'It's like leasing a car,' sort of

There's probably no truth to the rumor the Bucs are bringing in fans who did not renew their season tickets and having them walk the plank on the pirate ship at one end of Raymond James Stadium during halftime shows.

But I'm not sure. The home preseason games were blacked out on TV, so who knows what's going on.

A collection agency is going after those non-renewers, urging them to cough up for the tickets they didn't want to buy.

Aaron Babcock is one of those people. In recent years he has shelled out for six season tickets and three parking passes for use by his company.

"Many businesses such as ours," he says, "literally cannot afford to continue purchasing football tickets when employees are taking pay cuts, been moved to part-time positions, and all company sponsored social functions are on hold."

Makes sense to me. Babcock said he knew he would lose his deposit on the season tickets. Then, he says, the calls began about renewing and being late with payments.

"I told them four or five times I was not renewing," he said. "Sent them e-mails."

That's when the letter came from the collection agency saying he owed the Bucs money and to pay up.

Arrrgh, matey!

That's not exactly the way the Bucs see it. Jonathan Grella, the team's director of communications, says more exclusive seats have 10-year contracts. "It's like leasing a car," he says.

The Bucs put out a statement on the Babcock matter that reads, in part: "We appreciate how current economic circumstances have adversely affected members of our ticket base, including businesses. The overwhelming majority of seats don't require contracts or deposits. The company signed a contract, not unlike a car lease to secure 6 club seats for the long term. ... We offered economic relief with alternative seating, which was declined."

We aren't talking about chump change, either. I don't know how many of you have season tickets, especially at the club level, but it's not cheap, even for the privilege of sitting through a Buccaneers game.

Hot dogs not included

Babcock's six season tickets and three parking spaces come to $23,250. Multiply that by 10 years, seat license costs and sunscreen. Whoa!

Of course, for 23-thousand-plus bucks you get to sit through an entire season of these guys, although I don't think that includes hot dogs.

"Well, we bought a suite a few years ago," Babcock says, "but gave that up for the club level seats. I knew when we had to give these up I was going to have to eat the deposit that was in the contract. The salespeople at the time of purchase explained that when we bought them. But nobody said anything about going to a collection agency for the balance after we said we did not want to renew. Is this happening to other people?"

Sounds like the Bucs are right if they do have a contract. You can't just decide to drop out in mid-deal. It also seems the Bucs have tried to work out an arrangement.

On the other hand, I would be real careful with the fans around here. I see a lot of empty seats at a stadium where not too long ago there was a billboard outside talking about a waiting list of thousands. That billboard is gone.