“What the hell is going on around here?” is the famous quote by Vince Lombardi. He was talking about things happening on the field. We have plenty of content about that. I’m directing the quote toward everything else.
1. We all know the history of this team, some of us more than others. We know about the worst winning percentage. We know about the 26-game losing streak. We know about the double-digit years of double-digit losses. We know about waiting years for a kickoff return for a TD. We know about the decade since our last playoff appearance. We know we know.
My question is, with all that we know, why do some of you seem to take such great joy in the team’s failures? We get it. You didn’t want this player or coach. We get it—they didn’t pick the guy you wanted. But why the need to turn your ire at your fellow fan and essentially Gronk Spike it in their face? We get it—you desperately need validation.
2. The attendance issue. This is one that seems to be very complicated. There are valid points to all sides of this topic. Team success and ticket prices are the obvious topics to look at. Here again I see both sides of it. On one hand the ticket prices are comparable to the league norm. But for some that doesn’t make it affordable. These people are fans no more or no less than the ones who do go to the games and don’t deserve to be ridiculed. Friendly razzing? Sure, but not questioning their loyalty to the team. So maybe the attendance issue is more of a disposable income priority thing for the area residents.
“But wait,” you say. “Didn’t you say something about team success?” Yes, I did. That’s my issue. If you win, if you compete, they will come. It’s really as simple as that. Do I like seeing other fans in our stadium? No! Is this something that only happens to the Bucs? No, it happens to bad teams. Hell, it happens to some of the good teams. With our team having such a long streak of bad play, this is expected. It’s not acceptable, but it is a reality.
You want your stadium full of our fans. Aside from the team winning I don’t know how else to fix it. But I do know taking joy in any failure your team or one of its players has isn’t helping.
