East-West Shrine Game Moving to St. Petersburg

From the start of spring training until the last pitch is thrown at Tropicana Field in October, St. Petersburg is a baseball city.

During the baseball offseason, St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and Sunburst Entertainment are doing their best to turn the city into a college football oasis.

Beginning Jan. 21, 2012, Tropicana Field will be the home of the East-West Shrine Game, a college football All Star Game which will feature 100 of college football's best players.

The game now will be the third football game of the offseason held at Tropicana Field joining the St. Petersburg Bowl and the Under Armour All American Game.

City officials, Tampa Bay Rays officials as well as executives with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission along with some two dozen representatives of the Shriners gathered in centerfield at Tropicana Field Wednesday to trumpet the game moving from its previous home in Orlando. The Shriners signed a two-year contract to hold the game in St. Petersburg with a two-year option to continue the game for a potential four-year stay.

“We wanted to host world class events in this facility,” said Mark Fernandez of Sunburst Entertainment.

Those who do not attend will be able to watch the game from the comfort of their own homes as it will be televised nationally on the widely-popular channel, the NFL Network. 

Shiners officials dodged questions concerning any issues the game may have had in Orlando which could have led to the game moving to St. Petersburg.

Rather, Shriners officials instead focused on the positives of relocating the game to Pinellas County. Part of motivation for the move is that the game once was organized by individual Shriners organizations but the national Shriners headquarters has taken over the game. The Shriners national headquarters is located in Tampa.

None of the officials present at the news conference had specific figures on the expected economic impact the game will have on the area.

The initial game in St. Petersburg will be the 87th East-West Shriners Game. Currently, there are 246 NFL players who once played in this game. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has 62 members who played in the game. The teams, 50 players and 10 coaches each, will spend a week in the area. One team will practice in Hillsborough County and another in St. Petersburg.

The game is very popular with NFL teams as scouts and coaches descend on team practices and games to scout and analyze the players.