They’d rather compare apples to oranges than answer your question. If we’re crediting schedule for victories, we should look at the schedule that lost so many games too. If we’re looking at QB faced for wins, the same should be done for losses the year before. If we’re blaming the coach for losses, he should be credited for wins.

Joe finds it amusing how Thomas 2.2 rails about how Rah was the reason the Bucs won three games in 2009 but he consistently refuses to answer Joe’s question about who should get the credit for the Bucs winning 10 games.

The Rah hate from Sir D-Baggon is just unfathomable. The little twerp never passes on a chance to bash our Head Coach. It is the same old story every day, same words, same lines, same BS, and none of it has any basis or merit. Complete and utter garbage, all of it, all of the time. In what life was this punk a Bucs’ fan? Uh, never.

Suck it, Thomas!!!

what lieweke said is all that I have been saying. the economy is a factor for every team in the league, and more so in jacksonville. the reason that the season ticket base went from 62k to 33k is in large part the raheem hiring, the failure to add big name players and the overall depletion of the product due to failing to pay average salary.

these kids have promise but there are few big names for the community to get excited about enough to leave the ac and go to a game to watch raheem and his 23 year old buddies. Proven vet talent is necessary, the feeling that your roster is the substantial equivalent of the top teams in the league is vital for ticket sales.

the hiring of rah rah sent the message that these guys were going “cheap” not going for lombardi trophies. some owners invest to win championships (some invest poorly but at least are willing to spend to win), others compete, and then the glazers just want to keep overhead low and pray that they win. that is unacceptable and blaming the economy is b.s.

I think I’m gonna start getting my daily news from the Times online.

Thanks fano!

Adios JBF

@WeNeedDefense – “…would have made a better story.” Please. This is not the forum for Joe to start playing marketing VP and fire out a bunch of suggestions. Joe’s not writing for the fine folks of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

“He went on to talk about a season ticket base of “about 33,000″ when he joined the Seahawks in 2003, during far better economic times. When Leiweke left Seattle in 2010 to join the Lightning, the Seahawks (fresh off two losing seasons) were raising ticket prices, had sold their maximum of 61,000 allocated season tickets, and had a waiting list of 10,000, per The Seattle Times.

Leiweke went on to say he expects the Lightning, whose attendance is up about 12 percent from last season, to enjoy sellouts throughout next season.”

#1 the economy- The entire nation has been gut punched but this area has been socked harded than just about every other. Unemployent has hovered at 12% or more for years now- and that stat is woefully under reported, as anyone who knows anything about the economy and how such stats are generated. And before anyone says “but other teams….” consider this- the New York Giants one of the most storried franchises in all of sports, in th richest market in all the world, opening a billion plus dollar stadium on national TV could not sell out their games thi year- even their home opener. Yes that is true- no they were not blacked out, because the unsld seats were club seats and do not count for blackout purposes.

#2 PSLs- As long as the PSLs were active there was a financial incentive to maintain the seats no matter how bad the product was. People can point to Detroit and say they sold out some or most of their games, but those people are still tied to the financial hitching post that NFL owners created.

# 3 The product- Let face it 3-13 stinks and that came on the heels of a monumental December collapse in 08. Besides which the star power had long ago began to dwindle. For some time now the team has been bland and uninspiring.

#4 The Media- Lets face it Cummings can wag his finger at the fans all he wants, but voices like his and Duemigs have bellyached for years now about the Glazers, about Gruden about the conspiracy charges of using the Bucs as an ATM to finance their English Kickball team. The local writers have never embraced the team warmly. Kaufman and Cumming in particular have had a field day questioning the motives of the Glazers, their character, even their personalities. In the St. Pete time Shelton and that other oaf make it a contest it seems to create the most inane insults to label the owners and coaches with. The writers are insulting hacks for the most part- in my hmble opinion. They use the shield of “impartiality” to attack and insult. These barrages of questions and charges take its toll on the psyche of the community. The complain about the empty seats but report only reasons to stay away.

Any way, thats how I feel.

The Rays have done alot since the new ownership group took over and it has paid off. Although they whine about attendance, they have gone from 16000 a night to 23000 a night over the last 5 years. They have risen almost every year and I inclined to think it would be higher by a few thousand if the economy was better.

The lightning were crushed during the lockout after they won the cup and now have new ownership and philosophy and are coming back.

The ECONOMY IS a major factor regardless but, yes, things can be done.

The NFL is the biggest guilty party in pricing themselves out of markets and doing little by way of generating loyalty (blackouts?????? really?????)
The average NFL team raised tickets damn near every year the past 8 years while most people saw salaries go stagnant. On top of that, the owners have the nerve to complain about player salaries when they brought it upon themsleves.

One last point: I HATE the term bandwagon. Every single city in every sport is loaded with fans who would rather pay to see a contender or winner. Very few teams have the Cubs fan base.

The bucs were not the only ones to not have sellouts last year, almost half the teams did not sellout most their games proving again: the economy is a big factor.

The owners should make themselves available for some quality time with fans at these type of functions. Mark and Rah do a nice job in the community…their marketing department should be meeting as much as the scouts, coaches and staff are now to get this fan base back. Make an effort and stop using the tough times as an excuse. Folks will come and spend some money if they are made to feel good about spending the cash.