. Information around events such as the Super Bowl is highly tight-lipped but we are looking to ensure everyone is cross-trained in matters of cleanliness and safety so they can best assist the confidence-building process for our guests. By doing so, we can shift our manpower as needed once demand comes back.

®oundtable: ‘Champa’ Bay

‘The future ain’t what it used to be,” baseballer and manager Yogi Bera famously said. COVID has proved his point. Thankfully, winning can make the unbearable bearable, and in Tampa Bay, there has been a lot of winning in the past year.

Brian Auld

President Tampa Bay Rays

How significant has success in sports been for Tampa Bay? Our organization excels in the face of adversity, in no small measure due to its strong sense of community. We have come together in the wake of hurricanes and hunger crises and any number of other things over the years. One of the secrets of our organization is that our people love to rise to the challenge. I don’t think it is all that surprising that both the Rays and Rowdies had really good seasons during this particular year, because in our competitive advantages, organization almost gets augmented when the pressure gets turned up. The same applies to the Buccaneers, the Lightning and this whole region. We have a can-do spirit and it shone through in this particular year. All of us who were fortunate enough to get feedback on the team level — the text messages, social media, the Facebook sharing of our games — during this time and hearing about how much it meant to so many made our work feel really important.

What is your outlook for the organization and the role of sports in the recovery? Sports will set the tone. At some point in 2021, we will open our stadium to full capacity. At that point, because we are a trusted source in our community, it’s going to make some people think that it must be OK now; it’s going to confirm that, maybe it’s alright for us all to start doing things. We will not necessarily be the first to go full occupancy and we are not going to change that many minds. But we will certainly be one more thoughtful organization on the pathway to recovery. That is going to give folks a window into what is going on in the greater world.

Neill Collins

Head Coach Tampa Bay Rowdies

What impact did the last season have on both the team and the region as a whole? During the past year, there was so much uncertainty about what the season was going to look like. We did our best to make a point of doing everything we could to be as prepared as we possibly could. I take my hat off to the players themselves. Their attitude and that of the staff through that period was exemplary. Even amid certain limitations — the weather, COVID, the financial climate — our staff just raised their game. The whole experience was a real learning curve. It was great to show our resilience for the whole of Tampa Bay to see. We were the first professional sports team to start playing again and have some fans in the stands. By the end of the season, we were able to have a couple of thousand fans at our games. One thing we all realized was how much we missed being able to go and watch live sports and being able to interact. There were just some really great memories in an otherwise difficult year.

How has interest in and engagement with the Rowdies grown within the community? The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an iconic brand, one of the most iconic soccer teams in the United States. Brand recognition is huge for us and over the past three years, we have been able to start rebuilding that with the product that we’ve been able to put on the field. Ultimately, that is what people are always looking for. As a club, we really made a conscious effort in terms of being that focal point for elite soccer in our area, because there is a significant contingent of people who play soccer in Florida, especially in Tampa.

Brian Ford

COO Tampa Bay Buccaneers

What were the biggest takeaways from the last year? If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that anything is possible. Listen to people. Be flexible; don’t be a stop sign, figure out a way forward. We all have different objectives in our business models, and 2020 could’ve been a stop sign for us in terms of trying to achieve different things for our customer and employee base. It’s a matter of how you adapt and overcome. That’ll be the biggest takeaway. A year ago, if any of us saw somebody out to dinner with a mask on, you would’ve asked yourself, why was that? Today, if we all went out to dinner and you saw somebody without a mask you’d say, what is that person doing, how inconsiderate. That transition took less than a year to take place. That shows how we’ve adapted as a society and those who are successful are adapting quicker and more efficiently. There’s a difference between being forced into adapting and being proactive to adaptation. I think the biggest takeaway is to be proactive in adapting.

How important will continued investment in technological advancements be to the future of sports? It will be critical. I don’t want to say people are used to and expecting it but it’s a way of life. For example, we implemented a state-of-the-art phone system with videoconferencing capabilities. When we implemented that, we didn’t know that we’d take advantage of it to the level that we have. It’s something that we all have to take advantage of and be receptive to in the future. This is today’s technology, what will there be tomorrow? You can’t sit still. You can’t be a stop sign. As an organization in the entertainment industry, we have to continue to maintain an interaction with our fanbase in a way that is convenient for them. How significant is sports in the Tampa Bay region? By August of last year, it really looked like we were going through three pandemics at the same time: a health pandemic, a financial pandemic and the social divide and unrest. Sports is a uniter of people, a uniter of cities. When we won the Stanley Cup championship, it helped the psyche of our community. It gave them something to celebrate. It was great for our brand, the city’s brand and the community’s brand. It allowed people to come back together. It provided a sense of joy that had been missing for a long time. Then the Rays went on to win the American League and the Bucs won the Super Bowl. Sports is all about hope. Just the glimpse of normalcy has allowed us to continue to move forward versus being stuck or moving backward.

What is your near-term outlook for the team? The great thing about our organization is that we have an incredible core of players and that core has been locked up for a long time. The team is going to be good for the foreseeable future, which is really exciting. The window is open. Like every other sports team at the moment, our focus is on maximum recovery. As we consolidate it, it will enable the recovery of other parts of the community, especially tourism. Our organization has always been community-first. We understand the ethos of our brand and how it can change a community, both on and off the ice. Our focus is on recovering the core, elevating our brand and content, continuing to give back to the community, enhancing our guest experience, having the safest and healthiest arena in North America and leveraging our Stanley Cup win.

Steve Griggs

CEO Tampa Bay Lightning