TAMPA, Fla. Even for a place that hosted four Super Bowls, a World Series and the Stanley Cup, next year's Republican National Convention is a big deal.

"A Super Bowl on steroids," said Chuck Black, chairman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

The bay area is flexing its big-game muscles for an event expected to draw 50,000 people and a worldwide audience next August, a week before the Democratic convention in Charlotte.

The cities are the smallest convention hosts since Atlantic City in 1964, but the sites aren't a coincidence. Florida and North Carolina are key tossups in next year's presidential race, and the conventions could boost each candidate's fortunes in the host state.

Beyond politics, both cities are counting not only on the exposure but on more than $150 million in expected economic benefits to lift areas still mired in double-digit unemployment.

As in Charlotte, Tampa organizers are deep into planning for the four-day event that starts Aug. 27. And like their Democratic counterparts, the Republicans are mum about many details.

After once acknowledging that they'd raised $15 million , for example, they now say only that they've met benchmark goals.

But Tampa city officials and others have released some details:

Transportation planners envision delegate buses traveling on dedicated interstate highway lanes, and commuters riding to work in van pools.

As many as 3,000 law enforcement officers from around the state will complement a local force of 1,000. Sixty new security cameras and horse-mounted patrols will monitor key areas.

Police, armed with a rough idea of the security perimeter, have briefed downtown businesses on ways to "harden" buildings with concrete barriers or other protective measures.

Even the Secret Service and Coast Guard have met with residents of Harbour Island, whose only mainland access runs right past the convention site.

Schematic drawings show a reconfigured St. Pete Times Forum, complete with likely seating for delegates. The media would defray the cost of creating temporary studio space, with broadcast suites going for up to $34,360 a week.

In Charlotte, convention organizers have not said how much they've raised. Police have released no details of cameras or other security measures. No transportation plans have been announced.

But while Republicans won't say how much they've awarded in contracts, Democrats have announced contracts of more than $7 million to upfit Time Warner Cable Arena and other work. Details about how some arena space will be used, including media pricing, will be available next month. "The good thing for us is having hosted so many Super Bowls, we know how to do this," said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, a Democrat. "We're ahead of the game."

But organizers got off to a bumpy start.

'A lot of enthusiasm'

In January, eight months after Tampa celebrated its selection, new GOP national chairman Reince Priebus fired the organizing team appointed by his predecessor amid reports it spent lavishly on salaries and entertainment and even rented a waterfront mansion. A new team didn't take over until May.

"We pretty much took the zero-based approach," said Bill Harris, CEO of the party's Committee on Arrangements.

Empty cubicles still fill the committee's suite in the 42-story Bank of America Plaza. The COA has a staff of 22, about half that of the Democratic National Convention Committee. It's still renegotiating some of the nearly 100 hotel contracts signed by its ousted predecessors.

Harris, an Alabama native who ran his party's 2004 and 2008 conventions, isn't worried.

"We have a pretty clear concept of what we have to do and where we want to go," he said.

And they're not the only ones doing the planning. Organizers are relying on volunteers like those on the local host committee, whose "action teams" are brainstorming ways to brand the region, entertain visitors and keep businesses running.

In Charlotte, host committee members are generally playing an advisory role. Other community leaders are taking an active role in helping shape "legacy" plans to be rolled out early next year.

In Tampa, public relations executive Paola Schifino's team is exploring ways to market the area, down to the banners that will greet visitors at the airport.

"There's a lot of enthusiasm," she said. "It's something positive amid the doom and gloom of the economy."

Ronnie Duncan, a former Pinellas County commissioner, heads the regional transportation authority. In addition to delegate travel, he said planners already are working with big downtown employers - including the Bank of America and Wells Fargo - to ensure employees can get to work.

Convention organizers, he said, have leaned on local experts.

"If you've got talent and (people) willing to do it," Duncan said, "why wouldn't you?"

Security perimeter unknown

In neither Tampa nor Charlotte has the Secret Service defined the convention's security perimeter, a boundary that will define logistics for delegates, residents and protesters. But Tampa's geography offers a clue.

Delegates will convene in the St. Pete Times Forum. Most of the 15,000 media members will work a block away at the 600,000 square-foot Tampa Convention Center.

Both are at the tip of a peninsula bounded on two sides by water and a third by the twin spans of an elevated expressway.

"You can assume that the security bubble will probably encompass all of this," said Buckhorn, sketching a rough map of the venues in his City Hall office. "Not too many protesters are going to want to swim to the Forum. Their signs are going to get wet."

