Some special competition winners joined the Norwich City first team squad and a number of corporate partners on their trip to Tampa Bay.
Maggie and Colin Tweddell are Canary season ticket holders and were the lucky winners of the Ultimate Fan Experience competition from official Club destination partner, Visit Tampa Bay.
Canaries.co.uk spoke to Maggie and Colin about their six-day experience in Florida, including how they had found out about winning the trip.
“I’ve never won a competition in my life before,” said Maggie. “It was an instinctive moment, I just thought I don’t know where Tampa Bay is so I’ll look at it on a map. There were five questions and all the information was on the website I was using, it took me two minutes, press send and here we are!”
The couple from Lowestoft found out they had won the competition during a difficult time.
Maggie said: “Sam Jeffery [Norwich City Head of Partnership Activation] phoned us and unfortunately it wasn’t a good time for us as a family, my mum was in an end of life care unit and at the age of 91 was on her last legs really bless her.
"Sam was absolutely amazing, so compassionate and told me that I’d won a prize and I said, ‘oh that’s lovely’, thinking it was a shirt, or vouchers for the club shop. When he actually said it’s the first prize and I said ‘oh what is that?’ - and he said it was a trip to Tampa Bay and I couldn’t believe it. My mum would have loved it.”
Maggie added: “It has been completely surreal. We got on the coach very early on Monday morning and the first person I saw was Grant Holt and what crossed my mind was that I was going on holiday with Grant Holt!
“We had dinner with Stuart Webber on our first night and he was so honest and candid and just answered all the questions I put to him, and I did grill him a little bit – but he was wonderful.
“Everybody, the current players, the past players have been wonderful. We had a question and answer session with Daniel Farke and he was very honest and very open to some very probing questions. It was brilliant.”
Colin added. “It has been fantastic. We’ve been to lots of places and to lots of sports venues – to the ice hockey and NFL football. Had fantastic meals, met the players. It’s been the ultimate fan experience.”
The couple, originally from Northern England, sit in the City Stand and have been following the Canaries for three-decades.
“As you can probably tell from our accents, we’re not born and bred Norfolk,” joked Maggie. “But we moved here for teaching jobs over 30 years ago and decided we wanted to watch good quality football, so it was either Norwich or the boys down the road and I think we made the right decision!”
Summing up the trip Maggie said: “I just can’t put into words how brilliant it has been. For a Norwich City fan, to be on holiday with Norwich City and everything that goes with it, it has been brilliant. The players have been wonderful, the support staff, the sponsors and partners of the Club have just been amazing. We’ve totally had the best time ever.”
To learn more about Visit Tampa Bay and our matchday half-time challenge where you could win a trip to Tampa Bay, Florida click here.