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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nEvents at the RP Funding Center, located just half a mile away, have been a big part of the success of the family restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get a lot of business off the RP Center. Throughout the year any event at the RP Center we can feel it. Most of them are on the weekend anyway, so we get very, very busy. And we profit, it helps us a lot,\u201d Moriello said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more than 30 years, the RP Funding Center has been the home court for the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Boys and Girls Basketball State Championships. But starting in 2026, the games will tip off in Jacksonville at the University of North Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAny events at the civic center are always a plus for downtown, it always helps us. So anytime you take an event away from the RP Center, you\u2019re just taking away from the downtown businesses,\u201d Moriello said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly 17,000 fans attended the state basketball finals in Lakeland this year. City leaders said it has long been an anchor for downtown businesses, fueling economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have overnight stays in hotels, what they call heads in beds. Then you\u2019ve got the economic impact that falls from that, whether individuals are going to restaurants and going out around the town,\u201d said Kevin Cook, spokesperson for the City of Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FHSAA said moving the state basketball championships to Jacksonville gives student-athletes the opportunity to play on a university court. The FHSAA will continue weightlifting and cheerleading state championships at the RP Funding Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Business owners hope the city will continue to work on attracting other large-scale events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hope that we have an event every weekend at the RP Funding Center because it helps downtown immensely,\u201d Moriello said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the end of an era for Lakeland as it will no longer host a prestigious high school basketball tournament. Since 1997, Palace Pizza has served hot slices and Italian… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"18","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDlcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTExLndlYnA_Zml0PTMwMCUyQzE2OCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIGxvc2VzIGxvbmctc3RhbmRpbmcgRkhTQUEgYmFza2V0YmFsbCBjaGFtcGlvbnNoaXAgYXMgZXZlbnQgbW92ZXMgdG8gSmFja3NvbnZpbGxlIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.Kp8UHbxg8W5sqMxpui_Y_xiHHiiavW_dvDJ9ernhVK0MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":58299,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/download-11.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[12330],"class_list":["post-58298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools-sports","tag-lakeland-loses-long-standing-fhsaa-basketball-championship-as-event-moves-to-jacksonville"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58300,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58298\/revisions\/58300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}