Tampa Bay Lightning Tickets

The NHL announced an expansion of the league to 28 teams to conclude by 2000. NHL Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito decided that a perfect area for an NHL franchise would be the Tampa Bay-St Petersberg region of Florida. As an experiment, they hosted an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins that was played at the Florida Suncoast Dome. The games sold a record-setting 25, 581 tickets. With the experiment proven as financially viable, a Florida-based financial group, Tampa Coliseum, Inc., agreed to pay for a new arena next to Tampa Stadium to be the home to a new hockey franchise that would hopefully translate into a ticket for success.

The first game played by the Tampa Bay Lightning was in 1992 against the Chicago Blackhawks. In front of a sell out crowd of 10,425 fans who had raced for a chance to buy a ticket to see the Sharks at the Expo Hall, they defeted the Blackhawks 7-3. A month later, Doug Crossman set a record for the most points scored in a single game with 6 points, on 3 goals and 3 assists. The team also set several other individual records in their first season with Joe Reekie and Marc Bureau recording the most assists in a game with 4. Cris Kontos set the record for the most points in a season by a left winger, Brian Bradley set the record for the most points in a season with 86, and finally, as a testament to the future of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Rob Zamuner set the record for the most points knocked in by a rookie with 43.

In their second season the Lightning relocated to the Florida Suncoast Dome which had been originally designed as a baseball stadium and then redesigned to be a hockey arena, with a capacity of 28,000 tickets to be sold for as many seats. It was later renamed the Thunderdome. This opened the floodgates for the Lightning when they played a record setting game in the vast history of the NHL for the greatest number of fans holding tickets at any NHL game at the home opener. 27,227 fans helped cointribute to the now legendary game. In 1996, the Lightning set a new record for the highest attendance at a playoff game with 28,183 in attendance. That allowed for the move to a new home at the Ice Palace.

In the years since the move, the organization faced many financial and performance obstacles but, with new ownership many the helm, the future looks like in just may hold a ticket for illumination by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The local hockey fans were overwhelmingly supportive of the expansion and five weeks later both Tampa Bay and Ottawa were granted new NHL franchises for the upcoming 1992-93 season. Financing was uncharacteristically found in Asia. After several financial entaglements that lead to full ownership of the team transferred to the investors, the NHL gave final approval for the Lightning in December 1991. Phil remained with the club as general manager along with his brother Tony Esposito who was a former NHL goalie and he was placed in charge of the scouting division. On September 12, 1992 in Lakeland Florida, the Tampa Bay Lightning skated into the rink for the first time. Manon Rheaume became the first women to play one of the 4 major professional sports on September 23, 1992. This was a scouting gamble that resulted in a ticket to infamy. She was later awarded a contract with Tampa's International Hockey League affiliate with Atlanta.