Bucs Fans Suck

[PhillyPhreak54]

BUCS HAVEN'T SOLD OUT PLAYOFF GAME

Tickets for the Buccaneers' wild-card playoff game have been on sale for eleven days.

And they're still on sale.

Per our friends at Pewter Report, the game has not yet sold out.  In fact, seats remain in all three levels of the team's stadium.

"I'm not disappointed," coach Jon Gruden said about the status of the ticket sales.  "I'm confident that it will be a great crowd and it will be an enthusiastic one, and hopefully we get it sold out."

The guys at Pewter Report think that a 1-3 slump down the stretch might have tempered enthusiam.  Or perhaps it's a byproduct of the top-heavy nature of the two conferences, or of the reality that the Bucs would never be able to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  Or maybe there's a sense that the 9-7 Bucs won't be able to topple a 10-6 Giants team that went toe-to-toe with the Pats.

Still, it's playoff football.  And it's likely the last home game of the year -- unless the 'Skins scalp the Seahawks and the Cowboys and the Bucs best Brett Favre at Lambeau.

Tight end Anthony Becht is doing what he can to get the tickets purchased.

"I can't think of any reason why fans wouldn't want to come to this game," Becht said.  "There are plenty of people in the Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater community to come out.  It's an opportunity for them to support us.  I hear fans every week calling in to talk radio, to talk about our team.  They need to come out and bring their friends out to the game.  We got to the playoffs, we got them a home game.  We need their support.  It does need to be full.  All fans need to be out there.  I remember being out there in 2005 with the flags waving and everything.  It was an awesome environment.  I'm really looking forward to seeing that again.  I would be very disappointed if we didn't see that."

Bandwagoning losers.

[Eagaholic]

Totally. For some real fun try talking about hockey to enthusiastic Lightening 'fans' next time they win a cup (to save time first explain some basic terms like puck, goal, and hockey).

[MDS]

Damn if the Eagles were in that game it be over 50% green. Too bad they sucked this year.

[ice grillin you]

thats more of an indictment of giant fans than buc fans...we all know what pro sports is like in florida...they dont give a farg about it...but the transplanted new yorkers alone should have already sold out this game not to mention the northerners that could travel down for it

[Don Ho]

^^^^^
good point.  you'd think all the transplants or those down from NY for the holidays would be all over this shtein.

even Jacksonville looks about 3/4 full for their home games.  only blue you see is empty seats.

[PhillyPhreak54]

CAN BEGGARS BE CHOOSERS?

As Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star Ledger reveals, and as this link confirms, tickets to the not-yet-sold-out Giants-Bucs game in Tampa can only be purchased by Florida residents.

The entry page to the team's official web site, which shouts to the world "BUCCANEERS PLAYOFF TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!" leads to the link that restricts the "ON SALE NOW!" proclamation to credit cards with Florida billing addresses.

We've seen this phenomenon in the past with teams like the Bears and the Chargers.  (As Garafolo notes, however, there is no address restriction for this year's San Diego home playoff game.)  But when a team can't sell out its home stadium, should the team be preventing folks from any of the other 49 states from coming to town?

Besides, the tickets aren't cheap.  As of this posting, the best available sets are $350 each.

So if the folks in Tampa ultimately can't watch the game on television, they can blame it in part on the refusal of the franchise to allow people not in Florida to attend the game in person.

And the irony is that the game will be televised in all of those locations from which purchasers of tickets are not welcome, regardless of whether the game is aired in Tampa.

Finally, how does FOX feel about a ticket restriction that might contribute to a blackout?  A week after FOX had its nose out of joint for not getting a crack at the Pats-Giants simulcast, the playoff game assigned to FOX for the wild-card weekend might not be permitted to air in the home team's market.

Our suggestion?  The league should require a home team that discriminates on the basis of address to guarantee a sellout, and to purchase any remaining tickets and give them to local underprivileged children for free.

[rjs246]

Who cares. The winner of that game gets crushed the following week and the loser misses the playoffs next year. Yawn.

[ice grillin you]

the refusal of the franchise to allow people not in Florida to attend the game in person.


is it just me or does this sentence make your brain hurt

[Diomedes]

Anthony Becht is still playing football in the NFL? 

Who knew?

[Rome]

Tickets for the Eagles last year were almost impossible to get.  I'm actually kinda surprised that tickets are available for this game especially with all the New York dickheads who live down here.  All of the Giants fans who watch the games at the local pub are going.

[MDS]

there should be enough giant fans with grandparents living in florida to buy the tickets. we all know bucs fans are terrible, but this is giant downright pathetic on the part of giants fans.

[QB Eagles]

I'm actually kinda surprised that tickets are available for this game especially with all the New York dickheads who live down here.

Most of the Giants fans who go to the games are New Jersey dickheads. New York's a baseball town anyway, especially in the eyes of all those old fargers in Florida.

farg both the Giants and Bucs.

[Cerevant]

So, not only are Tampa fans too lame to go to a playoff game, they are too stupid to buy tickets and scalp them to New Yorkers.

[Diomedes]

Well now, lets be fair.  Perhaps Florida residents simply can't afford the $350 ante?  Crystal meth and Jimmy Dean sausages ain't cheap you know.

[Rome]

Or maybe Tampa fans simply have a lot of errands to run this weekend?