Another Impact Of Losing
December 16th, 2011
One thing the Bucs’ organization does have left to play for this season would be national perception heading into next year.
Why should fans give a crap about that? Well, that’s what TV networks obsess about to determine the 2012 slate of televised games.
The allegedly upstart, surging Bucs got two precious home night games this season. Not coincidentally, those games sold out. Without a turnaround of biblical proportions through the final three games of this season, the nationally irrelevant Bucs are going to be shut out of primetime in 2012. That likely means a full slate of blackouts and more fan apathy out of the gate.
Don’t think that would happen? Back when Chucky patrolled the sidelines, the NFL punished the Bucs and their 5-11 record in 2004 and scheduled the 2005 Bucs with a full slate of 1 o’clock home games.
This year, the Bucs sold the “home” game in England to fans, in part, explaining the excitement and importance of showcasing the Bucs before a bigger-than-usual TV audience that the England game would pull. Joe’s had face-to-face conversations with high-ranking Bucs officials, and it’s clear they crave getting the team broad exposure. So Joe wonders how that could affect Team Glazer’s decision-making when it comes to a decision on Raheem Morris. Hiring a big-name coach, for example, could be enough to get the Bucs a primetime game or two next season, even if they don’t win another game this season.
As for the Bucs’ actual schedule in 2012, Tim Tebow and the Broncos are on the docket and might be the Bucs’ best hope of a night game. With the many billions the networks are shelling out now annually to air games, Joe suspects the Broncos will get more night games than any team in NFL history.
December 16th, 2011 at 11:04 am
You posted a week ago that you didn’t think ticket sales would factor into the Glazers decision about Raheem ( a naive notion, at best) but the time of games we get will?
December 16th, 2011 at 11:24 am
New coaching staff. Maybe a new GM. Free agents plus a solid draft. Strategic cuts of underperforming players. Ticket buyouts to stop the blackouts.
Do all that and you’ll start bringing the fans back. Don’t and the anger will turn to complete and total fan apathy and the franchise will be irrelevant for years to come.
December 16th, 2011 at 11:30 am
@Anthony — Glazers don’t care about ticket sales at the 2011 level, way up from 2010, but the question I think Joe is raising is about a new level of low that could be reached with no primetime games and a team nobody is excited about.
December 16th, 2011 at 11:42 am
Joe we’re a lock not to have any nationally televised games next year. I mean really, would any respectable network want to show our terrible undisciplined brand of football nationwide?? The NFL Network has to be dreading Saturday night and how bad we might get blown out. After seeing the Jags get destroyed last night (yes the team that destroyed the Bucs) its almost hard to imagine us playing competitively. We must be the very worst team in the NFL now. How we beat Indianapolis is beyond me but if you remember it went right down the wire.
December 16th, 2011 at 11:48 am
When the national audience tunes in Saturday night, they’ll think it’s a home game for the Cowboys. The new low will be reached when the Bucs have crowd noise issues in their very own stadium. And the Glazers will have no one to blame but their tight ass selves. EmbarrASSing!
December 16th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Monday Night Football is bad for both teams involved anyways. Teams that play on Monday night win less than 50% of their games the following weekend. This season, the Bucs were completely screwed. Not only did the team have a Monday night game, but then they were forced to go on the road (teams are not usually scheduled on road after playing Monday night) and all the way to San Francisco.
I prefer NOT to play on Monday night.
December 16th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
I prefer losing seven straight with a horrific defense coached by a boob……………………..
December 16th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
See, I think you are wrong. YOu don’t think they care about ticket sales? Are you daft?
December 16th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Sell the team to Debartolo. There would be instant excitement.
December 16th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Well you know what the separates the winners and the losers?
The score!
And, I’ve seen monkey-$hi+ fights at the zoo that are more organized than this!
December 16th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
@Meh…you have yet to make any relevant argument for Dominick losing his job. I personally think he has done a tremendous job drafting talent. If you can’t seperate the coaching from the talent then you are just angry and blind to the facts. There is plenty of talent on the Bucs squad. What do you think is a weakness in a D-line made up of Bowers, Clayborne, McCoy and Price? I think Foster is gonna be a stud and especially if they get a MLB and move Foster to the outside. We’ll pick up a talented corner in the draft (there are a bunch of them). I think we’ll go after LaMichael James if he’s available in the 3rd round. We have Blount. We have a good offensive line. Freeman isn’t always going to struggle. I don’t think talent is the issue.
December 16th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Well………..at least my request for another seat upgrade my be easier to grant.
In fact, that’s a very good thing for season ticket holders who hang in there.
All too often I hear of threats of not renewing, many if not most of them from “fans” who don’t have them in the first place!
Things will turn around, they always do, and when that happens the people who are always there, the base, will be rewarded once again.
HUGE off-season coming though. Should make for an exciting if bumpy ride.
December 16th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Garv yes your right, head coach gets fired and then things will turn around. I do have confidence in that scenario. I am a diehard fan since the 70’s but this year is as bad as Richard Williamson. Its a shame only bloggers right now will come out and say it.
