Are the Bucs still a hot ticket?

I thought I'd post a copy of a story that will run in Saturday's newspaper about the state of the Bucs' ticket sales.

No one from the team has given us an official comment or even characterized how sales are going, but there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to support the idea that this year's steep increases might create a problem. We are not predicting TV blackouts here. Nothing of the sort. Just giving you a sense for a story that will be something to watch over the next several weeks.

Here's the story:

The Bucs won’t say whether steep price increases have affected ticket sales, but this much is clear: they’re not exactly flying off the shelves.

The Bucs made what was described as a “limited number” of single-game tickets available for sale Friday morning, but a search of seat inventory showed numerous seats available for most regular-season contests.

Most years since the opening of Raymond James Stadium in 1998, tickets have been hard to come by, even months in advance. Every game at the venue has been sold out. This year, only the Sept. 28 game against Green Bay has proven a challenge to those wishing to secure seats. Only scattered seats remain for that contest, according to Ticketmaster.

But prime seats for the remaining games – including the Oct. 19 night game against Seattle during which Mike Alstott will be honored – can be had. As of early Friday evening, there were for most games many blocks of at least eight available lower-bowl seats – the per-household purchase limit.

The Bucs announced sharp increases in prices this season, some as much as 30 percent. Couple that with the expiration of thousands of seat licenses and the many people who chose not to renew, and the potential for sagging sales exists.

During a call to the Buccaneers ticket office on Friday, a representative said a request for season tickets would require a customer be added to the waiting list, estimated by the team in February 2007 to be 145,000 long. But Friday, the representative estimated the list at 70,000 and suggested season tickets could be purchased as soon as 2009.

The Bucs, who don’t disclose details on ticket sales, gave no official response to a request for comment.

STEPHEN F. HOLDER

Comments

[DV]

This is Gruden's fault! Fire him and hire Chuck Norris to coach the team.

[Thrill]

That's a completely ridiculous story. The season ticket sales have nothing to do with the ticket price increase. The housing market and local economy in Tampa have tanked in the past 18 months. People can't pay their mortgages for goodness sakes. This is another example of sensationalism by the media. The Bucs have done nothing wrong.

[Pete]

Thrill, you hit it on the head. I guess because the cost of everything seeming to be on the rise with the gas prices as the cause for everything else to go up the ticket price increase must be to off set the flight costs or something huh Stephen? Do you have any good news to report, EVER?

[Brad Igar]

"The season ticket sales have nothing to do with the ticket price increase." - Really? Because that's exactly the reason why I gave my season tickets up. My ticket, which was $19 ten years ago were going to have be renewed at $50 a pop. Wasn't worth it to me.

[Mr. Bill]

Price increases....Ohhhhhhhhh Noooooooo

[d]

Pathetic coverage as usual.

why pay the high ticket prices for the Bucs when you can go see the Rays for less, have more fun, and watch a team that knows what it's doing.

[TheLastWalshPick]

What gets me more angry is that The Bucs did not show too much class this past few weeks. Jeff Garcia was hand picked by "The Greatest Coach" of them all, Bill Walsh. The inventor of the West Coast Offense. True to that Jeff's first year at San Francisco, Jeff had better numbers than Steve Young and Joe Montana. the Bucs should respect Jeff a lot more for what he's accomplished. And I'll quote Madden, "All this kid does is win."
When a team is behind Jeff and they let him play to his strengths he plays really well(i.e. S.F.,Eagles, and now Bucs) That's 3 teams he's taken to the playoffs. Not too many QB's accomplish that. Look at Chad Pennington he was #1 pick of 2000 and played for the Jets for 8 years and didn't accomplish not even half of what Jeff has done. Now let's see what Farve can do without his Green Bay players.

Jeff Garcia 4 time pro-bowler and 4 Play-off appearances. He even almost beat Brett Farve in the play-offs with the Niners at Green Bay.

[Mike Creyton]

1:47, I am a huge Rays fan. They are my favorite of the 3 local teams because I am a huge baseball fan.

