Mandatory Credit: Matt Stamey-US PRESSWIRE
Loser: Raymond James Stadium
This one can really go either way, but the fact of the matter remains the stadium was five people away from being a ghost town. It got electric at times, but the intensity was nowhere near where it needed to be. You look around the NFL and fans packed those stadiums, ready to get back to football, but not in Tampa. Look, I get it the economic times are rough and there’s really no way around that. It sucks that people can’t afford tickets and for those who are pinching pennies as it is, I don’t blame them for not jumping at the chance to spend $200 at a football game. But seeing the Bucs win in front of a half empty stadium really sucked a lot of the fun out of the win — not all of it but it was a gut check. The Bucs are getting better and when fans see that the product on the field is actually worth paying to see live, the stadium will fill up. Maybe it’s been all the looking back at the 2002 Super Bowl I’ve been doing, but the Ray J used be banging, and now you can hear the banging from the concession stands. I don’t blame Bucs fans for not valuing the product on the field over necessities in life, but it’d still be nice to see the cheap seats fill up and get the noise level back at Raymond James Stadium.