The decision of the Buccaneers to drop the minimum requirement of non-premium ticket sales from 100 percent to 85 doesn’t mean that they’ll sell 85 percent of the non-premium tickets.
But at least they’re trying.
The team’s efforts to entice more people to attend games include a half-season plan for season tickets, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Red Plan includes tickets to the Titans game in the preseason and the Panthers, Redskins, Saints, and Chargers in the regular season. The Pewter Plan has tickets to the Patriots game in the preseason and the Chiefs, Falcons, Eagles, and Rams in the regular season.
So why not simply buy single-game tickets? The prices are lower if you buy in bulk -- even though 20 percent of the bulk necessarily constitutes preseason bunk.
The effort to get the stadium full (or at least 85-percent full) includes free parking in select lots for Week One and 50-percent price cuts on concessions.
Though the local economy apparently has contributed to 13 blackouts in 15 games, the reduction in the minimum from 100 to 85 percent will increase the local expectation that the one local business that definitely is recession proof will cut a check, at 34 cents on the dollar, to get to the 85-percent minimum and to in turn get the games on local TV.