Enter Our FREE, Online-Only Academy Awards & ‘Big Game’ Contests! 

With pro football’s “Big Game” being played on Sunday, February 16, and the televised “Oscars” broadcast two weeks later — on Sunday, March 2 â€” we decided to have both our annual FREE “Big Game Squares” contest and our occasional FREE “Oscars” contests be online-only this year, to give everyone an equal chance to enter and win.

To be given a square in our “Big Game Squares” contest, sponsored by Gas N Grills on Livingston Ave., CLICK HERE. Our Grand Prize, for having the winning square representing the final score between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, is a $200 gift card to the restaurant of your choice, anywhere in the Tampa Bay area! The owner of the square representing the score at halftime will win a $100 dining gift card and having the winning squares at the end of the first or third quarters of the “Big Game” will win you a $50 dining gift card. So, CLICK HERE to enter now. 

And, with the Oscar winners being announced on March 2, CLICK HERE to enter our 2025 “Oscars Contest,” sponsored by B&B Theatres at The Grove. You will be asked to predict the winners of each major category for a chance to win the Grand Prize of dinner for two, plus top-level movie tickets, popcorn & beverages to a movie at B&B Theatres. There also will be five runners-up who each will receive two free top-level movie tickets at B&B Theatres.

There is no purchase necessary to enter either of these contests, but you will have to provide your real first & last name, the community you live in, your daytime telephone number & your valid email address to enter either contest. For more info, including the official rules of both FREE contests, email us at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com. Good luck!

In years past, we’ve run either a “Big Game Squares” or an Academy Awards contest — or both — in our New Tampa and Wesley Chapel print editions. 

Both contests, especially the Squares, take up a lot of space in our print issues and often would only allow readers in one of our distribution areas to enter that contest by reading our print editions, which always ended up with a lot more entries from that one area, and sometimes, other readers would end up getting shut out of that contest altogether — and that seemed unfair to me. 

So, rather than give one group of print edition readers an unfair advantage over the other, I decided that this year, we would offer both of these popular contests online only. 

Of course, since the next Wesley Chapel issue won’t hit mailboxes until after the Big Game, only those of you who receive our New Tampa edition are finding out about both contests in print, even though both of them will be posted on our Facebook page no later than Friday, January 31, and we will limit our Squares contest to the first 100 entrants (we allowed 200, or two full “grids,” last year), so it may be too late to enter by the time this issue reaches your mailbox. 

Now of course, I know that not everyone has a computer or smart phone to enter online, but surely everyone knows someone who does who could enter for you. To that end, online-only seemed to be the best way to give readers in both distribution areas the same opportunity to enter. 

So, here’s how the two contests will work: 

‘Big Game Squares’ 

This has become our second most popular contest, behind our annual Dining Survey & Contest, as even non-football fans usually watch the Big Game — even though some only watch for the commercials and/or halftime shows. 

Non-football fans who would never place a bet (legal or otherwise) love the Squares contest because it’s entirely about luck — you either have a square that wins one of our gift card prizes or you don’t. And, since the winning squares are determined by the score at the end of each quarter and can sometimes change at the last possible moment, having a square may be the only thing that keeps non-football-fans watching the Big Game until the very end. 

So, CLICK HERE and provide us with your REAL (you’d be surprised how many fake entries we receive in our contests) first AND last name, the community you live in, email address and daytime phone number. 

If you give us all of the proper information, you will receive an email from me that says, “Congratulations, you will be assigned a square in this year’s ‘Big Game’ Contest! Once all of our 100 squares have been filled, we will email you again with the score digit for each team that will allow you to WIN!” 

For those who don’t know how these Squares contests work, the squares are assigned in the order they are received, but the numbers representing the last digit of the score for each team aren’t randomly assigned until all 100 squares are filled. 

Your second email will say, “Your square is KC 7, Phi 6.” That means if the score is 7-6 Chiefs (or 27-26, etc.) at the end of any quarter, you’d win the prize for that quarter — anywhere from a $50 to a $200 gift card to the restaurant of your choice anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. It’s fun and absolutely free — no purchase is ever required to enter any of our contests. 

‘Academy Awards Contest’ 

We’ve only been able to even have this contest a few times in the past because of the timing of when the nominees are announced to when the annual Academy Awards are held. 

