And keep in mind this vent is coming from me.... not the hugest football fan. I enjoy hanging out with my husband and dad watching games, but it's definitely not something I am passionate about.
Anyways, every single home game of the Buccaneers was blacked out (for local stations) last season. Yup. You read that right. None of the home games were aired on television. Why you ask? Because they couldn't sell out the stadium.
REALLY?! Imagine that. Times are tough. Many are without employment. Many struggle to keep a roof over their shoulders, food on the tables, and bills paid, not to mention the rising gas costs. Unfortunately that does NOT leave a lot of money left around to budget fun costly sporting events. Sure, the tickets may be super cheap right now, but what about the cost of gas, parking, concessions? yeah, it adds up!
Granted, my family IS a season ticket holder... We have two tickets to each home game. BUT, we sell many of them to "pay ourselves back". We don't technically have that money to spend on season tickets, but we've been holders for so long, my dad doesn't want to lose his seats. We branch out, pay for them, then any we sell, we pay ourselves back. So, we, if anyone, understand the financial burden.
What saddens me and angers me all at the same time is that we, the fans, are getting punished because we can't sell out the games and pack a full stadium. So, because of that, we can't even watch the game on T.V. for free at home! What is wrong with this picture?!
I feel like the ball has really been dropped here. For some, football on Sundays is a way of life... and now, here in central Florida, if it's the Bucs they are looking to watch, they are out of luck. Just doesn't seem fair.
What are your thoughts? Have you had home games blacked out for your local team if they didn't sell out?
Here's a few pics of past games I've went to. Like I said, though we are season ticket holders, we usually have to sell the tickets to "pay ourselves back" BUT I try to go and enjoy at least one game a year. My dad is attending the preseason game tonight against Miami with one of our friends. And guess what? I won't be watching it from home.... because it's blacked out.
I definitely agree that it's annoying that we can't watch Bucs games around here. By blacking out the games, they're forcing sports bars and other places to also lose money from people coming in to watch. If it keeps up I think they'll end up losing fans from lack of interest..
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