Super Bowl Retailers Claim Their Turf In Tampa

It's mid-November and time is running out. Let's face facts: It's never too late to start thinking about ...

Super Bowl XLIII.

Forget Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. The Super Bowl is coming to Tampa on Feb. 1, and that means the merchandizing machine has begun to grind.

The first NFL Super Bowl outlet has opened on West Shore Boulevard in a former restaurant in front of WestShore Plaza and will be open until the end of February, unless all of the stuff is sold before then.

Right now, Patti Berryman of Michigan is busy stacking footballs, glasses, posters and other paraphernalia for football's big day on the shelves inside the old Steak & Ale, just north of Kennedy Boulevard.

The store opened Friday, and customers are trickling in.

The shirts, jackets and other gear just have the Super Bowl XLIII logo on it, because, obviously, the teams have yet to be determined. So between now and mid-January, Super Bowl XLIII green, blue and gray apparel will jam the shelves and hangers.

After the teams qualify, all of this merchandise will be moved out, and new stuff bearing the two teams' logos will be moved in, Berryman said.

She has been doing this for 10 years. It's her only job. She moves from her home in Michigan to wherever the Super Bowl is that year and opens up a shop for almost four months. She works for a company that has licenses with the National Football League and Reebok to sell the official line.

"We are compensated well," she said, plus she gets to travel to cities such as Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, Atlanta and Detroit, which she ranks among her favorites.

"Detroit did a really great job," she said. "I was very proud of my home city."

But now, she's in Tampa until February.

"We are meeting the fans and locals and some personalities," she said, and that's fine with her. She's a talker, she said.

The business, which has big generic-type signs out front proclaiming "Super Bowl Merchandise," is the first of many expected to hit Tampa over the next few months, she said. A sister store on West Kennedy Boulevard also is open

"We are the first in," she said, "and probably will be the last out."

Of the cities she has worked in, Tampa's fans may be among the more knowledgeable about the game, she said. Jacksonville fans are, too. Miami, not so much, she said.

Recent customers mostly are business people getting Super Bowl merchandise for clients or tourists passing by on their way into or out of town.

As the game approaches, business will boom, she said.

Super Bowl weekend is huge, she said. From the Thursday through Monday around the Super Bowl, the place will be flush with fans going to the game or just in town for the party.

Customers over that weekend, she said, "are usually those who know football and want to come by to get a piece of history."