But, your statement is ridiculous. The Bucs don't know what they are doing? Haven't they won 3 division titles and a Super Bowl since the 2002 season? That puts them in pretty elite company in the NFL.

The Rays have never won anything before this year.

[Slappy]

When the Allen/Gruden regime is gone, I'll start renewing my season tickets again. My Pugs would make a better GM/HC combo.

[Scott]

I signed up on the list eleven months ago and got called to ask if I wanted tickets. Since it's free to get on the list I don't think those numbers mean much.

[Scott]

Allow me to add: Went to Ticketmaster and found level one and two tickets available, albeit only in the corners. They've come a long way since the year after the SB win. If they don't look good this year I am sure we will see blackouts next year.

[Tom]

Good post, WalshPick. However, I think Garcia is coming back stronger and better than ever. He's a competitor and he's ready to prove Gruden, Allen, Glazers and thousands of Bucs fans wrong for wanting Favre!

[James]

I can't see why you'd buy tickets from ticketmaster when season ticket holders are re-selling them on Stub Hub for 60 cents on the dollar. Blackouts here we come.

[Steve L]

“Blackouts here we come”. Perhaps. As a season ticket holder however I haven’t been subjected to a blackout since ’91. Does a local blackout affect subscribers to NFL Season Ticket? Again, I have no way of knowing. A blackout, the sum of a poor economy and rising ticket prices could/should be remedied by the product on the field. Assuming that product is successful. A lack of early season success however will almost certainly doom non season ticket holding Buc fans with the dreaded blackout. This outdated supposed business “incentive” (the blackout rule) needs to be updated to reflect the changing times. Could you imagine if they didn’t show a Rays game locally unless they sold out?

[TS]

I cancelled my season tickets - I'm not giving them another dime. I also signed up for the season ticket waiting list about 2 months ago just to see exactly how big their waiting list was. I got a call from the Buccaneers on Friday saying that my name came up on the list for season tickets. So much for their over 100,000 person waiting list, there is no such thing and I believe there will be a couple of TV black outs. Their greed is finally coming back to bit them!

[Kurt]

A superbowl win and three division championships in 6 years does not constitute poor management in my book.

The GOP slow economy and American job sell-off have everything to do with slower ticket sales; that seems obvious also.

Who's to say Garcia won't get his extension before the season starts? I said at the beginning when he was creating turmoil in out locker room whining about the contract that he actually signed, that the Bucs were going to wait to make sure he doesn't get hurt in training camp. It just makes frugal and fundamental sense. But that's why Allen is the GM and not you spineless babies that would coddle whiny millionaires. I'm just sayin...

[Lunar Shoals]

Last I checked, this was a business and if you really want to talk about greed, just look at the Republican party, the Bush crime family & McCain and their ties to the oil companies. Now that's real, american economy squashing greed!

[TS]

Kurt - I cancelled my season ticket for the simple fact that the Bucs have gotten too greedy. My tickets were $72 last year and they wanted $99 this year. The first year in the new stadium they were $38. So I totally disagree that the bad economy is the main reason. I 100% agree with you that Allen and Gruden have managed this team very well.

[TS]

My friend Lunar - we aren't talking politics here...But you are right this is a business and unlike the government we have a choice not to send more money to those who have gotten too greedy. Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.

[Kurt]

Fair enough TS, but I haven't given my tickets up because I can afford them and am a huge Bucs fan. I understand economics and I love hosting Superbowls as each one pays for that stadium once over. It's the name of the game and we are still paying less than most. Kudos on your GruAllen comment. I wish more people hated less and understood more like yourself.

[TS]

Kurt - I can afford them too, but I just can't see dropping $100 per game. I have been a season ticket holder for 15 years, but they have gone too far this time. I will support the Bucs in everyway except financially going forward. I think people need to look at your Super Bowl and 3 divsion titles comment and rethink their Gruden/Allen bashing as they have don't a great job with the cap and what little draft picks they have had to work with. Go Bucs

[Brian]

Has a football team ever hosted a Super Bowl game in their own stadium?
In: Super Bowl [Edit]

As of the 2007 season, no Super Bowl team has played in their home stadium. The closest a Super Bowl team has been to playing at home was Super Bowl XIV when the Los Angeles Rams played the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California and Super Bowl XIX when the San Francisco 49ers played the Miami Dolphins at Stanford Stadium.

