Is Tampa the ‘strip club capital of the world’?
We then turned to the business world for an answer, finding Clearwater-based E.D. Publications, a national magazine for the adult entertainment industry. (The “E.D.” stands for Exotic Dancer.) The group publishes nationwide guides to night clubs, directories of industry vendors and rosters of touring entertainers.
Associate publisher Dave Manack didn’t hesitate when asked if Tampa is the strip club capital of the world.
“No,” he said. “Not even close. Tampa might not even make the Top 20. For anyone in the industry who knows, it’s really not a top market for strip clubs.” Cities like New York, Las Vegas or Miami would have much more of a claim on the title, he said.
According to the magazine’s count, Tampa has 20 night clubs, and the entire Tampa Bay area has 30.
Meanwhile, Miami has 30 in the city and 50 in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale corridor. (City of Miami officials did not return calls.) New York City has 45, not including Long Island or New Jersey. Las Vegas has 40 clubs. (We actually tallied 34 licensed nude and topless clubs in the Las Vegas region from local officials there, so counting clubs is not an exact science.)
Manack ticked off several strikes against Tampa’s claim to the title: Tampa doesn’t have as many clubs as larger cities, and high-end national chains like Rick’s Cabaret and the Spearmint Rhino have taken a pass on Tampa. The city’s clubs are spread out, and because it has no tight-knit cluster to form a party circuit, it has trouble marketing itself as a destination for bachelor parties and conventioneers.
Pinellas County shares some of the blame, too, he said. Local rules make it difficult to open high-end clubs near the beaches where dancers can significantly disrobe. “Literally, you could see more at the beach. It does hurt the clubs there,” he said.
A spokeswoman with another industry group, the Association of Club Executives, also discounted Tampa’s place in the strip club world.
“Manhattan has many more clubs than the Tampa area,” said spokeswoman Angelina Spencer. “And if you’re going to talk about the true strip club capital of the world, it would be Las Vegas.” Her association, a political and legal advocacy group for club owners based in Washington, keeps a census that includes 3,829 clubs nationwide, but it will not release numbers by locality.
If Tampa isn’t the strip club capital of the world, we wondered if perhaps it might be No. 1 on a per capita basis. That metric would account for Tampa being a smaller city than New York or Miami. But a 2006 economic development study from the Tampa Bay Partnership found the city was merely No. 3 for strip clubs on a per capita basis, ranking behind Las Vegas, and — even more deflating — Cincinnati.
They think it's clever to point out that the conservatives in the GOP are going to the strip club capital of all time and space.
They can snicker about their gotcha! moment at the gay bath house.