Ferg's Sports Bar & Grill

WHAT A SPORTSBAR WAS MEANT TO BE!

Ferg’s Sports Bar is best typified by the song in the long running NBC sitcom, CHEERS,”.. . where everybody knows your name and we’re always glad you came.” Character is what makes Ferg’s “what a sports bar was meant to be!” It provides every customer, from the youngest sports fan to the season ticket holder, with an experience that keeps them coming back for more. The bar depicts a family atmosphere which stems from the vision of one man’s dream.

Mark Ferguson, a man with vision, who saw an opportunity and took advantage of it, He bought an old Sunoco Gas Station and created Ferg’s in hopes that St. Petersburg would obtain a Major League Baseball franchise.
His vision was temporarily dashed when Miami was awarded the baseball franchise. But Mark Ferguson was determined that one day his concept of a sports bar in what was an impoverished downtown would work.

Without baseball, survival would be Ferg’s first concern. Mark Ferguson, a headstrong, yet a savvy entrepreneur, began to sponsor local softball, flag football and basketball leagues. Soon thereafter, Tropicana Field (formerly known as the Thunder Dome) became the host of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm. In Ferguson’s eyes, this was the first ray of hope of accomplishing what he had originally set out to do. Hockey and Arena Football provided Mark Ferguson with the capital and exposure to take his dream one step further - expansion.

His dream came to fruition with the announcement that Major League Baseball had awarded St. Petersburg with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Any ordinary individual could have come up with an idea of having a sports bar located next to a professional sports facility, but one man’s belief in the popular slogan “If you build it, they will come,” made Ferg’s. Though many trials and tribulations Ferg’s Sport Bar & Grill has not only become downtown’s best sport bar, but a city institution.