Sports
The Main Event: The Nation Has Its Eyes Upon Tampa Bay
In a rare aligning of the stars, both a home Rays playoff game and the Bucs playing in their first home Monday Night Football game in eight years happen without a few hours of each other, bringing the national spotlight upon Tampa Bay.
Sports fans, particularly in the Tampa Bay area, have sort of an inferiority complex. Often when the local teams get some national attention, it's harshly negative, mainly due to what some media types believe to be a heresy: fans not attending games.
Tonight in a span of seven hours, two high profile sporting events will take place in the Tampa Bay area, with the heat of the national spotlight shining directly on the the Tampa Bay region.
And both events are sold out.
Find out what's happening in Clearwaterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
At 5 p.m., the Tampa Bay Rays will host the Texas Rangers in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.
Not quite four hours later, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the Indianapolis Colts at 8:30 p.m. on Monday Night Football, the first time in eight years the Bucs will play at home on Monday Night Football.
Find out what's happening in Clearwaterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In short, the two events will be a combined six-hour free commercial for the Tampa Bay area.
The confluence of the two games is very rare in sports. The closest this area has seen to such an evening came in October 2008 when the Bucs hosted the Seattle Seahawks in a Sunday night game while the Rays battled the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
