It's supposed to be a perfect weekend here, with just enough of a nip in the air to turn your thoughts to football. We can only imagine what the scene would have been like at Raymond James Stadium for the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears.
Imagination is our sole option because, as we know, the Bucs and Bears will be in London this Sunday while Ray Jay will stand empty. For the second time in three years, your local NFL franchise shipped a home game across the pond.
General manager Mark Dominik told Sky Sports in Great Britain that when given the chance to make the move "we quickly grabbed it."
And since NFL international business vice president Chris Parsons said the league believes "… there is a tremendous benefit for a team to return to the U.K. on an annual basis" we can see where this thing seems to be headed.
Even if local officials wanted to fight back, the wizards who negotiated the original lease on the taxpayers' behalf (cough, cough) gave the Bucs the right to move one game a year to anywhere they want.
You can look it up – Page 39, Clause 7B.
Point of clarity: those negotiators were on our side, right?
While you're chewing on that, here's more proof the world is upside down. The Bucs actually savethe Tampa Sports Authority about $230,000 in related game-day expenses by not playing this game at Ray Jay.
Feel free to insert your own snarky joke about how much the authority would save if the Bucs moved all of their games to somewhere else, keeping in mind to be careful what you wish for.
"It's not clear cut to come down on one side or the other," county commissioner Ken Hagan said.
"Clearly, a team like Chicago sells. They travel, they stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants. We lose that economic impact, but you have to balance that with the reality of the way the lease is structured at the stadium."
Hagan, we should hasten to add, had nothing to do with the original lease "negotiations" that led to the current pickle where it's actually more cost-effective for the Bucs to not play a home game in their own stadium.
Those talks happened about 15 years ago and included, among other people, former Tampa mayor Dick Greco. I could be wrong but it doesn't seem like the word "no" was ever used.
The sports authority's position can best be summed up by director of stadium operations Mickey Farrell, who called the London move "a business decision for the Bucs."
And Hagan added, "As a fan, I think it's a loss. I think the community loses but you can't ignore the fact there will be a savings of almost a quarter-million dollars."
Fair enough. Here's my problem, though.
Hillsborough County voters agreed to raise their taxes by a half-penny in 1996 to pay for Ray Jay and a lot of other projects. We know it as the community investment tax, and I have to believe voters assumed the Bucs would play all their home games in the place you and I are paying for.
The Bears game had a good chance to sell out here, but there likely would have been thousands of Chicago fans in the house. That would have been embarrassing to the Bucs, but, as Hagan noted, it also would have meant a lot of extra money in the community.
The NFL gave the Bucs financial incentives to move, but the American viewing audience will barely notice. It's not even a national TV game, showing only throughout Florida, parts of the Midwest, the Dakotas, Arizona and New Mexico. The game between Atlanta and Detroit will reach a wider audience on Fox than the Bucs.
The Bucs will be developing a fan base in London, though. Read into that what you will.
"Honestly, there are advantages and disadvantages to this scenario. It depends what perspective you're looking at," Hagan said. "The season ticket holders lose and the community at large loses when you take away a home game from our schedule. That's why very few teams volunteer to do that."
But one team did and it's not the first time.
From the sound of things, it also might not be the last.
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