Bucs Aren’t Only Florida Team With Sagging Sales
July 14th, 2009
A rare sight: a soldout Jags game. Jacksonville may be the worst NFL market in the country. Joe is convinced the photo was shot when the Jags hosted either the New England Patriots or Pittsburgh Steelers.
When Joe learned the Bucs were selling five-game ticket packages he couldn’t believe it. Joe had never heard of an NFL team doing such a thing. Not even the (until last season) horrid Bill Bidwill’s desert rats.
Not only did Joe learn that the Bucs are also selling a four-game package — yes, a four-game package — but the Bucs are hardly alone. So too are the Jags in what Joe is starting to believe is the worst NFL market in the country.
The Jags are the Rays of the NFL in that they don’t draw unless teams like the Steelers and Patriots come to northeast Florida, no matter how good the home team is.
Then the Jags decided to pull that bush league stunt in draping over the upper deck. The last time Joe heard of any franchise lowering itself to such a level was the Pittsburgh Pirates when they played in Three Rivers Stadium, in addition to the Rays doing the same thing right now.
And still the Jags can’t sell the place out.
The only way that tarp at (nee) Alltel Stadium was removed is when Alabama played Florida State or Georgia played Florida.
A quick search of NFL.com showed the St. Louis Lambs (three-game packages) and the Detroit Kittens also have partial-season ticket plans.
So Bucs fans, while this season appears grim and today blackouts look like a real possibility, don’t feel too discouraged. We’re not alone.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Joe I don’t fret too much about home game blackouts. Besides there’s always Direct TV and the local Beef O Brady’s to see the Bucs.
The NFL has an advantage over MLB in that there are only 16 games to sell – only 10 home games (preseason included) unlike the 70+ baseball home games.
However the greedy bastards have lost sight of how much people really have to spend in order to go to a game. Parking, $5 hot dogs, $8 beers, etc., I’m surprised they don’t charge $1 to use the John at RJ.
If the Bucs go .500 after their first half of the season the remainder of games will be sold out. However according to the odds people and listening to the Heard on ESPN radio their talking heads say that Tampa may be the worst team in the NFC this year.
Wouldn’t it be nice to prove them wrong?
July 14th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
>>> Besides there’s always Direct TV and the local Beef O Brady’s to see the Bucs. <<<
Mr. Lucky:
Sure, there is always DirecTV (the greatest invention by man since the remote) and there is Beef O’Bradys, among dozens of other quality watering holes.
But you won’t see the Bucs on DirecTV (locally) if the games are blacked out, unless you really jump through hoops.
The only way to pull that off would be to get or use a fake address, say, Memphis, and call DirecTV to change your address before the season (with a Memphis phone number).
For example, no local Bucs games are available on NFL Sunday Ticket (an exclusive feature of DirecTV). You had to watch the Bucs games on Channel 13, not via NFL Sunday Ticket.
DirecTV does this by zip code and telephone number (area code).
July 15th, 2009 at 6:51 am
I live in Miami, and the little fishies are selling four game packages too. Buyers get to choose one game from the following:
Indianapolis
N.Y. Jets
Pittsburgh
New England
and then add any three from the following list:
Buffalo
New Orleans
Tampa Bay
Houston
Is it no wonder that they can’t sell any more than they have. Other than transplanted fans from the visiting team’s locations, these four games are dogs.