TAMPA — It didn’t take long for the Bucs to become the hottest ticket in town.
Within the hour of multiple reports circulating that Tom Brady, the six-time Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer, was heading to Tampa Bay, the Ticketmaster website where season-ticket purchases are made became flooded.
At 7:15 p.m., roughly 35 minutes after various entities began reporting Brady to the Bucs, there were 1,366 individuals in the queue for season tickets. It took about 20 minutes to get through the queue to the main season-ticket purchasing page.
By 7:40, the number reached 2,400.
This isn’t to say that all — or any of them — actually purchased season tickets through the site, but the sudden interest in doing so is unprecedented.
The Bucs, an organization that once boasted a season-ticket waiting list of 100,000, can use the boost. They have seen attendance dip in recent years, and this past season, the Bucs ranked 30th of the 32 NFL teams with 51,898 fans a game.
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieInTheYard.