Bucs will not get a larger share of ticket allotment despite playing in their home stadiumGETTY IMAGES
The Buccaneers will be the first team to play the Super Bowl in their home stadium, but with only approximately 22,000 fans allowed, the "number of tickets available to the fan bases of participating teams will be reduced," according to Lindsay Jones of THE ATHLETIC. Of the 22,000 fans, 14,500 will be in paid attendance. The Bucs "won’t get a larger share of the tickets even though they’re playing at home." Still, it "would be reasonable to expect a heavy pro-Bucs presence in the stadium." That "won’t come cheap," though, and "even then it won’t feel like a typical home game." The NFC already was scheduled to be the home team in the game, which means the Bucs "should expect to be able to use their normal home locker room and their home sideline at Raymond James Stadium." The week before the game "will also be somewhat normal." The Bucs "will practice at their home facility and will be allowed to sleep at home, plus they won’t have to deal with many of the stresses of coordinating travel and Super Bowl accommodations for family and friends." The Bucs thus "will get some of the comforts of home." But this is "still a neutral-site game," and the NFL still is "trying to figure out how the pirate ship at Raymond James Stadium will be used" (THEATHLETIC.com, 1/24).
TERRIFIC TOM: In Orlando, Mike Bianchi writes by virtue of his record six Super Bowl wins, Tom Brady was "already the GOAT -- Greatest of All Time -- but what he has done to resurrect the Bucs has made him the greatest GOAT in the history of American team sports." The Buccaneers "hadn’t made the playoffs in 13 seasons and hadn’t actually won a playoff game in two decades -- until Brady gambled on the Bucs and the Bucs gambled on Brady." That is the "power and persona of Brady." He "can turn a stupor bowl franchise into a Super Bowl franchise." He "can even transform normal, everyday people who had no interest in football into rabid Buccaneers fans" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 1/25). In Tampa, Rick Stroud notes it is an "amazing time to be a Tampa Bay sports fan." In the same season, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup, the Rays appeared in the World Series, and now the Bucs are in the Super Bowl (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 1/25).
