Amalie Arena hosts first concert at venue since start of pandemic

TAMPA, Fla. - Amalie Arena held its first concert since the pandemic started, welcoming Christian hip hop star TobyMac.

"It is extraordinarily exciting," said Elizabeth Davis of Clearwater. "We have not really been able to go out much especially with the kids since all of this started."

The arena, which normally holds about 14,500 for a concert, only sold about 3,000 tickets for this show.

Still, attendees said it felt great to be one of them.

"It is great to be able to take my daughter out and experience the city and other people," said Garrith Burkinshaw of Wesley Chapel.

Amalie is following much the same protocols from before they stopped allowing fans for Raptors games. 

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Tickets are in pods of two, four, or six, were six feet apart. 

Arena runways are now filled with plexiglass, masks, and markers so people know where to stand.

"Everybody in their pod is coming together, so hopefully the jumping around and all that stuff will be no different than what they were doing at home," said Kevin Preast, the executive vice president of Amalie Arena events.

Amalie sees this as a good test in considering if it's possible to welcome back some hockey fans. 

The success of the two nights of TobyMac shows could be critical in luring other acts who are looking for track records of COVID safety. They've made $2 million in COVID safety upgrades.

"The fact that we are able to be in a position to have live music and have that as entertainment options is massive," said Preast. "We are being looked at across the country."

Amalie has also held a comedy show and allowed friends and family in for a hockey game, so they are slowly getting things back to normal.
    
There are still tickets for Saturday night's TobyMac show in groups of two or four.