As devastating as the uncontrolled wild fires in California have been, the fires caused both the announcement of this year’s nominees and the televised red carpet gala itself to be delayed — so much so that we actually have time to have this FREE contest this year as well. 

Here’s how it works: Once again, provide us with your REAL first AND last name, the community you live in, email address and daytime phone number. In addition, we ask each entrant in this contest to please pick the winner in each of the following major Oscars categories: 1. Best Picture, 2. Best Actress, 3. Best Actor, 4. Best Supporting Actress, 5. Best Supporting Actor, 6. Best Director & 7. Best Animated Feature. 

If only one entrant picks the winners in the most categories, they will win a prize package to the B&B Theatres at The Grove, with movie tickets, popcorn, dinner & drinks, valued at $200. 

If more than one entry has the same number of correct picks, the winner will be drawn at random from all tied entries. Each of the other tied entries will receive two B&B movie passes. CLICK HERE to enter.

Winners Grabbing “Big Game Squares” Prizes!

Since the Kansas City Chiefs won the “Big Game,” four of the six winners in our “Big Game Squares” contest have already claimed their prizes, including both of our $100 gift card winners — Carrie Frump of Easton Park, who grabbed a gift card to the historic Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, and Meadow Pointe resident Jim Headley (photo), who took a PopStroke gift card. 

Also already claiming their prizes are $75 winner John Sousa of Lake Jovita (who also teaches at Cypress Creek High), who is getting a $75 gift card to Bonefish Grill, and Maggie Rich of West Meadows, who is getting a $25 gift certificate to Taste of New York Pizza.

Still to claim their prizes are $75 gift card winner Pamela Smith of Meadow Pointe & $25 gift card winner Daniela Quintana of Heritage Isles. 

Thanks to all 195 people who submitted a valid entry form! Better luck next year to those who didn’t win a prize!

Double The ‘Big Game’ Squares, Double The Fun! 

We had so many entries so quickly for this year’s “Big Game” Squares contest that I decided to add a second grid of 100 squares for the “Big Game” between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, February 11! That means we will have two $100 prizes, two $50 prizes and four $25 prizes, all to be awarded as gift certificates to the restaurants of each winner’s choice! And, best of all, there is no purchase necessary to enter or win any of our prizes!

As of today, we have fewer than 40 squares left out of the 200 total between the two grids, so either completely fill out the entry form by clicking HERE or email your entry with your Name, Street Address, the Community You Live In (Tampa Palms, Seven Oaks, etc.), your Daytime Phone Number & your Valid Email Address and email your entry to Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com by no later than this Friday, February 9, to be eligible. 

Please note that NO entries sent by U.S. Mail will be accepted for this contest!

We will continue to accept entries until all 200 squares are taken. Once both grids have been filled, I will email you your square, so you can have a little added excitement when you watch the Big Game! Good luck to all! 

Official Neighborhood News ‘Big Game’ Squares Contest Rules! 

1. No purchase of any kind is necessary to enter or to win. 

2. To enter, completely fill out the entry form by clicking HERE.

*Note—Entries sent by U.S. mail will NOT be accepted. 

3. Only one entry per person, whether online or by email, not both. 

4. All entries must be received by Friday, February 9, to be eligible. 

5. Entrants will NOT get to choose their squares. 

6. The first 200 properly filled out entries we receive will receive one of the 200 available squares. 

7. The publisher will assign squares at random on both grids on Saturday, February 10. 

8. If we receive fewer than 200 entries, those spaces will have no name entered in them and no one will be eligible to win a prize for any of those spaces. It doesn’t appear that this will be a problem, based on the overwhelming response so far. 

9. After all eligible names have been entered, the publisher will assign numbers 0-9 at random in both the top row and the far left column of the grid. 

10. The contest has been posted at NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net since January 9. The filled-out grids will be posted before kickoff on Feb. 11. 

11. Prizes to be awarded (one prize per quarter per grid): 1Q-$25; Half-$50; 3Q- $25; 4Q or OT-$100. ALL prizes will be gift cards to the restaurant of each winner’s choice. Winners must submit the name of the restaurant of their choice or no prize will be awarded. 

12. Contest results will be posted at NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net by Feb. 14 & in our Feb. 20 Wesley Chapel & March 5 New Tampa issues.