December 16th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Saying the Glazers will be embarrassed by the presence of Cowboy fans in the stadium, is like saying that Stu Sternberg is embarrassed by Yankees and Red Sox fans in the Trop. It’s a terrible argument.
The Glazers are RELIEVED that the 35,000+ cowboy fans sold this game out for them, there is NO WAY they are “embarrassed!”
Also, I am CERTAIN that nothing will result in instant ticket sales next year be it new coach, owners, players, cheerleaders or halftime frisbee dogs returning (man I miss those so much!!).
The only way to cure fans in the seats is the ol Al Davis mantra, “Just win(s) baby.” Best possible outlook to no blackouts is probably not till 2013 after a miraculous winning season NEXT year….
December 16th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Leroy,
I didn’t say the Glazers would be embarrassed. It is embarrassing to our community what the Glazers have done to this team.
December 16th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
@Bobby
Talent? Potential, Yes. Talent…hmmm. Compared to other teams in the NFL, the talent level of this team is near the bottom.
December 16th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
I want whatever outcome will keep the Bucs out of London next year. The Bucs have played there TWICE in three years. I don’t care about money; I’m sick of losing home games to the limeys. Not to mention, tomorrow night is shaping up to be a steam bath and, as it seems, the only DECENT WEATHER SUNDAY that we had for ANY home game was the weather on that SUNDAY that the Bucs were in LONDON!!! DAMMIT!!!!!!!
December 16th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
@Mitsurugi….Totally disagree. What do you base that judgment on? You are able to evaluate rookies and second year players as bottom tier talent after such a short time? I’ve been watching football for 50+ years and I feel like I’ve developed a pretty good eye for talent. I predicted the Lions would be in the playoffs this year and I said that San Francisco would go deep in the playoffs after they beat us and people were calling them bottom feeders. I was also one of the few who said Tebow would do just fine in the NFL and still say he’ll be a pro bowler, if not this year then in the coming years. We have needs…sure, but we have a very good core of talent. Our D-line could be absolutely dominant if we can stay healthy. I’ll take Bowers, Clayborne, Price and McCoy and put them up against any talent in the NFL in two years time. You want them and expect them to be pro bowlers now. That’s unrealistic. Once they get the LB support they need they will be dominant. Blount is bottom tier talent? Williams, Benn, Parker, Winslow….bottom tier?? LB’s and DB’s…I’d agree with you but it may end there. Our O-line is very good and Freeman is just having a bad year. He’ll figure it out. You are confusing the word ‘potential’ with ‘performance’. We have loads of talent. It just hasn’t been performing very well. The individual talent has been shining at times. These players just have to learn how to play as a team.
December 16th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I know the Bucs are bad right now…….but I think it’s bull crap how we’ve constantly been denied primetime games over the years. Every year I see losers like the Jaguars and Browns get Monday Night and Thursday night games, and they’ve been a 4 or 5 win team for the past 10 years.
In 2005, we went 11-5 and won our division. We only got ONE primetime game the next year.
In 2008, we went 9-7 (should be good enough to get you 1 or 2) and still got ZERO primetime games.
Last year we went 10-6 and only got one MNF game this year, and we’ll have the one tomorrow on NFL network.
But still, that’s nothing.
December 16th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Sounds like Bobby should have a job in the NFL
December 16th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
“Hiring a big-name coach, for example, could be enough to get the Bucs a primetime game or two next season, even if they don’t win another game this season.”
True. Also, signing some big name players that people have actually heard of would help too.
Read my post above. I think the Bucs have been screwed for years when it comes to primetime TV. But really…there’s reasons for that too. Having horrible players like Quincy Black and Geno Hayes starting on your defense sure doesn’t help….that’s one example. Overall, going the “cheap, no name” route is a HUGE reason for this. Kregg Lumpkin as a #2…..another example.
The only guys on our team that people nationally know about are Barber, Winslow, and maybe Blount. Outside of that, is there a player that anyone is familiar with on this team?
Sign DeSean Jackson, bring in a big name coach, etc. Those two moves alone would help the ticket sales and GET us on primetime TV.
Do the Glazers care about anything like this at all? The fact that their team gets ZERO respect and national attention?
December 16th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
To completely change the subject, how do you know Tebow and the Broncos are coming here? Is the 2012 schedule posted somewhere? I couldn’t find it on the NFL website
December 16th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Nice pic of Moe,Larry and Curly
December 17th, 2011 at 12:29 am
Put me down as wanting DeSean Jackson, a big play speed guy.
The London “home” game has GOT to go…..for good. Enough of THAT disaster.
We have GOT to go after LB help too. Another RB, one with speed and hands.
If the Royal Glazerbaum’s are quiet this winter there is big trouble ahead. I’ll leave it at that.
December 17th, 2011 at 4:41 am
@Rob
I believe they are. The NFL has a rotating schedule. We play each AFC team once every four years. When we played the Broncos 4 years ago back in 2008, the game was in Denver. In 2012, it will be in Tampa.
December 17th, 2011 at 4:42 am
*We played them in 2007, not 2008
December 17th, 2011 at 4:50 am
*2008. I was right the first time lol.