Why are so many people around here fans since '96?

[jsunm73]

tell ya what brothers.i have been a fan since 1977.when i was 4 years old.i even have a pic fron when i was 8 wearing my brand new doug williams jersey that i got for christmas that year.so bandwagon that man.i was a fan when they sucked back then and will continue to be a fan no matter how bad it gets.besides what's my alternative here in illinois.the bears?forget that. i would rather live without pro ball then root from any pro team from chicago.so anyone who wants to question my loyalty then go for it man.

[mjs020294]

I'm not sure there has ever been a team that sucked as bad as ours for as long as our team sucked.   So we are a bit unique.   We had so few fans during the lean years, it was pathetic.   

Two things usually dictate a fan base; demographics and success.  Tampa happened to have a major change in both over the last ten years.  The population in the west-central Florida has been rising at around 100,000 a year since 1990, so we have an extra 1.5 million potential fans. 

The increase in population coincided with the beginning of a more successful era for the Bucs, so more people started watching/following them.  More exposure and an extra 1.5 million people = a huge increase in the fan base. 

[JavaBuc]

For the young guys, they have an excuse that they were too young to be fans back in the orange days.    So there's no way to gauge whether they would be in it for the long haul or not on an individual basis.    But for the people who were old enough to be fans in the old days, I've always thought a good gauge of whether someone was a fan back then was whether they had ever been to a fan fest prior to the Bucs starting to win in 1997.    I think you'll find there were very few people who attended those fan fests prior to the start of the winning.   And it was free!   Now that thing's so damn crowded, it's a joke.  

While it's true that it doesn't matter if someone jumped on the bandwagon recently or has been a fan since the start, I do think the only reason the Bucs have so many fans right now is that they've been winning for the past 10 years or so.    If the Bucs went 5 years of 4-12, the season ticket base would be back to 40,000 and most Tampa residents would be fans of whatever team was winning at the time.   But as soon as the Bucs started winning again, they would be Buc fans again and claiming - "I've been a Buc fan since day one".   LOL!

[JavaBuc]

I'm not sure there has ever been a team that sucked as bad as ours for as long as our team sucked.   So we are a bit unique.   We had so few fans during the lean years, it was pathetic.   

Two things usually dictate a fan base; demographics and success.  Tampa happened to have a major change in both over the last ten years.  The population in the west-central Florida has been rising at around 100,000 a year since 1990, so we have an extra 1.5 million potential fans. 

The increase in population coincided with the beginning of a more successful era for the Bucs, so more people started watching/following them.  More exposure and an extra 1.5 million people = a huge increase in the fan base. 

The increase in population is true.   However, I don't think you can relate to what us long time fans are talking about here.   If you talk to any Tampa resident now, the vast majority will tell you they are a Buc fan.    I bet if you asked 100 Tampa residents, at least 70 of them would tell you they are a Buc fan.     The fact that the population has increased alot does increase the fan base.    But back in the old days, if you asked the average Tampa resident if they were a Buc fan, most of them would have told you that the Bucs suck and they would never support that sorry team.    My guess is that maybe 1 out of 100 would have admitted to being a Buc fan.    So even with a large population, the team would not have been well supported.    I think maybe you'd have had to live here at that time to believe the attitude of the Tampa citizens back then.   

I was shocked that we didn't lose the team when they wanted that new stadium.  Luckily that corresponded with the team starting to win.    When they changed their uniforms, that brought an onslaught of new fans as well since we didn't have the "gay looking" Bucco Bruce anymore.    Instead we were now a "bad ass" team because we had red and pewter with a skeleton head on the helmet.      The new stadium coming the next year after a uniform change and playoff season was quite key to locking in a sold out stadium.     That was absolute perfect timing.   Then the Bucs started winning every year and the ball just kept rolling.   

I do believe though that if Hugh Culverhouse were still alive today and running the Bucs, things would be much different today.       It's all based on whether the team wins or not.   

The good news right now is for the people on the season ticket wait list.    You are going to be able to get your tickets for the start of next season, I have little doubt about that.    The question is, will the people on the season ticket wait list still want their season tickets?


Since I recently had the chance to visit Tampa again, I must say I'm disgusted with the traffic in Tampa now.   Seems the Bucs bandwagon isn't the only one that loaded up.   The moving to Florida bandwagon also loaded up.     

