Buccaneers co-Chair Joel Glazer said yesterday at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., that the team has "seen an increase in ticket sales since the free-agency splash," during which the club committed more than $140M to WR Vincent Jackson, G Carl Nicks and CB Eric Wright, according to Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com. Glazer said, "First of all, our season-ticket holders from last year, we’ve seen the enthusiasm through the renewals. In new sales, we’ve had a great response. You just sense it in the community." Yasinskas noted that the Buccaneers have "sold out only two home games in the past two seasons" (ESPN.com, 3/27). Glazer said, "When you have a season like last season, everybody should accept responsibility, from the owner to the general manager to the head coach. No question, at the end of the season, I felt it." When asked about fans' response to signing Jackson, Nicks and Wright, Glazer said, "It's been a tremendous response. The excitement I feel when we're talking to people, the input we're getting from our season ticket holders, our fans in general, the effect it's seemed to have is the re-energizing of our fan base in the Tampa community and kind of re-engaging them with the Buccaneers." When asked if he believes some "integrity" was lost in the three seasons under coach Raheem Morris, Glazer responded, "At (Monday's) owners meeting, there was a focus group of fans brought in to talk to the owners and all of them, to a person, said one thing. And the one thing was what was important to them, was the integrity of the players, the NFL and what happens on and off the field. They pay attention. Over everything, integrity was No. 1. Sometimes, after a bad season, you have to take a step back … and look at where we're at, where we've been and what we've got to do to get back to what we really believe in and what we stand for and what we want to stand for and what the community wants us to be. And I think you're going to start to see all those things calibrate back to what the Buccaneers are all about" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 3/28).
