The CITS: No. 13
September 28th, 2010
Sadly, one cannot get a Primantis sandwich at the CITS.
Aside from beer and babes, one thing that makes going to a Bucs game special for Joe is shoveling food down his gullet like Peter King does popcorn.
Often, this entails grilling or going to a tailgate party.
But Esquire magazine believes fans should leave the grub to the CITS. It ranks all NFL stadiums for food and has the CITS at No. 13.
13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (The CITS)
Number of concessions: 500
Number of restaurants: 0
Local options: Good (but all pirate-themed: Treasure Cafe, The Galey, Crows Nest)
Beer selection: Good (Miller, Coors, Red Bridge Gluten-Free beer)
Pro: Smoked short ribs.
Con: It’s Tampa.
Joe was unaware one can get ribs at the CITS, but damn, that would be messy trying to eat ribs and watch football and balance a beer.
Oh, and for the obligatory “What’s the CITS?” question, Joe reminds one and all that Google is your friend.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Why is “it’s Tampa” a con? How about this rag stick to metrosexual pedicures!
September 28th, 2010 at 11:08 am
BTW Joe, article states they’re 13 but title says 17.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:08 am
The beer selection is considered good……. I’d rather have a case of the clap then a case of any of that beer.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:15 am
The headline says 17 Joe, and in my opinion that’s still a pretty generous ranking for food at the CITS.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:19 am
1) What self respecting footbal man/fan gets advice from Esquire?
2) what the F*&k is Gluten free beer? If anyone choose their beer based on whether or not its gluten free then they need to be immediately ejected from the game and banned from all future CITS events.
3) It’s Tampa? Seriously Esqueere? Would you prefer we were more like SanFrancisco?
September 28th, 2010 at 11:24 am
I agree with James from Dunedin. The food at Tampa Stadium (I refuse to call it Ray Jay)
is average at best, and way overpriced. At 7 bucks a beer, I would like a Beer with more Alcohol then the Lite beer sold there. The Fighter Jet Fly By’s are cool and all, but IMHO we should have built an air conditioned domed stadium. It is miserably hot at Tampa Stadium, and for 2 people to go, it is easy to spend 100 dollars PLUS the price of tickets, plus walk a mile!
September 28th, 2010 at 11:29 am
D-Money you are on the money!
Jacksonville has worse food, but better beer. They have a place in the corner that sells a bunch of different imports. Other than that, our stadium blows that sh-t hole away! There are a bunch of stadiums that either offer Miller or Bud, but not both. That is why this crap mag said the selection was good.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:45 am
ROTFLMAO!!!
That is SO wrong but SO funny.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:46 am
LOL Quality comments in this thread. Keep them coming. Joe’s enjoying this. 🙂
September 28th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Jacksonville is a much better stadium than the CITS. First, you can tailgate under the interstate overpasses which both offers shade and no grass/dust/dirt to eat with your BBQ like all the tailgating lots at the CITS.
Second, Jacksonville has “The Bud Zone” which is a sports bar. There, you can watch other games/highlights both before and after the game.
Third, you can party at the Jacksonville Landing and take a boat shuttle down the river to the game and back.
Of the three NFL stadiums in Florida, Joe believes the CITS is No. 3. Joe Robbie Stadium would be No. 2, but not by a whole lot.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Keep in mind that when built in 1996 this stadium was the class of the NFL and only cost about $168 million to build.
Thats about $230 million today but still pretty cheap considering the billion dollar stadiums being built in NY errrr New Jersey and Dallas.
It may not be the best stadium in the league any longer but i bet if the Rays could get a stadium in downtown Tampa of this quality for that price they would jump all over it.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Hold on…by local options, do they mean immediately surrounding the stadium or the intown options?
Because I know of hundreds of places that are not “Pirate themed”
September 28th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I know you guys have some home town pride (as do I), but if you don’t get that Tampa isn’t exactly the greatest city in America, you should get out more often.
I miss the Old Sombrero. Yes, I know it was awful. I know it was anitquated. But it was HOME, dammit. Also, it had millions of bats, which made it extra awesome.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Gluten free as in it is brewed without wheat or barley. Some people can’t consume gluten because of Celiac or are just sensitive to it. Others because of diet (for whatever reason).
But I’m sure it’d taste like s–t
September 28th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
What’s with the “Con: it’s Tampa” jab? Besides our year round summer weather, beautiful women, world class restaurants, and white sand beaches…wait a sec…the authors right…i would def rather live in Green Bay!
September 28th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
BREAKING NEWS . . . THIS JUST IN . . .
Posted today on Buccaneers.com: The alliance between the Buccaneers and America’s #1 pizza brand will bring Pizza Hut’s Personal Pan Pizza to Raymond James Stadium on game days and will also result in promotional incentives for fans all over the Bay area to enjoy.
This should shoot RayJ up to AT LEAST 2nd or 3rd on the list now!!!! LOL
The powers that be must have gotten an advance copy of that rag and figured they better make a move to improve their standing.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Diehard Bob:
Yes, and when I think ‘Major improvement in overpriced stadium food’ my mind NATURALLY goes immediately to Pizza Hut.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
SkookumSmitty,
Tampa Bay is a pretty nice place to live and visit. Its not the greatest city in the world but i’d hardly list it as a con.
If you don’t see that maybe you’d be happy living in Jacksonville or Cleveland or Cincinati or Kansas City or Green Bay or Buffalo or any other NFL city that in two months will be up to their asses in snow.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Joe…I agree that it is a cool area, and a great place to tail gate, but the stadium itself I did not like all that much. I did not realise this was about the tailgating and party after the game. Even then, I will take Tampa over jacksonville any day of the week. Of course it could be my Floridian bias.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I should add that I have never seen a game in Miami.
September 28th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
CITS = Can’t Inundate The Seats!
September 28th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Where else can u catch a snook, redfish and a trout, and a bucs game all on the same day.
Tampa is an awesome city.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Miller, Coors, and Gluten free beer??? What were they out of Keystone, Old E, and Natty light? Worst beer choices ever. I agree with Reggie Roby …well maybe not!
The Trop actually has a few places with great beer selections. I’d like to see that in Ray Jay.
September 28th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Sorry Joe, but Joe Robbie stadium is a dump. Aside from the fact that it smells like urine pretty much EVERYWHERE. About the only thing that’s decent there is the tailgating if you get one of the grassy spots. Otherwise, you’re either on the parking or on gravel. So no, I do not agree with you at all that JR is better than Tampa Stadium. No way. Jacksonville has cool tailgating, but as far as the stadium goes, it doesn’t hold up either.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
I didn’t know you could get ribs at the stadium either. Interesting. I like that you call Miami’s stadium Joe Robbie. They should have never changed the name of it. And how in the world can anyone call RayJay Tampa Stadium? For one thing it’s never been called Tampa Stadium and another thing is the old stadium was Tampa Stadium. Would be mass confusion if people started calling the new stadium by the old stadium’s name.
September 29th, 2010 at 12:33 am
Trguy12:
You can get Heineken at the Fruitdome!