But if the Bucs keep playing like they have, that extra population just gives us more people to tell me "Bucs suck" when we are losing.

[ToddyBuc]

I was born here in Tampa in (cough) 1973 so I was a youngun when the Bucs made it to the Championship game in 79. Still, I remember growing up with the Bucs. Bucs and Gators football was all I had ever known (with the exception of the Bandits in the 80's). I remember James Wilder, Jimmie Giles, Kevin House. The Batman. I went to my first Bucs game in 1977...the final home game of the Season. My only memory of that game were the Bucs fans tearing down the goal post after the team got their first home win.

I was a Bucs fan and wore the Orange proudly when all my friends were Dolphins, 49ers, and Cowboy fans. Every year I went into the season believing, "This is it...this is the year." and then discovered...it wasn't. That all changed in 96 when a mild mannered defensive coordinator from Minnesota became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I liked him from the start. He was no-nonsense. So much better than the crazy goofiness of Sam Wyche.

I remember going to the season opener in 1996, hoping the Bucs could find a way to pull out a win and get folks behind the stadium referendum that was coming the week after. The Bucs future in Tampa Bay rested on that vote. They lost 34-0....and I remember shedding a tear and wondering who would be my pro football team when the Bucs, my Bucs, are gone.

It was a dark time, that year. Still, the stadium vote was passed, the Bucs stayed, Tony Dungy provided stability to the the franchise and in 1997...my dream of season the Bucs in the playoffs for the first time since 1982 came true.

I feel bad for the fans that missed out on that. I know that sounds crazy. For me though, when I saw Jon Gruden lift that Super Bowl trophy over his head, when I saw Derrick Brooks weeping, when I saw my Bucs, my lowly, god awful, Bucs win the Super Bowl - the ultimate prize in Sports, it made all the years of belief, all the years of ridicule, suffering, and dissapointment worth it. It was my vindication.

I will always love Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden for that moment.

One thing we Buccaneer fans forget is the natural makeup of our community. We are a transient metropolitan area. Not many of us are from Tampa. Usually someone is from somewhere else. They have their old ties to their old teams that's hard to break - especially when the home team sucks.

Ask yourself this....if you were to move away from Tampa Bay and live in say Arizona....would you drop the Bucs and become a Cardinals fan? I've asked myself that question a dozen times. The answer, absolutely not. I'd root for the Cardinals to do well and I probably would go to a few games and if they ever got good, sure, I'd probably be swept up in the uphoria of the community...but the Buccaneers would always be #1 in my heart. NFL Sunday Ticket was created for misplaced fans.

So yeah, 1997...96....for transient fans from other places that was the first time the Bucs ever game them a need to watch. I don't hold that against those fans. Hell, I'm glad their here. Even if they weren't in the stands with me at the Old Sombrero with the other 30,000 faithfuls when you left Two tickets on your the windshield before the game and when you came back, there were four. Even if they "jumped on the bandwagon", I'm glad. Its because of them that we still have a team in Tampa Bay. Its because of them the Glazers feel its in their best interests to pay the big bucks to keep our players here or sign new players to make our team competitive. Its because of them we've sold out every game since the inception of Raymond James Stadium.

96 is ten years invested into the football team. I think you can shed the "bandwagon" label if you've stuck around that long and you're still here even with the football team at 2-6

I love this opinion, you are right on the money totally..  Also a fan since McDonald's-1976 came out with bumper stickers for the cars ,saying the Bucs are coming.. 

I have been to 8 cities to see them play.. We might be down now, but we will bounce back and damn glad I have my season tickets..

[original]

You just dont get it "Original" Buc fan.   You talk about labels people throw around, and your own name is "original" Buc fan in reference to how long you have been a Buc fan.  Its some kind of status symbol to some of you that you have been around.  Its like in the movie "Escape from Alcatraz" where the higher up you sit on the steps the higher your status is.   You guys all want to prove that you are the most hardcore in the Buc fan prison so you can have a higher seat on the steps. 

Thats not being a fan. If you are going to be a fan then just be a fan. Get it?

And who is McIrish?

