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No one sends me text messages.
I'm not a text message kinda guy.
Got one yesterday, from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
"Buccaneers season tix on sale now! Half season pkgs, youth pkgs & payment plans avail. 877-653-2827."
The Bucs are going all-out.
The mythical 100,000-person waiting list has obviously evaporated.
Ads are everywhere.
Call up www.profootballtalk.com on your computer, and there is a masthead ad for Buccaneer season tickets on Mike Florio's heralded site, which now partners with NBC.
That's huge exposure, and no doubt doesn't come cheap.
But then, back to the text.
Reporters are curious by nature and can't help those old instincts.
Picked up my phone and dialed the number. The recorded voice welcomed me to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ticket sales department. Cued me to press "one" if I knew my party's extension, or "press two" for individual tickets, full, or half season packages, or "press three" for group ticket sales.
Selected "two."
Figured I could ask the Glazer family to owner finance for me, perhaps put 10 percent down and have them hold the balance at no interest with 24 monthly installments.
The extension started ringing, and ringing, and ringing.
After a lot of rings, thought to myself some fun might be in order.
How many rings before someone actually answered?
Set my limit at 100 rings.
It got to 20, 30, 40, blew past 50, then reached 60. Got to 70, then 80. Laughing to myself. Then 90. Would it really get to 100?
It did!
Hung up on 100 and set to figuring this out.
Let's see—the Bucs desperately WANT to sell tickets.
The ads are everywhere.
A text to me, a number, then nothing.
If you think the Bucs really need a quarterback, you can add ticket buyers to that list of needs. Otherwise, Bucs fan will be depending on the likes of Eagles fan, Cowboys fan, and Giants fan to fill the stadium and avoid a dreaded NFL television blackout for home games.
Yes, those folks will come, no doubt. The NFC East is a popular division, and there are many transplants in the Tampa Bay area.
Still, can you believe 100 rings?
Thought about the "Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld.
"No soup for you!"
Only this time the 100 rings rang out loud:
"No tickets for you!"
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