TAMPA — The Super Bowl experience in Tampa is the prime spot for fans to soak up as much NFL history and pageantry as possible.
Fans like Margie Sabbagh from Kansas City.
“Why was it important? Because I’m a huge Chiefs fan, and I couldn’t wait to experience it,” Sabbagh said. “I love it.”
Sabbagh and her husband are decked out in Chiefs gear, and defending the kingdom when they talk to Buccaneers fans.
No matter which red jersey fans are wearing, there’s a sense from everyone here of the magnitude of the moment.
“How often do you have a game, where you’ve got Mahomes and Brady for the Super Bowl championship,” Frank Henderson, a Chiefs fan from Topeka, said in describing the match-up between Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Bucs QB Tom Brady.
The Super Bowl experience was built for true NFL fans, like people who will stand in line for more than two hours to get a photo with the Lombardi Trophy.
Some of these fans just lucked into being here, like Jacob Lawhon, a Lee’s Summit native who just moved to Tampa a few months ago.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever lived this close to the Super Bowl ever again, so might as well come and enjoy it,” Lawhon said.
Others have had it planned since the last Chiefs Lombardi Trophy. Cindy Watterson calls Springfield, Missouri, home now, but she grew up right by Arrowhead Stadium.
“We thought we’d vacation here, when we found out the Super Bowl Was in Tampa,” Watterson said. “So we made the reservations a year ago, hoping the Chiefs would make it back.
The Super Bowl Experience is open Friday and Saturday, but closed on Super Bowl Sunday.