See this is where you are wrong.  I do get it, your off base.  My Screen name was a college nickname, so I used it to see if any of my friends post here.  When I went to college Orlando back in 92, I was the only Buc fan in my group of friends.  They were all fans of teams from all over since they came from all over.  When the bucs started winning, some of them jumped on the bandwagon and they started calling me Original since I was the 1st of the group who was a fan.  It has nothing to do with claiming anything here about my fanhood.  I realy could't care how long someone is a fan, if they are here, great.  What I do dislike is the constant put down of others who feel they have the right to judge other fans who they don't know.  Answering your question, McIrish is the intetnet bully on the TBBBB, he makes comments much like you about being a "RealFan".

[cheveliar]

Everyone comes to a team at different times and different ways. If people were bandwagon they'd have been gone by now. The fact that they're still here tells you they aren't on the bandwagon.

Stop trying to make yourself feel special because you root for a football team.

LOL

I'd call that a half truth.  As you can tell from our little microcosm some people just like to complain, no matter what the topic is.  Anything to be negative...

[doobiedoright]

For the young guys, they have an excuse that they were too young to be fans back in the orange days.    So there's no way to gauge whether they would be in it for the long haul or not on an individual basis.    But for the people who were old enough to be fans in the old days, I've always thought a good gauge of whether someone was a fan back then was whether they had ever been to a fan fest prior to the Bucs starting to win in 1997.    I think you'll find there were very few people who attended those fan fests prior to the start of the winning.   And it was free!   Now that thing's so damn crowded, it's a joke. 

While it's true that it doesn't matter if someone jumped on the bandwagon recently or has been a fan since the start, I do think the only reason the Bucs have so many fans right now is that they've been winning for the past 10 years or so.    If the Bucs went 5 years of 4-12, the season ticket base would be back to 40,000 and most Tampa residents would be fans of whatever team was winning at the time.   But as soon as the Bucs started winning again, they would be Buc fans again and claiming - "I've been a Buc fan since day one".   LOL!

Hey lava you rember the pep rallies they use to hold in the malls?
Man that was some great stuff,bvand marching,cheerleaders cheering and then the coachs and players ...they should start that again!

[JavaBuc]

I feel bad for the fans that missed out on that. I know that sounds crazy. For me though, when I saw Jon Gruden lift that Super Bowl trophy over his head, when I saw Derrick Brooks weeping, when I saw my Bucs, my lowly, god awful, Bucs win the Super Bowl - the ultimate prize in Sports, it made all the years of belief, all the years of ridicule, suffering, and dissapointment worth it. It was my vindication.

Yep.   The feeling was unbelievable.   

I do agree that the bandwagon fans are the ones who most helped keep the team in Tampa.   They were the only ones crazy enough to pay over $250 for a ticket to a single game since if they didn't do that, their seats would have sucked.   The long time season ticket holders already had pretty good seats and didnt need to spend that kind of money to get good seats.

I do remember those old pep rallies, but I dont think they should bring them back.    There would be so many people at them now, it just wouldnt be practical.

[alstott40]

I payed $500.00 for two seats at a charger bucs game... bucs hardly come to CA so it was a small price to pay. they were good seats right between the 40 and 50 yardline and right down the stairs was a beer stand. Was fun

[SeedOfChucky33]

I became a fan in 99'. I was 9 years old. Does that make me a bandwagoner?

Doesnt matter whether you were or werent a bandwagon fan. Question is, were you living in Tampa and a fan of another football team when the BUcs were bad and did you joke on Bucs fans?

[boredomkills01]

been a bucs fan since I could comprehend football... I remember watching the old orange jerseys get stomped.... I also remember my dad teaching me to throw the ball and whenever I threw a bad one he called it a dilfer pass... Lol

We used to go to the Bears/bucs games In the old sombrero... That was great stuff.

Its the Same for the Lightning nowadays... I have been a bolts fan since like 95... once they moved to the "ice palace" more fans arrived but that soon died off... Then They made the playoffs.... After that year I remember there being quite a few more fans at the games but still not too many....

Now after they won the stanley cup, you cant even get the glass during warm-ups anymore unless you get there like 45 mins early...

Tampa sports fans are some of the worst bandwaggoners in the nation.... Because most of them moved here....

Tampa sports fans are some of the worst bandwaggoners in the nation.... Because most of them moved here..

Bingo!!!!  Ding ding ding....we have a winner!!!!!

And due to those transplants, the rest of us are stuck here amidst them.

i lucked out.. i moved here in 95-96 right as soon as they were getting good. i haven't looked back since and am a fan for life now.

i grew up a cleveland fan so i know all about having losing season after season...