Blackouts in 2010, Much ado about nothing? Hardly

Even during the heyday of the Orange clad Doug Williams led Bucs of 1979-1982, there were blackouts. Season Ticket Base is what determines blackouts more than anything. When you have a Raymond James Stadium that has a waiting list, your never going to have blackouts. People cannot afford season tickets right now in this economy. During the losing years, you always had Green Bay and Chicago Bears fans, around 40-50% of them at those home games. Why? Because at the beginning of the year, those fans would call up and scoop up all the tickets they can. Because they could, because there wasnt a season ticket base large enough where you dont have that many single seats to choose from. Now a days, were back to the same predicament. The season ticket base has been greatly reduced, and Away teams like the Giants, Cowboys, etc can scoop up tickets in large blocks early. Will it be that way from now one? Of course not; when this economy starts to pick up a little, and when the team starts winning and develops an identity with new sports heroes like Lynch, Brooks, Sapp and Nickerson used to be, you will have a Season Ticket splurge, and a rush for buying the single game seats as soon as they go on sale. Blackouts unfortunately are going to be something that we are going to have to live with this year. Get your radios ready, because driving to Orlando wont help you; they are inside the 75 mile radius. Gainesville WILL help you. Direct TV wont; they are subject to local blackout rules too. Websites with overseas fan bases, like Paul Stewart’s www.Bucpower.com have message boards where people post the most current (and working) streams during the game. Or, you could find someone in another area to get a slingbox and watch their feed of the game! Last year, the Glazers found a loophole and got games that were not even close to selling out on the Tele. This year, they are saying they wont be able to do that. Wont, or can’t, were not sure; But can you blame them? When you have so many negative Nancys on the websites out there, you know the ones, Im not going to start it up again, and Im sure the Glazers read that trash, why would you want to if not for the real fans like us who support the team through thick and thin. Bottom line, the Radio is a great way to follow the game, Gene Deckerhoff is awesome with Dave Moore, and dont worry, because as the Bucs improve, so will attendance, so will season ticket sales, and we will be back to watching home games on our HDTVs in no time. Just in time to throw tomatoes at the Bandwagon fans who were Raheem Morris supporters all along!!!