Now Joe has been harsh on certain media types who have a naive notion that the Bucs will move to Los Angles, London, Bangkok, wherever, because there are often a good handful of unsold tickets at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.
People, especially those who should know better, peddling this premise just demonstrates to Joe that said people have done little to no research or refuse to.
Now on the other hand, on the rare times (generally once a year) that Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer speaks, Joe has to give credit to eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune for getting Glazer on the record to dispel this myth that the Bucs are looking to leave the Tampa Bay area.
Q: If attendance doesn’t improve, would you consider relocating the franchise?
A: That’s not even an issue. We have worked as hard as anybody to get tickets sold. It’s tough circumstances in Florida. The economy’s not great and it’s a changing world. We have to adapt to that changing world. I think we saw progress last year and fans are enthusiastic about the upcoming season.
EXACTLY! Glazer just reinforces what Joe has written time and time again.
We are changing as an American sports culture. More and more people are choosing to enjoy the at-home experience than to go through all the costly hassle of dust-choked parking lots in the broiling sun, insane prices for beer, and limited replays with not always a great seat.
Roger Goodell has been talking about this for roughly three years. Shoot, just this past season, the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers had their worst attendance in over a decade. The Steelers! You know, Pittsburgh, Football Town USA?
And no, the financial effects are barely a blip. Just on revenue from national TV and radio broadcast rights alone, per Forbes.com, the Bucs and every NFL team will receive $200 million annually starting in 2014. This is before one ticket is sold, one beer is poured, one car is parked, one corporate ad is sold, one TV ad is sold, before one red cent is collected from digital and mobile revenue, and not even counting the river of cash flowing in from NFL Network.
Read the lease the Bucs have with the Tampa Sports Authority — it is public record — and you can see why the notion of the Bucs leaving is comical.
With all the revenue NFL teams have at their disposal, a couple of thousands seats short of a sellout is, in the big picture, irrelevant.
The Bucs are going nowhere, folks.