The good news is that plenty of tickets are available. Operators are not only standing by, they are bored to tears.
Seats are for sale. Good seats. Cheaper seats. Upper deck. Lower bowl. Bucs tickets. Rays tickets. Lightning tickets. Buy enough tickets, and you will probably get to call your own timeouts.
On the other hand, who can afford tickets these days?
Do you know the most common sight in sports? It's the empty seat, and usually you can find it next to another empty seat. Think of it as a portrait of the fans' recession, and that of the owners' depression.
Yes, this brutal economy has roughed up sports, too.
Frankly, it might not be done yet.
Look around. If you have seen the new Yankee Stadium, that Taj Mahal of a building, you probably wondered if all of the team's fans were informed of the change of address. In Dallas, America's team still hasn't sold the naming rights to the new Cowboys Stadium. In the NBA, a dozen teams have borrowed money from the league.
Fans who used to own season tickets now go to 10 games a year. Fans who used to go to 10 now go to five. Fans who used to go to five now watch on TV.
And, meanwhile, the questions get tougher:
For the first time in a dozen years, could the Bucs actually black out home games?
After two last-place finishes, can the Lightning afford another?
And will the Rays ever get a new stadium?
In the scramble for the shrinking dollar, this is where we are. For a sports fan, the cost of loyalty has never been higher. For the sports owner, the cost of business has never been greater. There is only so much disposable income out there, especially in an area such as Tampa Bay, and there has never been more seats for sale.
Check out the Bucs. For years, it seemed that all they had to do was open the ticket window, and people would throw their credit cards inside. No more. The old waiting list for season tickets evaporated overnight. Although the team says it sold out the last two years, the Tampa Bay Sports Authority says there were 19,125 fewer fans in the stands last year than the year before, and 38,676 fewer than in 2007.
These days, you can buy a season ticket if you want. Or a half-season ticket. You can get discounts for the kids. Instead of the old 10-year plan, there are one-year, three-year and five-year plans. There are even tickets with no seat deposits required. Oh, and the Bucs didn't raise ticket prices last year.
How does that translate? It translates into "we have seats to sell.'' And the more seats there are, the more likely there are to be blackouts.
You have forgotten, haven't you? A Bucs game hasn't been blacked out locally since 1997. In other words, there has never been a blackout at Raymond James Stadium.
Across the NFL, in fact, blackouts have become rare. Over the last four years, only 38 of 1,024 games have been kept off local TV. But the real downturn in the economy came after last year's season tickets were sold. This year could be different. Other teams, too, are worried about blackouts. And as long as we're talking about the economy, isn't it easy to assume that might be a reason why the Bucs are so far under the salary cap?
The Lightning, too, is trying to be more affordable. It had better be. Last season, it drew 48,532 fewer fans than the season before, and its two-year drop-off from 2006-07 was 138,535.
This year, the Lightning is cutting ticket prices from 6 to 52 percent, depending on the seat. It is also cutting half-season tickets and 10-game packages. Of course, it would help if the team was more competitive.
Then there are the Rays, who are off to a good start at the gate. They are one of three major-league teams to have a double-digit attendance increase. In contrast, nine teams have had double-digit decreases.
"Coming from where I did, I'm very much aware of the economic realities," Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said. "I think you have to keep things as affordable as possible. You have to have value. If a fan who went to 15 games can only go to five, you hope they watch more on TV, and when they can afford to come to 15 again, you hope they do.
"Sports does have a special place in our society, but it isn't immune to economics. I really think baseball is at its best when times are hard."
Adds team president Matt Silverman: "I think hard times are when you see the separation between the teams fans feel they have a bond with and with the other teams. Fans are more discriminating."
For a sports owner, for any sports owner, this is a difficult time. It's harder to buy a team. It's harder to sell one. It's harder to get sponsors. It's harder to swallow long-term contracts. Yes, it's harder to sell tickets.
Brett Yormark, chief executive of the New Jersey Nets, put it best when speaking to the Wall Street Journal.
"We're not just competing for people's entertainment dollars anymore," Yormark said. "We're going up against milk and orange juice."
So what happens next? If the economy gets worse, expect some teams to peel back payroll. Expect better ticket package deals. Expect more to drop ticket prices.
In the battle for your wallet, after all, the competition is just getting started.
FAST FACTS
Feeling the pinch
Local teams face important issues in this economy:
BUCS: Could have first blackouts of games at Raymond James Stadium.
RAYS: Will they ever get a new stadium — anywhere?
LIGHTNING: Anyone willing to use dwindling entertainment dollars on a two-time last-place team?
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