The Tampa Bay Area is a major metropolitan area surrounding Tampa Bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the major cities of Tampa, St. Since the 1970s, Tampa Bay has been the national, conventional, and global descriptor of the group of cities surrounding the body of water. Decades later, the local population remains divided over the term, and residents on both sides of the bridge fear that it will strip cities of their individuality.
Watch the best plays from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus Detroit Lions game in week 2 of the 2024 NFL season. Later, when Fort Brooke was built in the 1820s in the current Water Street neighborhood, the military named the land Tampa Bay. Watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus Washington Commanders game plays in the wild card round of the 2024-25 NFL season. The term Tampa Bay is often used as an abbreviation to refer to all or part of the Tampa Bay area, which comprises many towns and cities in several counties that they surround the large body of water.
Petersburg, but each one is called Tampa Bay in a marketing effort to invoke fandom on both sides of the bridge. Patrick Harrison, marketing director of Visit Tampa Bay, said Tampa Bay could even extend “as far south as Collier County.” Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield finds WR Mike Evans with a 23-yard first-quarter gain against the Washington Commanders in the wild card round of the 2024-25 NFL playoffs. But there are times, depending on the public and especially on international markets, when they feel the need to explain that these cities are part of the Tampa Bay region due to the amount of visibility that they receive sports equipment. When Tampa began to grow in the mid-19th century, the highways that crossed central Florida were still rugged trails and railroad lines still didn't extend across the Florida Peninsula, so the most convenient way to travel to and from the area was by sea.
The name Tampa Bay first appeared on maps to describe the body of water in the 1760s, when England bought Florida from Spain and began to “Anglicize Florida,” Kite-Powell said. However, “numerous charts and maps, from the 1840s to the mid-1880s, referred to Tampa Bay in a general and general way, both in a military context. Even though “Tampa” became the official name of the city (and later the city), the area kept the The name of Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay was formed approximately 6,000 years ago as a brackish estuary type of drowned river valley with a wide mouth that connects it to the Gulf of Mexico.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving donned his coaching cap during the 2025 Women's Flag Soccer Preseason Classic at the Advent Health Training Center. The Tampa Bay Association says its coalition of regional business leaders includes the same five counties plus Sarasota, Citrus and Polk.