Posts Tagged → Tampa Bay
Glazers Drop Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tickets Prices By 20% to 30%
I do as many blogs on Tampa Bay as I do Manchester United these days because they are also in a pickle. The poor performances of the team during 2009 and 2010 saw attendances at their publicly owned stadium drop. From selling out every home game since 1996 when the American council house was built, they failed to sell out a single home NFL game. Not only that but all their home games were blacked out from tv as stated in the NFL rules. So far they’ve had poor performances, failed to get on TV and seen attendances drop by significant numbers. Now if United started coming 10-15th in the league for two seasons on the run after poor performances, saw attendances drop by 20,000-30,000 over night and then didn’t see a single home game on TV, it would be big world wide news. People would want answers and heads would roll. In the NFL they seem to take a lighter view as its only 4 teams in each league and its a different sport. After all that I’d say this is a victory for all those wanting the debt ridden owners to give some back. They have reduced ticket prices and not just by a couple of % some have dropped by 30%. 10,000s have mostly dropped by 20%. A 31% drop is a ticket in the East Upper In Old Trafford Dropping from £36 to just £24. That’s the sort of price drop in some areas of the stadium. Heres a list of the price drops.
- Adult Tickets
Lower row West sideline:
Last season – $85
Next season – $79
Upper West corner
Last season – $65
Next season – $52
East side upper level sideline
Last season – $85
Next season – $72
East upper level
Last season – $75
Next season – $52
East corner end zone
Last season – $99
Next season – $89
- Youth Tickets now cost $17.50 instead of $35
- Stadium Parking Is 40% Cheaper.
- Season Ticket Holders now receive 10% off all food, drinks and merchandise purchases.
- They have introduced a 10-month payment plan for season tickets.
The Glazers have also had the cheek to say ‘we’ve listened to our fans and made changes’ well they should listen up in England because we’ve been telling them from day one. You made a big mistake.
LUHG
The Glazers Don’t Do Public Until Now!
One thing every Manchester United fan will know is the Glazers don’t do publicity. That is until now. The problems this time aren’t coming from Manchester, this time its from on the other side of the pond in Tampa Bay. In the States they are more public than here but when I say more public, this is the first time this season (its ended already) the Glazers have spoken to the press and the fans publicly. There is the odd comment from behind closed doors or at private NFL events but hardly any direct speeches or interviews to the press or the fans. Bryan Glazer said… Many teams ”are happy we’re not in the playoffs because we could have done some damage,” but Bryan your not in the playoffs, you didn’t get any games on tv and you didn’t sell out once. On top of that your fans think your running the team and many of them are worried about it being sold to Eddie Debartalo. Many other NFL fans want the Glazers to sell up.
Bryan Glazer is treating the Bucs much like Chelsea or Manchester City. Over hyping what is slowly becoming below average. The Glazers have big enough problems, that they have to hype up the team publicly and for them to go that far it must be bad. With Manchester United they know this is off limits because they’ll get buried into the ground. David Gill is no longer seen by many people as more than a puppet, its hard to take him seriously unless you have the brain of a City fan. Only a fool says ‘wait and see’. This can apply to the Bucs plan of spending fuck all or Uniteds plan of we have £100m in the bank for players, but we’re not touching it via the managers ‘theres no value’ comments. Bryan would be seen like that before he opened his mouth. In America from the comments I’ve seen, Bryan Glazer could very well be their David Gill. A pointless PR spin machine, picked up by most who read the headline before they read the quotes.
The Glazers World and Everyone Else
You’d think after 5 years the Glazers would start to learn. Its not only at Manchester United but in their other assets where they have a strange way of doing things. They’ve only just started to treat their Tampa fans in the way they’ve treated Manchester United and they are starting to suffer big time. TV Blackouts, low attendances, the fans wanting to know what’s going on and do the Glazers say anything or does anyone in the NFL speak out out? No. From winning the Super Bowl and being one of the leagues most valuable clubs they now aren’t even in the top ten of NFL teams. You could say they’ve gone from being Arsenal or Chelsea of the NFL world to being the current Blackburn Rovers. So no wonder their fans are complaining and this mainly comes from lack of investment. Where have we heard that before? They’ve stopped investing in Tampa Bay once it was successful and the did the same thing once Manchester United won the Champions League. You could say Tampa Bay are what Manchester United could become in 3 to 4 seasons time. Being on TV less, less successful on the pitch, less fans buying tickets and less investment in the team. All 4 can be said to be happening at both teams now. That’s very worrying.
The problem I see is how can two very pubic and well known sporting teams be so quiet. The media and the fans want answers and it doesn’t matter what David Gill or anyone else says. If they keep treating the fans and the club like they are, they won’t get anywhere. They don’t talk to the fans and that’s one of their biggest problems. They have no respect for anyone. They aren’t very clever at PR either. They use CES in the ground, then try and keep any Green and Gold off the MUFC website but produce headlines like this “So how did the Glazers raise the money to pay off a £220m loan?” Then get David Gill to come out after every big story. Hes become that crap with his stories the English Media seemed to have totally ignored him. What PR they had left to anyone with a brain has gone. If you think this debt has been paid off and its a done deal, end of story, No more debt. Seriously go and see a head doctor. If they had used their own cash, they would have got it over every back page newspaper for a week.