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NFL 2012 Week 1 |OT| A New Hope

L

Levyne

Banned
Yeah the picks done in the thread I feel are often just more to get a sense of the gaf consensus on the predictions, should it exist. Double checking to make sure I've picked in all the yahoo stuff.
 
B

Bowser

Member
Khold said:
Yeah the picks done in the thread I feel are often just more to get a sense of the gaf consensus on the predictions, should it exist. Double checking to make sure I've picked in all the yahoo stuff.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I feel like people's picks on GAF and in the Pick 'Em leagues differ, which is just odd.
 
N

Newton Crosby

Banned
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489878
XDvAa.jpg
 
G

gutshot

Member
Khold said:
Yeah the picks done in the thread I feel are often just more to get a sense of the gaf consensus on the predictions, should it exist. Double checking to make sure I've picked in all the yahoo stuff.
Click to expand...

I really don't get the listing of picks in the thread. No one is tracking it, so why are you listing them?

One year I decided to track them all. It was time-consuming, to say the least.
 
B

Bowser

Member
gutshot said:
I really don't get the listing of picks in the thread. No one is tracking it, so why are you listing them?

One year I decided to track them all. It was exhausting, to say the least.
Click to expand...

Just for the hell of it, really. If you don't list them in the thread how can people ridicule your picks before the games?
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
Vire said:
Oh, I'd love for it to happen just to hear the sports talk radio here.

790 The Ticket would be glorious.
Click to expand...

Does Miami even care about the Dolphins? They're terrible (unless Tannehill gets hurt Week 1) and the Heat's season opener is mere weeks away.
 
Vire

Vire

Member
Gigglepoo said:
Does Miami even care about the Dolphins? They're terrible (unless Tannehill gets hurt Week 1) and the Heat's season opener is mere weeks away.
Click to expand...

Well they are the topic of discussion right now down here. They have this reoccurring segment called "Misery Loves Company", where everyone complains about how bad the Dolphins look. With Hard Knocks, they also had a bit more to talk about than usual (Most of it, just criticizing Jeff Ireland and Joe Philbin). But yeah once the Heat opener kicks in, Im sure the Dolphins will be a thing of the past.
 
M

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
Joining the pickem this year.

Hate to be that guy, but on the fantasy front anybody with Nicks? Starting him tonight? What do you think Giants fans?
 
R

RBH

Member
J.C. De La Torre was all but out.

A Tampa Bay Buccaneers season ticket holder since 1998, De La Torre grew more and more frustrated watching the Bucs mail it in last season. Just as importantly, he said, it felt like the team was taking its dwindling fan base for granted.

"I was just really fed up with the organization and the direction they were going," said De La Torre, 39. "The fan experience had gotten kind of stale. With the stadium half empty and the team not performing on the field, it was one of those things where it just wasn't fun anymore."

Every year, more fans seem to agree. The Bucs drew 56,614 fans per home game in 2011, down from 65,316 in 2007. It's reflective of an NFL-wide trend — attendance as a whole is down 4.5 percent from 2007 to 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal — but Bucs fans feel it more acutely than most. Due to the NFL's attendance-governed blackout rules, six of the Bucs' home games last year were blacked out on local television. All eight regular-season home games were blacked out in 2010.

Now, under new head coach Greg Schiano, the Bucs have two goals this season: (1) Make the playoffs, and (2) win back fans like De La Torre.

It started this off-season, when the team laid out an incentive-laden package for season ticket holders. De La Torre, an IT worker from Wesley Chapel who writes about the team on BucsNation.com, says he received everything from VIP access during training camp to discounts on tickets, merchandise and food and drink. They even threw in a free Buccaneers flag.

"It kind of proved to the fan base that they actually did care," he said. "They're trying their best."

• • •

Football is the alpha and omega of American professional sports, the most talked-about, over-analyzed and indisputably popular autumn pastime in all the land. But it's no mystery why league attendance has been on a downswing.

In 2011, it cost an average of $378.28 for a family of four to attend a Buccaneers game (along with food, drinks and souvenirs), according to industry analysts Team Marketing Report. That's well below the league average of more than $427, but it still ain't cheap — especially when it costs virtually nothing to watch the same game in high definition, while surfing the web and eating whatever you like, from the air-conditioned comfort of your couch. (De La Torre, for example, is frequently tempted to stay home and watch games on his 106-inch home theater.)

The Bucs can count on a solid 35,000 diehard fans to come out to every game, no matter what. It's those next 25,000 casual fans they now need to reach.

How are they doing it? By getting creative with ticket prices, technology and more at Raymond James Stadium. Among the new features fans can expect in 2012:

For the opener, an all-out blitz. The Bucs have gone all-out to try to ensure Sunday's opener against the Carolina Panthers is a sellout. They'll offer free parking and half-price concessions (excluding alcohol), along with certain tickets discounted to $30 and $15 (for kids). It'll also be the 200th consecutive start by cornerback Ronde Barber, a milestone the Bucs will honor with a free gym sack giveaway.

Fewer blackouts. Well, hopefully fewer blackouts. In the past, the Bucs had to sell 100 percent of their non-premium tickets in order to prevent a home game from being blacked out. This season, they and a few other teams have lowered that threshold to 85 percent. However, this week, they were still short of meeting that goal for Sunday's home opener. At press time it had not been decided whether the game would be blacked out.

Wireless Internet. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has announced plans to outfit every NFL stadium with free Wi-Fi by the 2013-14 season. The Bucs are jumping on the bandwagon early, offering free wireless Internet at RayJay starting this year. If you're logged onto the RayJay Wi-Fi network, you can use the official Buccaneers app to "view live streaming feeds of the game from multiple camera angles." Want to keep tabs on the rest of the league? Verizon subscribers with the NFL Mobile app can stream the NFL RedZone channel on game days.

More replays. The team brought in a Super Bowl-caliber production company to man its new replay system, featuring more cameras installed around the field so fans can get a better view of what just happened. And for the first time, the stadium's big screen will show the same "under the hood" replays that referees see on sideline monitors during challenges.

A mini-Gasparilla at each game. In a city that loves pirate parades, this almost makes too much sense. Prior to each home kickoff, the team will send a "Bucsparilla" float through RayJay tailgate areas. Look for mascot Captain Fear and his cronies to toss beads and other goodies to fans.

More customer service. The team is adding dozens of staffers around Raymond James Stadium, and adding new guest relations stations in Quads A and C. Additionally, the club level will open an hour earlier and close an hour later than in 2011.

A new social media strategy. The Bucs turned to Portland, Ore.'s Mutt Industries, which has roots in the uber-hip advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy, to create a slick new social network called "It's a Bucs Life" (itsabucslife.com). The site allows fans to cluster together in "krewes," share photos and video on Twitter and Instagram, read stories and blog posts from both fans and the team, and more. It's a Bucs Life has only been around a few weeks, but there are already more than 30 krewes hailing from places like Valrico, Safety Harbor, Polk County, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.

Chris Pribbenow was among the first to join from Atlanta's 800-member-strong ATL Bucs fan club. "If it can get anybody from all over the world to bring us all together and get a big, strong fan following," Pribbenow said, "that's what we need."

De La Torre, for one, is excited by the changes he's seen so far. Re-energizing the Bucs' fan base may come down to wins and losses, he said, but all of these little touches are adding up.

"If they continue on this path, I think we'll come back," he said.
Click to expand...
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/foot...ack-nfl-fans-at-raymond-james-stadium/1249845
 
W

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Wow. Wife just reminded me I canceled our cable after the season concluded last year. Well, the PS3 still has that Sunday Ticket deal, right?
 
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