Tampa, Florida					Monday, September 06, 2010

ANOTHER COUP FOR TAMPA TOWN
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
TAMPA--So isn’t it about time now to get off the backs of the Glazers? Malcolm Glazer and sons Joel, Bryan, and Ed, Ed to a lesser degree for he hasn’t been bad-mouthed that much—and the mother, Linda, always above the flap. So many have rapped these owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for all manner of reasons, why, even wondering at what may lay sinister beneath billionaire Malcolm Glazer’s bold overseas successful takeover of the Manchester United Soccer Club, the world’s best known sports franchise, is a claim. So what does Malcolm do? He buys the team and may well take it public, and a better product as well. Then, the next thing we know Malcolm is seen on television joining sons Joel and Bryan at the NFL owners’ meeting where I am a sonofagun if he and his boys don’t win the NFL bid for the 2009 Super Bowl to be played in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Tampa was in the bidding, some thought barely, for the 2009 Super Bowl, along with favored Atlanta and Houston and token entry Miami. Few gave Tampa much of a shot, except those on the committee notably Tampa civic leader and businessman Dick Beard, including the Glazers, who said they’d give it their best shot and they were working hard. Yet, at a press conference called by Beard two weeks ago, no family member showed up. Those of us who know them well, know they had a more important agenda that day. And in truth, little happened. They sent word saying the Tampa bid was good and they were working on it. Yet, some among us, chose again to berate them again for the “snub.’’ Of course, the criticisms drew no response from any of the family, except those who needed to be, were in Washington Wednesday and pushed some of the buttons that got Tampa a fourth Super Bowl. Now that’s a big deal, not their missing a meeting leading to the important meeting. Chairman Beard, a patient and understanding man and his co-leader, Paul Catoe of the Tampa tourist and convention board knew what was going on, that these Glazers so easy to criticize were carrying their share of the load. Now we all know what the owners concluded – Tampa was the only choice. Atlanta had to vastly improve its stadium. The last Super Bowl there was during a ice storm, and ex-Buc General Manager Rich McKay, now at Atlanta, probably overestimated their chances- as did Houston. But, remember, Houston hosted the Super Bowl last year. Houston will get one down the line. Atlanta may now. Too many assigned or promised for new stadiums. Which gets us back to the Glazers. Remember, a decade ago, the owning Joy (Mrs. Hugh) Culverhouse sold the team to the little known Malcolm Glazer family of Palm Beach for a shocking $193,000 million, a record at the time. It was Sixty million-plus more than more popular bidders offered. They flat said they had to have	a new playing field to replace Tampa Stadium, or they’d take the team to Baltimore. And, they would have. They bought the team, under such a threat, and got the new stadium, Raymond James, some believe the best, most functional in the NFL. And, it cost only $160 million, built with money from a bond election that provided money, also for roads and schools. Passed by a solid margin. The glistening new stadium was finished in Tampa and now will host another Super Bowl, in 2009. And since, has hosted the Bucs and the Glazers hired a new coach,Jon Gruden, to build a team quickly, and he did. Gruden, a fireball coach from Oakland, but who grew up in Tampa, used retread Brad Johnson to quarterback his team to an unlikely 48-21 Super Bowl win over Oakland in San Diego. Yipes! Those Glazers, got to bad-mouth them some more, eh? Well, they had not built the new training headquarters and offices as they said they would. And never talked about it much, taking the Bucs to Disney World (for a deal) to pre-season train, and will again this off July and August l. But. . . they have bought the old shopping mall northeast, are tearing it down now and will build their offices, fields, and whatever may be a good investment there too. It will be another promise kept—given time. Meanwhile, the team has played far better, save for the last half of the 2004-05 season and the coach has taken knocks for it. He has made wholesale trades and is counting on this 2005 season to be one of revival. You can bet, the Glazers expect better. It should be a exclamation point to that desire this successful push of the Glazers to win this Super Bowl—2009. Also, along the way, the owners have not been pikers in the search for and signing of talent. So, this little town of ours that dared dream in the late 1970s of building a stadium, then another, to start a college bowl game, the Outback Bowl, that Jim McVay has made a big one, that dared go for a NFL team and win the Bucs, and four—FOUR!—Super Bowls, and win them, now that fourth, it is a tribute to each of you out there, the bigs and the littles, that this has happened and kept on happening. Along the way always be grateful for Tampa Mayors like Dick Greco, Sandy Freeman, Pam Iorio (current), Commissioners like Jim Norman (current), Cato, civic leaders like Dick Beard, Barney Barnett, Al Austin, Chris Sullivan, Bob Basham, Ron Campbell, so many more, including a few who have been in on all the pursuits, like Leonard Levy. But, that’s not the point of this. The point is, hey, give the Glazers some credit, cut them some slack, get off their backs. Malcolm G. did not become a billionaire being a bearded guy who used to sell watches from store to store in upstate New York and even then wore his trousers too high. ##
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