Oracle: Where did everybody go?

[Qbanbull]

I have no clue what he is talking about I was at the sun dome yesterday around 5:30 and there was a line about 20 or so students all waiting for tickets and another line with students that already got their tickets who were waiting for tickets to the Show for tonight.

Remember the article is dated Nov. 1 and states "the other day" but not the time of day. Since people are not camping out days in advance with a line extending out to Brandon they will say it looks like a ghost town. Even though there might have been 20-30 people in line. Fox 13 went live a couple mornings from the Outfitters before the loses but not a peep since. Typical.

Ask yourself this. How many people are fans of the St. Pete Devil Rays right now? Now have the team win the World Series, yes I know...only in fantasy land, and you will see everyone wearing their mechandise.

[BrahmanBulliever]

Remember when the Bucs could not get a starving man to eat a steak but still were the biggest money making machine in the NFL. People from all over the world,yes I said world, were buying up their mechandise and this was before going to the SB.

        I don't know when you're referring to. There was the Culverhouse period which I don't recall us being one of the biggest money making maching in the NFL and then there was the Glazer era where we started making it to the playoffs on a regular basis and got a waiting list going for season tickets. A few years later Dungy is gone and we make it to a Super Bowl. The Bucs bandwagon was full before the Super Bowl year, now 1999 I'd say was when the bandwagon truly filled up.

        With that regard people still have a wait and see attitude about whether the Bulls are 'for real'. The average good time fan just isn't going to get excited about the car care bowl, they need to believe that they have a chance to win. If people really believe their team has a shot of making noise every year then they'll stick through the hard times for the eventual good times. That's why 'traditionally good performing' schools, blue chip stocks and old friends are given the benefit of the doubt in the past they've shown good results. USF's accomplishments are good for people who can see trends forming but most people are lazy and go for the safe bet, the sure thing. See dot Bomb early 2000 followed by rampant real estate speculation, everyone around the cave want's to see if Thog gets sick from riskily eating those berries before they're going to eat them.

[Qbanbull]

I heard 8,000 student tickets were gone.

I would also like to point out that I announced previously the students would be the first to jump off the bandwagon.

/sorry

//I just had to say it.

Ah come on ewerback, you don't know for certain that they were the 1st to jump off and so you shouldn't make such a broad statement like that. I doubt all the students jumped off. Can't anyone tell me if some of them jumped on board and still are with us?

Let's wait and see how many season ticket holders there are next year compared to this year. With that said, can anyone tell me how many season ticket holders there are as of today compared to other years?

[nobull.Bulls]

Thats how some fans are. But we had already gone over the student allotment for the Elon game (8,000) had it increased to 12,501 and still are almost maxing it out.

            I dont think its the students bandwagon thats fading. Its the community here in Tampa Bay who aren't filling the other 54,000 seats!

[USF Colby]

I heard 8,000 student tickets were gone.

I would also like to point out that I announced previously the students would be the first to jump off the bandwagon.

/sorry

//I just had to say it.

Of course, thats how students are. My freshman year of high school my school Dunedin was 8-0, had blown out all of their opponents and had flashy college prospect Theo Wilson at QB (who eventually failed to make it because of grades, was a junior at the time) and the stands were full it was crazy. Then we lost one game to Countryside who was developing into a county power and that was it everyone was gone.

Besides most of these students went to USF for other reasons, but the football team became the flavor of the week so everyone wanted a taste. After one loss some of them stayed, but after 2 losses their all gone and good riddance to them. Their not even going to show up to the homecoming game, they aren't worth being fans of the program.

[bullcocky101]

I don't know what the Oracle is talking about, a friend of mine went to the sundome to pick up a student ticket 2 days ago and got upper deck. So the lower bowl student section is filled.

[Qbanbull]

Remember when the Bucs could not get a starving man to eat a steak but still were the biggest money making machine in the NFL. People from all over the world,yes I said world, were buying up their mechandise and this was before going to the SB.

        I don't know when you're referring to. There was the Culverhouse period which I don't recall us being one of the biggest money making maching in the NFL and then there was the Glazer era where we started making it to the playoffs on a regular basis and got a waiting list going for season tickets. A few years later Dungy is gone and we make it to a Super Bowl. The Bucs bandwagon was full before the Super Bowl year, now 1999 I'd say was when the bandwagon truly filled up.

        With that regard people still have a wait and see attitude about whether the Bulls are 'for real'. The average good time fan just isn't going to get excited about the car care bowl, they need to believe that they have a chance to win. If people really believe their team has a shot of making noise every year then they'll stick through the hard times for the eventual good times. That's why 'traditionally good performing' schools, blue chip stocks and old friends are given the benefit of the doubt in the past they've shown good results. USF's accomplishments are good for people who can see trends forming but most people are lazy and go for the safe bet, the sure thing. See dot Bomb early 2000 followed by rampant real estate speculation, everyone around the cave want's to see if Thog gets sick from riskily eating those berries before they're going to eat them.

Yes, I am referring to the Culverhouse period. When I stated $$$ making machine, I was not referring to "butts in the seats" but more towards that they were outselling in merchandise, many if not all, other NFL teams around the world. While traveling across Europe in the early 80's everyone knew the name, Tampa Bay Buccaneer. I saw folks wearing shirts/hats and no they were not tourists. Though if you asked them if they knew what or who the Bucs were, many could not answer. They would just tell me that they loved the buccaneer. This mass marketing of the team was, IMO, the leading problem to the Bucs not making wins. The Culverhouses were/are marketing geniuses. Think about it. Get folks to go for a mediocre product yet get them to buy all the c**p they don't need in their lives and leave them wanting more. Thus putting no $$$ into buying top dollar performers.

Plus if I am not mistaken when the Bucs were sold to the Glazers, didn't they set a record for the $$$ of a NFL team? I'm sure the record has been reset since then but for that time it was huge. Huge and not even for a winning team but the Glazers knew the true...Merchandising.

I remember when Buc fans were on their knees thanking God for coach "Chucky" and now I hear folks asking for his head on a plate. Bulls going 6-0 and CJL is Coach of the Year but Bulls being 6-2 and people are asking when his contract is up. Like I said typical.

[Greg Auman]

Colby, Theo Wilson's making a campus visit this weekend and has a good shot of winding up at USF next fall. He's at Pearl River in Mississippi ...

[BrahmanBulliever]

Interesting Qban, I must've forgotten or didn't really pay attention to merchandise sales back then. Locally merchandising went through the roof with the new buccaneer's logo and look so I must've assumed that global markets were similar.

[smmitty]

Lame.  I still think the attendance is going to be good for the last two games though.

That's because they had purchased their tickets two weeks ago and now they're going to try and sell them like some have done on these message boards. It's a people try to be diehard USF fans and then turn around two weeks later and don't want to be affiliated with them because they dropped two games they could have won. It's not like they got did in 52-7.