In late August, hundreds of thousands of Republican heavyweights will descend on Tampa to officially crown Mitt Romney their presidential nominee and celebrate their policies, which include abstinence-only education, limiting women's reproductive health choices, and an aversion to birth control and gay rights. Oh, yeah, they might also enjoy some big ol' bouncing boobs.
Strip club industry insiders think the Republican National Convention could be the biggest boon to the Tampa Bay strip scene since the last time the area hosted the Super Bowl.
"The only thing the adult club owners and me can compare it to is the Super Bowl -- except that it's five times bigger," said Paul Allen, publisher of adult industry trade mag Night Moves, tells the Tampa Bay Times. "You've got a bunch of people coming to Tampa Bay. They're not in meetings 24 hours a day. What do you think they're going to be doing at night? You can only eat so many steak dinners. You can only look at so many sunsets."
Two of the area's biggest strip clubs, Tampa Gold Club and Scores Gentlemen's Club & Steakhouse, tell the Times that they're preparing to remodel in time for the convention and will stock higher-end products to make those fat cat GOPers feel at ease during the week they celebrate their Mormon candidate. Clubs are preparing to offer everything from fine wines, Dom Perignon, cigars, and even fancy foods like osso bucco.
Several clubs are also making preparations for visitors who would like to keep their activities on the down low. Tampa Gold recently added a private side entrance where big wigs can hop out of their limo and be taken directly to $750-an-hour private rooms.
Naturally, the clubs will also be looking for more dancers. Some clubs are recruiting new strippers from Craigslist, while others plan to import extras from sister clubs across the country.
It doesn't appear that Tampa has much of a gay strip club scene, but giving the results of this study, someone might want to think about opening one up in time for August.
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