Tampa Bay “Overextended” Sports Market
August 15th, 2011
The numbers geeks just can’t leave their calculators alone.
In a recent study published by an outfit called “Business Journals,” some bored accountant decided to play around with Excel spreadsheet software and determined the Tampa Bay area is the fourth-most extended sports market in the country.
Joe has major flaws with this “study.” Unlike the numbers guys, Joe looks at common sense.
This study suggests that the three cities more overextended with sports is, in order, Cleveland, Denver and Pittsburgh.
Joe will be upfront: Joe pays no attention to the filth that is the non-basketball association. If Joe hears the acronym “NBA” he can’t turn the channel/station fast enough. Not even the NBA’s strippers cheerleaders can get Joe’s attention.
(And no, Joe’s not calling cheerleaders “strippers.”)
Cleveland has zero problems selling tickets to the godawful Brownies and when the Indians are winning, Clevelanders sell the joint out. Cleveland had a years-long streak recently of selling out Indians games. It was impressive.
Pittsburgh at No. 3 is an absolute joke. The Penguins are the model franchise of the NHL and have little trouble pulling in crowds. The Steelers have about as much of a chance of a blackout as the Tampa Bay area has of a blizzard in August.
The Pirates, despite playing in an absolute palace of a baseball stadium, have sucked for decades. The Nutting Family is as awful of an outfit as Hugh Culverhouse. There has been a generation of Pittsburghers that have been born and advanced to adulthood without knowing a winning baseball season. Notice this year when the Pirates began to win, which likely stunned the good people of Pittsburgh, the Pirates were drawing very well?
The fact Pittsburgh is on this list is beyond laughable.
Then there is Tampa Bay. The Bucs win and can’t sellout. The Rays win and can’t draw flies unless the Yankees, Red Sox or Cardinals come into town. The Lightning, on the other hand, have the past decade been a pretty good draw, win or lose.
If anyone looks at the local housing market and what a dump that is, one really needs to go no further as to why local teams are struggling to get people to walk through a turnstile.
There are other questionable cities listed, but Joe won’t bore you further. Just click the link.
Hat tip to WTSP’s Noah Pransky.
August 15th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
So game is Blacked out on thursday? The Blackout zone is BS….I live over 165 miles away and he game still isnt on tv! online stream to watch again!
August 15th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Not yo worry Bill. No more blackouts when the Bucs move across the big pond to England.
August 15th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Can’t really compare Hockey to Baseball / Football — Hockey fans are their own separate entity. Your city either has a lot of them or it doesn’t.
August 15th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Joe loves hockey. However, hockey in person is unequaled. Far better in person than with HDTV at home. Far better.
A guy on the couch with an HDTV can get just as good if not a better experience at home than at an NFL or MLB game.
August 15th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
What’s with the hatred for the NBA? If you like basketball i don’t see why you wouldn’t like the NBA…
August 15th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
MikeBucFan:
The exact opposite is true.
Joe enjoys basketball which is why he loathes the non-basketball association.
August 15th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
The bucs drew for 15 straight years. We only haven’t drew since rah rah took over and went 3-13, they whole town stopped caring. You don’t restore the excitement without playoffs. You van try to sell the 10 cupcake wins qualifying for 3rd place in the division as a Lombardi trophy but the public isn’t fooled.
It isn’t the town it is the org.
August 15th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I predict 7 blackouts even Monday Night!
August 15th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
“You don’t restore the excitement without playoffs.”
Funny how for the past 3 weeks you have been harping that coaches and free agents “restore excitement”. The troll in you runs deep. 7 generations perhaps???
August 15th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Housing? Really Joe? That’s all there is? So when the housing market returns, the Rays start selling out the Trop . . .uh . . . err . . like they always did before . . .? Well, how about the Bucs start selling out even if they suck, just like back in the creamsicle . . . uh . . . er days . . .
Uh, Joe . . . maybe there’s a little more to it than the economy . . .
August 15th, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Joe, I also see you have classed up the place. No more of those droning tro . . . .lls. Oh . . . Thomas is still here. Uh . . . in the words of Rosanna Rosanna Danna . . . NEVERMIND.
August 16th, 2011 at 12:22 am
Lucas:
When the housing market was booming, The CITS was packed. Surely you see a cause and effect, no?
If the housing market is booming, that means people have cash to spend. If the housing market is collapsing, that means people have underwater homes. Joe doesn’t have a business degree and can connect the dots.
August 16th, 2011 at 12:51 am
“Pittsburgh at No. 3 is an absolute joke. The Penguins are the model franchise of the NHL and have little trouble pulling in crowds.”
Penguins…model franchise? Really? Did you know, Joe, that the Penguins have filed bankruptcy TWICE? Did you know they were once seized by the IRS and had their doors padlocked? And did you know they had the LOWEST attendance in the NHL in 2003-2004? They were a mess until Mario Lemieux came out of retirement and bought the team and rescued them financially. Way to do your homework.
August 16th, 2011 at 1:11 am
CyberDilemma:
How have they done since?
That’s like saying the Patriots are a garbage organization because the owners before Bob Kraft were a joke.
If anyone needs to do their homework, it’s you my friend.
August 16th, 2011 at 1:55 am
“That’s like saying the Patriots are a garbage organization because the owners before Bob Kraft were a joke.
If anyone needs to do their homework, it’s you my friend.”
I didn’t call anyone “garbage”. You are the one that made the declaration that they are a “model franchise”. I would hardly call any team that has declared bankruptcy numerous times and that has been seized by the IRS and has been dead last in attendance a “model franchise”.
You are right in one regard, however, and that is I do need to do my homework. If I had, then I would have known that any argument with you dealing with facts would be futile. You always find a way to let your ego get in the way.
August 16th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Wow!