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Maxim Magazine Ranks Tampa 6th On Party City List

Tribune file photo

Ybor City and Guavaween. Can you say party?

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

TAMPA - The city may be losing ground in college football's Top 10, but there's still plenty of reason to party.

Or so the people at Maxim would have you believe. This land of strip clubs, drunken parades and prodigious beer consumption rates No. 6 on the bacchanalian Top 10 developed by the magazine known for having scantily clad celebrities on its cover.

Among the other factors in its party matrix: The number of 'modeling agencies,' the median age of divorcees, colleges in the area, 24-hour restaurants, gaming laws and condom sales.

Maxim picked Miami as the top party city, mainly because it has so many modeling agencies and a double-digit divorce rate. Tampa is No. 2 in the Sunshine State, but in the eyes of Maxim's editors, it beats New Orleans, Dallas, Chicago and Detroit.

Chris Smith, a vice president with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, was contacted by Maxim for his input and welcomes the attention. Convention business is directly connected to the city's party reputation, Smith said. 'A big draw for conventions is the nightlife afterward,' he said.

Mayor Pam Iorio learned of the city's new distinction Tuesday and agreed that Tampa is a fun place.

'If it's equated to having a good time, that's good,' Iorio said. 'People do come here to have a good time.'

That doesn't necessarily mean hanging out at strip bars or drinking until the wee hours, she said. So, what does it mean?

'Tailgating for our sports teams,' Iorio said, which include the University of South Florida's Bulls, No. 2 football team in the nation until a loss at Rutgers on Thursday dropped them to No. 10 in the BCS rankings. 'That's good entertainment before, during and after the games,' the mayor said. 'We are a community that has a lot of events, and at all of those events, people have a good time.'

She counts 800 events, including community functions nearly every weekend.

Maxim's editors, though, seemed to have other criteria in mind.

'It's four o'clock: Do you know where your dad is?' the magazine's Tampa profile begins. 'He's probably at one of the city's 49 strip clubs.' That's more clubs than Las Vegas, the magazine says. The photo representing Tampa: the 2001 Odyssey strip club.

Maxim also noted the city's relatively high median age, but considers that to be mitigated by fondness for beer: 'Citizens down 5.41 cases of beer at home annually.'

Bill Gieseking, director of marketing for Pepin Distributing, doesn't dispute the figure. About 14 million cases of beer are sold each year in Hillsborough and part of Pasco County, said Gieseking, whose company sells Budweiser. 'It's a good market for beer consumption because it is an active lifestyle market, good weather and a growing population,' he said.

Last year, Tampa didn't make the Maxim list. This year the formula was tweaked, said Sam Barclay, a Maxim contributor. The other cities scoring higher than Tampa: Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Las Vegas.

Even mathematicians and economists weighed in, considering such factors as whether you can buy a six-pack at a grocery store.

'We want to reward cities who don't punish people for partying,' Barclay said.

'Tampa is a hell of a party city,' he added. 'Ybor City is there, and anyone who has ever gone to Ybor City has had a good time.'

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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