The city expects up to 15,000 protesters from Occupiers to anarchists. One pro-Israel group even asked police to set up two so-called free speech zones: one for it and another for its adversaries.

Protesters also like the geography, which limits access to convention venues.

"Any organization wanting to assemble should be able to focus their effort and maximize their exposure," said Scott Adams of Occupy Tampa. "It is not too hard to imagine that anyone going to or from the RNC will have to pass through a gauntlet of the (Occupiers') street convention."

John Dingfelder, senior attorney for Florida's ACLU, said the city so far has shown "reasonable restraint" with the knot of Occupiers at a waterfront park. But he said "time is slipping by" for final decisions about protest zones and parade routes.

Buckhorn said city officials want to let residents - and protesters - know what to expect.

"I'm not worried about legitimate protests," he said. "Those that choose to break the law and cause mayhem we're going to deal with efficiently and quickly."

Fundraising methods differ

One major difference between the conventions is money - and how it's being raised.

Republicans have set a goal of $55 million. They're raising it the way both parties have done for conventions before, in large donations from wealthy donors and corporations.

"We're meeting all of our fundraising goals," said Ken Jones, president and CEO of Tampa's host committee. "We've had positive feedback from our donor community and ... a very excited base of people."

Charlotte's host committee has to raise nearly $37 million, but bans money from corporations and lobbyists as well as individual donations of more than $100,000.

Host committee executive director Dan Murrey has said only that fundraisers are "doing great."

While the limits apply to fundraising for the convention, Charlotte organizers are quietly raising up to $15 million for the host committee itself, in part from corporate contributions.

Among other things, the money will go toward organizing and hosting events for an expected 35,000 visitors.

St. Pete's role

Ginger Reichl lives in St. Petersburg, across the blue waters of Old Tampa Bay about 17 miles from its bigger, more bustling neighbor.

"We're used to being sort of the sister city," said Reichl, who owns her own marketing company.

But she and others hope to make St. Pete and its nearby beach resorts a big part of the convention. She's on an action team that's talking about using St. Pete's Tropicana Field for a huge welcome party for delegates and media.

Like her, other boosters see the convention as an opportunity to bring together communities separated not just by water but often by their own parochial interests.

"What we're discovering is the potential for what is possible here in Tampa Bay, and it's exciting," said Maryann Ferenc, owner of a Tampa restaurant and member of the host committee.

She said the convention led her and others to look at the area through the eyes of prospective visitors. "It's really giving us a common goal," she said, "that has forced people out of our silos."

Paola Schifino feels that way when she looks outside her office off Bayshore Boulevard.

"When you live here and you see this on a day-to-day basis, you forget how beautiful the waterfront is," she said.

Uncertainty could be benefit

Two things Republicans don't know about their four-day convention: The weather - it will be the middle of hurricane season in Florida - and the nominee.

In Charlotte, the Democratic convention logo incorporates the "O" of President Obama's; the convention theme will amplify his own. In Tampa, spokesman James Davis said organizers are planning an event in which they can "insert the candidate and their message."

Republicans could know who that is after Florida's Jan. 31 primary. Or not. Some speculate the party could see it's first brokered convention since 1948.

That would be fine with the mayor.

"If we look at this as an economic development opportunity, the more excitement around the selection of the nominee is better for us," Buckhorn said.

He knows he and his city will be in the spotlight.

"It's the biggest thing we've ever undertaken," he said. "I lay awake many a night. I lay awake out of fear of hurricanes, and in anticipation of hosting this event."

TAMPA AND CHARLOTTE

Here's how the Republican and Democratic convention sites compare.

Tampa		Charlotte
2.8 million (metro area)	Population	1.8 million (metro area)
St. Pete Times Forum, 20,200 seats*	Convention site	Time Warner Cable Arena, 19,077 seats*
About 5,000, with alternates	Delegates	6,000, with alternates
50,000	Expected visitors**	35,000
Tampa Convention Center	Media headquarters	Charlotte Convention Center
Plans to add 3,000 additional officers	Law enforcement	Expects to add up to 3,400 from outside departments
Expected to be an area bordered by two sides of water and another by an expressway. The convention site is blocks from downtown offices.	Security zones	Unspecified. The site is a short walk from major uptown businesses.
The Committee on Arrangements has a staff of 22, expected to grow to 100.	Party staffs	The Democratic National Convention Committee has 50, expected to grow to 200.
Currently 10	Host committee staffs	Currently 25

*For basketball

**Discrepancy reflects difference in how the two parties estimate the number of delegate guests and other visitors