Last week we shared our vision board for a future Tampa Bay Olympics — complete with beach volleyball at the foot of the Pink Palace + runners trekking down Bayshore.
But one of our readers kindly wrote in to remind us that Tampa made a play to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Spoiler: London won out. We took a trip down that gold-dusted memory lane:
Back in the 1990s, the Tampa Bay area + Orlando lobbied to jointly host the 2012 Olympics — aptly named Florida 2012 — which would have featured athletic competitions at venues along I-4. The $3 billion plan lost out, but former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco told reporters at the time, “the blueprint our committee drew up for the 2012 Games will be utilized for decades to come.”
Those plans included building facilities that residents could continue to use long after the Olympic flame was extinguished, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
The centerpiece: A $270-million stadium with 100,300 seats that would live on as the home of University of South Florida football games post-Florida 2012.
Do you remember the bid for 2012? Share your stories + memories for a future newsletter.
