Raymond James Stadium

Immediately upon purchasing the Bucs in 1995, new owner Malcolm Glazer declared that twenty-eight year old Tampa Stadium was inadequate to justify the $192 million he paid for the franchise and began lobbying local government for a replacement.[7] The city of Tampa unveiled plans for a $168 million stadium a few months later to be paid for with ticket surcharges, parking fees, and other revenue streams from the new stadium. The Buccaneers rejected the financing plan within hours because they felt it would reduce their profit, and when state local government officials didn't come up with a different stadium financing plan quickly enough for the Glazer's liking, they threatened to move the Buccaneers elsewhere and met with officials from several cities across the United States to explore possible relocation sites.[8][9][10]

In early 1996, the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County proposed the establishment of the "Community Investment Tax" ("CITS"). a 30-year half-cent sales tax increase that would pay for various public improvements along with a new stadium for the Bucs that would have to be approved in a referendum later that year.[11] The CITS proposal was heavily promoted by the team along with several prominent local officials, and as part of the public relation campaign, Malcolm Glazer repeatedly promised to pay half the cost of the new stadium if fans put down 50,000 deposits on 10–year season ticket commitments priced at $190 to $2500 per seat.[12][13] Still, public opinion polls indicated that support for the CITS proposal was limited to about 40% of voters until a major television advertisement campaign in the final days before the vote emphasizing the tax's potential impact on local school improvements rather than on a new football stadium.[11] On September 3, 1996, the ballot measure passed by a margin of 53% to 47%.[14] Three months after the vote, the season ticket deposit drive fell 17,000 short of its 50,000 goal at the team-imposed deadline. The Buccaneers' offer to pay half of stadium construction costs was withdrawn, and the facility was designed and built entirely at public expense.[13][15][12][16]

Before construction began on the stadium, the Buccaneers and the Tampa Sports Authority signed a lease in which local government paid the vast majority of operating and maintenance expenses while the franchise kept almost all of the proceeds from all events held there.[16][17] Former Tampa mayor Bill Poe sued to stop the use of CITS tax to build the stadium and to challenge the legality of the lease agreement, claiming in court that giving such a "sweetheart deal" to a private business violated Florida's state constitution.[18] A local court ruled in Poe's favor, but the Bucs and local government appealed. Eventually, the Supreme Court of Florida ruled that the agreements were constitutional and construction continued as planned.[19][12][13]

The stadium officially opened on September 20, 1998,[20] when the Buccaneers defeated the Bears, 27–15. The stadium hosted its first Major League Soccer match on March 20, 1999, when the Tampa Bay Mutiny lost to D.C. United 5–2. The Mutiny folded after the 2001 season after facing declining revenue due to declining attendance and the Bucs' lease at Raymond James Stadium. They played their last home match on September 9, 2001—a 2–1 loss to the Columbus Crew.

In April 2003, the Tampa Sports Authority proposed passing ownership of the stadium to Hillsborough County to avoid having to pay millions of dollars in property taxes (the Bucs' lease agreement dictated that they not have to pay property taxes). However, Bucs had a right of refusal and refused to sign off on the plan unless the local government paid more of the cost for gameday security and increased the amount of (county-purchased) insurance coverage for the stadium.[21] The dispute continued for months until December 2003, when the county legally declared the stadium a condominium and took ownership. As part of the change, the Bucs were given ownership of portions of the structure. To win the Bucs' approval, the county agreed to refund the team's resultant property tax payments annually.[22][23]

After a nearly two-year legal battle, the Tampa Sports Authority came to a settlement with popular sports-seating and telescopic platform/bleacher company Hussey Seating of North Berwick, Maine. Following the stadium's opening in 1998, roughly 50,000 Hussey-manufactured seats at Raymond James Stadium began to fade from their original color – a bright, vibrant shade of red – to a shade of washed-out pink. Spotting this obvious defect, the Buccaneers organization pleaded to the TSA to sue the seating manufacturing company for the cost to replace the affected chairs in 2003. Initially, in May 2004, after testing samples of the seats, Hussey Seating did not find any cause for the fading, and thus, found no reason to replace the seats at the company's cost under the current 10–year warranty. After the TSA cited a portion of the warranty which did, in fact, state that Hussey would replace seats if any fading were to occur, Hussey president Tim Hussey admitted an error in the research and eventually would come to a $1.5 million agreement with the TSA to replace the problem seats. Reportedly, the seat-fading occurred due to a manufacturing error by Hussey, as a UV inhibitor – a sunscreen-like component for the plastic – was forgotten in the mixture used to create the seats. All of the problem seats were replaced by new, non–pink seats in the spring of 2006.

In December 2015, the Buccaneers and the Tampa Sports Authority reached an agreement to complete over $100 million in improvements and renovations to the stadium. The negotiations took months, and were extended by Bucs' lawyers demanding additional concessions after an agreement was near in September 2015.[24] In the end, the upgrades were paid with at least $29 million of public money, with the remainder paid for by the Bucs in exchange for the right to play a home game at another site beginning in the 2018 season and other concessions. Renovations began in January 2016, and the first phase was complete in time for the 2016 football season.[25]

Overhead view of Raymond James Stadium during the lead-up to Super Bowl LV.

Raymond James Stadium has hosted the Super Bowl three times. In May 2017, Raymond James Stadium was awarded Super Bowl LV in 2021; it was originally intended to be hosted by the new Hollywood Park stadium in Inglewood, California, but it was deferred to Super Bowl LVI in 2022 due to construction delays (the NFL does not allow stadiums to host the Super Bowl during their first season of operation).[33] With the Bucs winning the NFC championship, they were the first team in NFL history to play a Super Bowl hosted by their home stadium in a game that they won, 31–9.[34] Like previous Super Bowls, the league treated Super Bowl LV as a neutral site game, not allowing the Buccaneers to fire the stadium's signature cannons like they normally do after every touchdown and other big plays, so the cannons were only fired during player introductions and after the end of the game when they won.[35] The Buccaneers were coincidentally the designated home team for Super Bowl LV, as the home team alternates between the two conferences annually.[36]

Ranked by attendance, the top four USF home games are:[37]

In 2017, Raymond James Stadium hosted the College Football Playoff National Championship, where the Clemson Tigers defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide in a rematch of the 2016 championship. With an attendance of 74,512, it was the largest crowd for a football game in stadium history.[38][39]

The stadium was home to the former Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer and continues to periodically host other soccer matches due to its accommodating field dimensions.

On June 8, 2012, it hosted the United States men's national soccer team's opening qualifying match against Antigua and Barbuda for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which the United States won 3–1.[40] On October 11, 2018, the Colombia men's national soccer team played against the United States men's national soccer team and won 4–2 to set the current attendance record of 38,361 for a soccer match at this stadium.[41]

WWE planned to host WrestleMania 36—the 2020 edition of its flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view—at Raymond James Stadium on April 5. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE subsequently filmed it at its training facility in Orlando instead, behind closed doors with no audience and only essential staff present.[42][43] In January 2021, WWE announced that WrestleMania 37 (which was originally announced as being hosted by SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California) would be hosted by Raymond James Stadium on April 10 and 11, 2021.[44]

Raymond James Stadium has hosted several large scale concerts, with the largest attendance (72,000) coming at a show by U2 in 2009.[45]