Will The Bucs Match The Lightning?
August 10th, 2011
Joe and other educated observers of Bucs attendance figures over the years pegged the team’s season ticket base at around 40,000 in 2010, down from the massive waiting list of years past.
A new and improved projection will be coming soon. Whatever the announced crowd is at the C.I.T.S for the preseason home opener against New England on Aug. 18 will go a long way toward revealing the current season ticket base, since there aren’t many folks that purchase preseason tickets individually.
The preseason seats sold are nearly all to season ticket holders that have to buy the exhibition games as part of the NFL screw job their package.
Will the Bucs add 15 percent to their base and take it up to about 46,000? Twenty percent, up to 48,000, would seemingly be damn good.
But maybe not, since the Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that its full season ticket base — more expensive per year than a Bucs ticket — has doubled to about 10,000, as reported in the St. Pete Times.
Joe realizes that Tod Leiweke, the Bolts boss, is one of the sports world’s grand masters when it comes to ticket sales, but Joe’s going to vomit if the Lightning increase is equal to or greater than the Bucs’.
That would be a horrible commentary on the Bay area as a football team. And it would be a lousy second place finish for the Bucs ticket sales staff.
August 10th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
I would much rather spend my money on the lightning than this joke, errrrrr, build through the draft for years on end product. Stevie Y and company are trying to win a Stanley Cup every year, not swallow profits for 4 years under a false draft rebuild plan to make the fan base patient for contention 5 years down the road.
August 10th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
I’m going to the Pats game. My girl is a Pats fans. OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!
August 10th, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Joe here,
@Thomas 2.2 — One could make the argument the Lightning fell from the top because its previous ownership didn’t re-sign their talent. But Joe’s not about to play ring around the rosie tonight with you.
August 10th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
The Bucs also have to sell a LOT more tickets to fill their building than the Lightning do, plus they have to contend with that pesky little issue called the blackout rules, while the Lightning can show every home game on TV and the building could still be half empty. Other than that, you are spot on Thomas 2.2, as both teams are improving by re-signing their own free agents and adding depth free agents as necessary. Trading for Roloson was huge, he’s the anchor of the team, while Freeman is the acknowledged franchise QB star of the Bucs. The Bolts also locked up their franchise player of the present and future in Stamkos.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Well the Lightning came within inches of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Thats the diff.
If the bucs do that well, fans will be there. And no, missing the playoffs does not qualify.
Training wheels are off, time to man up.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Sorry, but you guys in Tampa will be lucky if you can see 1 game next year. Losing Cadillac and Ruud, two of the biggest names on this team, sure didn’t help things. Especially Cadillac, who was loved by everyone in the city.
I understand the plan that ownership and team staff has in place, but seriously, do something to at least decrease the amount of blackouts. Do something to make your team more known and more popular to the public. That would help. Josh Freeman for example, should be getting A LOT more love from the public and more attention on BSPN and NFL Network, especially considering Sapp is on there. He’s a rising superstar and carried the team on his shoulders last year. But no, all I hear is about Mark Sanchez (thank god we didn’t draft him). In other words, market the team a little better.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
@Patrick
Us guys in Tampa know that the Colt and Cowboy games are both close to selling out. The home division games against NO and ATL should both sell out as well. Losing Ruud and Caddy isn’t going to make or break season ticket decisions, that’s just ridiculous.
Not that it matters to me anyways, season ticket holder as of this season 🙂
August 11th, 2011 at 12:15 am
Patrick:
Joe can honestly say he doesn’t know one person dropping hundreds of dollars for season tickets because of a backup running back. And the way certain people in this market with loud voices whipped the masses into a froth to run Barrett Ruud out of town, if anything Ruud leaving will boost ticket sales.
Gotta stick up for Team Glazer here. They fought to get the Bucs on national TV in London (yes, Joe knows in doing so they pissed in the faces of season ticket holders). Team Glazer fought to get the Bucs on night games, which they did. They hold more practices open to the public. They held another fanfest-type practice at the stadium, all free. Hell, Bryan Glazer is even doing interviews for select media outlets which was unheard of previously. What exactly do you want them to do, sign a bunch of name slugs like Braylon Edwards so the fantasy football types can play with themselves at night knowing they can pay to watch the second coming of Michael Clayton drop passes for a boatload of cash?
As far as the NFL Network and BSPN, what, is Team Glazer supposed to stick a sawed off shotgun in the faces of the program directors of both networks?
In case you haven’t noticed, Freeman has yet to play in a playoff game and Sanchez — not that good of a quarterback to be sure — has played in two straight AFC title games and also plays for a team in the NFL’s top market, i.e. eyeballs, i.e. cash.
The NFL Network isn’t a charity, it’s a money making operation meaning more eyeballs = cash.
Come on Patrick, you are better than this.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:26 am
“If the bucs do that well, fans will be there. ”
————
Am I the only one that sees a problem with that statement?
August 11th, 2011 at 7:24 am
I’m hoping for a miracle its so embarrasing when they say the games are blacked out :/ Go Bucs!
August 11th, 2011 at 7:30 am
The lightning and the Bucs difference is in their philosophy. The lightning will spend money to show the fans they are in the race. And the Bucs have shown that they will not spend the money, and want every penny that can be squeezed from the fans. That being said, Malcom Glazer did spend the money on talent & coaches and there was a waiting list for season tickets. But after Malcom left the Sons have squeezed every penny they could for themselves. Be it for Manu, or just simply greed, there is no denying that the Bucs went from having a waiting list for season tickets to having a full season of blackouts from no tickets sales. And that cannot be blamed on the economy.