When BitPay purchased the rights to the St. Petersburg bowl and named it the “Bitcoin Bowl” it was easy to assume.
Conspicuously absent from the announcement is what would be happening to all those Bitcoin enabled payment systems after the game. It obviously made sense to the crypto community for the option to stick around, but nothing had been announced publicly.
We can now confirm that BitPay is in talks with Tropicana and Centerplate (Tropicana Field's concessions provider) to accept bitcoin not only during the Bitcoin bowl on December 26th but for the virtual currency to be accepted at the stadium afterwords as well
The talks were first mentioned to us by a high ranking BitPay employee, who does not have the authority to speak publicly on the matter but was clear on what the discussions entailed. When asked for comment, we were given this comment from BitPay's VP of Marketing Stephanie Wargo that confirmed that their goal is for Tropicana to accept bitcoin at and after the Bitcoin bowl, including throughout the baseball season:
“BitPay has received a verbal commitment from both Tropicana and Centerplate that they will accept bitcoin for the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg this December 26. Our goal is to get Tropicana and Centerplate up and running before the Bowl Game so they will also be able to accept bitcoin for future events and games including the Tampa Bay Rays next season. Purchases of tickets, refreshments and souvenirs can be made with bitcoin during the bowl game.”
We asked for further clarification on if Bitcoin would continued to be accepted after the bowl game and were told “once they start taking bitcoin, they plan to continue taking it[.]”
Of course, discussions do not indicate deals and things could progress, or not, at any possible rate. BitPay does have experience working with the professional sports world in the past. Earlier this year they helped the Sacramento Kings become the first major professional sports team to accept bitcoin.
If the talks are successful and Bitcoin does become an accepted form of payment at Tropicana Field, that would go a long way in creating what BitPay has called a bitcoin hub, its stated eventual goal for St. Petersburg and the area immediately around Tropicana Field.
It would also be another major coup by BitPay, which was recently included in the PayPal deal and has been signing up merchants, particularly in Europe, at an exceedingly fast pace.
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