Is The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ownership Looking For A New Stadium?

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The Glazer family is saying nothing but a Tampa Bay Times reporter laid out a case for a new or renovated facility.

There are just some days in the newsroom when nothing much is going on that a reporter starts thinking. What if I write something just out of the blue about an aging stadium and the need to do something about a 26-year-old facility that does not cut it anymore. That apparently is what happened with a story in the Tampa Bay Times. A writer decided that it might be time for either a major renovation of the present stadium or maybe an entirely new stadium for the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Glazer family ownership. Whether the writer thought the notion by himself or if someone from the Glazer family planted the story as a trial balloon is not known. But the story is out there.

Publicly, the Buccaneers’ ownership has said nothing about the stadium but the Tampa Bay Times did reach out to people who presumably would be sitting at a negotiating table with the Glazers to do something about the stadium that is getting older by the day and does not have the ability to compete with newer stadiums in say Inglewood, California or maybe Orchard Park, New York or Nashville, Tennessee. “Even after repeated requests from the Sports Authority for information, the Buccaneers have still not provided us with any renovation plans,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan told the Tampa Bay Times. According to the newspaper, City of Tampa spokesperson Adam Smith said the Bucs “haven’t approached the City about anything like that,” adding, “We don’t expect them to.” Asked if the Bucs have approached Tampa Sports Authority with any requests, board member Joe Robinson said, “not to my knowledge.” The Tampa Bay Times story continues with the question of how to finance a stadium renovation or building a new facility altogether. The Tampa stadium game is about ready to kickoff.

Tampa stadium

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com