Well, we had a short reprieve after the media stopped going crazy over Stuart Sternberg's comments about the Rays' attendance, but it looks like we're in for another round of "Who Wants to Denigrate Tampa Bay?" Since the Buccaneers didn't sell out Sunday's home game against the Saints as of 4pm this afternoon, you know what that means: another blackout.
↵After awhile, this whole attendance hoopla gets quite tiring. You'd think the media would get tired about talking about the same things over and over again, but whenever the Bucs don't sell out, they just start churning out those attendance pieces all over again. I can't wait to see who'll be the first out of the chute. ESPN? Local radio?
↵But lost in all this is the absurdity of the blackout rule; the Bucs have so far sold 55,000 tickets to this Sunday's game against the Saints. Even if it's not a sellout, that's a lot of people -- 2% of the population for the entire metropolitan area, or - to look at it yet another way - 16% of Tampa's total population. Considering the state of the local economy and the fact that the Rays and Bolts are both very competitive this season, I don't see why the NFL should be punishing the area for, you know, not having enough money.
↵If the NFL wants to discourage local fans from following the team, I'm sure the Lightning would be glad to take them.
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