Officially About 14,000 Unsold Seats
October 17th, 2010
Lost in the mess of today’s Bucs beating was the announced crowd of 51,759, per the total posted on ESPN.com. That means about 14,000 seats went unsold.
When the “actual attendace” total is reported, that number will be in the high 40 thousands.
So there were the surprise 3-1 Bucs taking on the Super Bowl champs, and the stadium was about 78 percent sold and the game was blacked out. What’s striking to Joe is how far off the Bucs are and how attendance is down from last year.
In 2009, actual attendance for the Bucs-Saints home game was 49,542, which means that game likely drew more people than today’s game, and those Bucs were a one-win team still operating the heinous Jim Bates Experiment.
Has the economy fallen off that much in 11 months, when the Bucs last hosted the Saints?
October 17th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Whats striking to me is how they announced the black out last Monday…..Have they already blacked out the next game also ?? I smell a skunk…… just saying….
October 17th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
This defense is just about like the heinous Jim Bates experiment. 38 points last year by NO 31 this year. 38 last home game by Steelers.
The whole thing is heinous, 2-9 home record for Rah. It’s no mystery Joe, people know whats up and that we got a team run by incompetents, hired by cheapskates.
It is what it is.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
No, but attendance is a lagging indicator. Bad economy and awful Bucs last year = lower attendance this year
October 17th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Look, the obvious reason the Glazers aren’t buying up the tickets is because they want to use the blackouts as proof. They want evidence going into the CBA negotiations. And they will use the blackouts as leverage.
In another year, they would have found ways to get rid of the tickets and even buy them up at 1/3 the price just to save embarrassment of a blackout… but it’s different this year, they want to use the blackouts as proof so to negotiate during the CBA.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
“Has the economy fallen off that much in 11 months, when the Bucs last hosted the Saints?”
Yes.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Attendance is down from last year because people didn’t buy season tickets. For many it was time to renew and they just didn’t, but for some the $2k bill came and they put it with the mortgage that isn’t getting sent in either.
All NFL teams sell most of their tickets to season ticket holders, not singles and I doubt many could sell 20k tickets per game two or four at a time.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
” because people didn’t buy season tickets. For many it was time to renew and they just didn’t,”
I buy that. That is a very likely case.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
I am actually surprised how fast a lot of the fans turned negative coming off of a 3-1 start. I mean everyone pretty much we would lose against the Saints.
It is pretty telling of the situation. All that hard work JimBuc has done this past off-season has been a complete waste of time. Because there are a LOT of Buc fans who aren’t “on-board” with the Raheem experiment.
I am quite surprised. I was starting to think that Rah had tricked em with the 3-1 house of cards start.
You don’t think Shaun King’s “Blues Brothers” comment had anything to do with this straw that broke the camels back?
October 17th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
About the picture. Is Talib just giving up on the play??? And Raheem is sitting there in the background like, “Oh hell Naaaa!!!”
October 18th, 2010 at 12:15 am
Hey Joe, your blackout tour earned a 5 min special down hear on the local news. FYI