Fun trivia 4 thought.

[tradewinds loser boy moser]

the season ticket sales would have been through the roof if the bucs had gotton brett

[gman]

I have had season tickets since 1979 and have re-upped again...although this was the first year that we actually had to think about it for a day or 2...and my tickets are great and have probably been underpriced for this whole time. That being said...I can completely understand why people would not renew...get that invoice for 4 grand for 4 seats and all of the costs that are actually important have gone up like housing, food, gas, etc...then people need to make responsible decisions....looks like many have....the Bucs are not as important as they think they are and there will be many empty seats each Sunday proving that point. I would like to think that everyone knew that the waiting list was bogus...the Glazers really have no respect for this area if they thought people would believe that....but I think we all know that already.

[Chuck Norris]

Hire me and I'll round house kick every sassy sissy on the team and lead them to the "PROMISED LAND" SB.

You heard it here first and heard it from Chuck the "COACH" Norris. Hiyaaaa!!! Sorry, that only happens, when I drop into a sassy sissy @$#@ kicking lotus stance.

[Ken in Edmonton, Canada]

To all residents of Tampa and area: Consider yourself beyond lucky to have a great team and a fantastic stadium to watch a football game in. $100 - $150 on average for a pair of tickets to 8 regular season football games is fantastic for the entertainment you get. If the NFL miraculously came up here one day, I wouldn't have to think twice about attending a game for those costs. Be happy you even have the option!

[melissa]

Gruden's the only star on this team. Aqib Talib has the ability to get this team excited and he's been muzzled. When Mike Vick was injured the Dome was empty. He filled seats. Star players fill seats, not star coaches. We came to watch Sapp make sacks, keyshawn make crazy, dangerous catches, watch Alstott plow through defenders, Lynch rattling the teeth out of a receiver's head. As soon as we get excited about a rookie, it is some sort of head game.

[Steve L]

Good comments all. As for Ken in Edmonton, it’s all about perspective, is it not? I can certainly see both sides of this; TS makes good, reasonable points, but I lean more towards Kurt’s viewpoint. For me, the entertainment/satisfaction I get from physically attending pro football outweighs my frustration from the prospects of greed. Hey, our society pretty much endorses greed (need some credit anyone?), but that doesn’t mean you have to buy into it, certainly. Let’s just hope the product on the filed doesn’t disappoint. Pre-season generally means less than nothing, but last night seemed to be a reasonably good start nonetheless. Go Bucs!

[Steve L]

That would be the product "on the field"...

[DR]

The economy was part of the blame, but to say it was all of the blame is ridiculous. The fact of the matter is the product on the field wasn't very good. A lot of fans banked on the Bucs losing and didn't want to see it. The only reason it didn't black out is because businesses bought the last few hundred in bulk. I don't care how bad the economy is, that's sad. You want to talk economics, look at the micro part of it. The demand wasn't high enough at the price level which resulted in a surplus in tickets for the playoff game in this local area. They should have lowered the ticket prices, but of course, they were banking on bulk sales. If the Glazers were smart businessmen, they should have let Gruden's contract expired and hired an assistant coach out there for lower costs who would have done the same or even better than the over rated Gruden, who has done nothing except ripping apart a winning team he inherited. The Bucs did have consecutive winning seasons before Gruden got here. If he doesn't have a winning season this year, he should be fired.

[George L Hicks]

Why don't all the Sports Fans realized that not only Footbal tickets prices are going up, But Everthing Else is. I don't think we see those tickets prices that was before. Remember If you're mad about the coach . Then don't but tickets. I think there is a waiting list. I still believe Tampa could have spend Half of the Money ON RJS at the old Stadium. But this is the price of a sports team like the Bucs,Rays,Lighting.If I was down in Tampa, instead of outside Dallas. Even up here I follow the team. GO Bucs Be Thankful Tampa has a NFL Team.