Who doesn't love a good "Tampa Bay has no fans HURR DURR" joke? Other than everyone in Tampa Bay, who continue to have some pretty legitimate excuses for not being able to buy every available ticket to watch the three pro sports teams in town. But it might be a bit hard for lazy TV and print media hacks to spin this fact:
↵The Bucs-Colts game this Monday night is officially sold out, and Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Monday afternoon almost certainly will do the same. That's slightly over 100,000 tickets sold for the first playoff baseball game of the year, and the Bucs' first home appearance on Monday Night Football since 2003. And these are actual Tampa Bay sports fans buying all the seats. There are no Yankees fans or Red Sox fans or Eagles fans or whoever else's fans to help them do it. The Rays are facing the Rangers, who have a large following in Dallas-Fort Worth but not anywhere else, and the Bucs are playing a pathetic, Peyton Manning-less Colts team that doesn't move the ticket-buying needle at all.
↵Oh sure, you might see some empty seats at the Bucs game. But that's only going to happen if the Rays game runs long, or because there are a lot of people with tickets to both games trying to get across the bridges to Tampa. So when some idiot looks at the TV screen and tells you "HAHA EMPTY SEATS," you have the right to shove it back in their face. For one night, anyway.