We are not New York. We are not Chicago, San Francisco, Boston or any metropolis where a parking spot is an heirloom.
Yet I say we kick Sacramento's tiny heinie.
We do not have the passion of Philadelphia. Our devotion does not run as deep as fans in Denver or, maybe, even St. Louis.
Yet Memphis can't carry our jock stats.
When it comes to sports markets, Tampa Bay is quite a few sellouts shy of impressive but a far cry from barren. Say we're unproven. Say we're front-runners. Just don't say we are less formidable than Raleigh.
That's the word spread recently by a national magazine. Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal ranked America's top sports markets and got most of the way through its AAA tour guide before arriving at Tampa Bay.
The magazine rated the 41 markets that have at least one of the four major pro sports franchises (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA). Tampa Bay was No. 37.
Never mind that Memphis has one major sports franchise and it draws less than the NBA average. It still ranks No. 19.
Never mind that Sacramento fared worse than Tampa Bay in seven of the eight categories graded. It still ranks No. 33.
Tampa Bay came in behind Columbus, Salt Lake City, Nashville and New Orleans. It trailed Raleigh, San Jose and San Antonio. Thank goodness Jacksonville (No. 40) and Orlando (No. 41) still have the lights turned on or this could have been really embarrassing.
Look, it is not easy to defend Tampa Bay. Not when the Devil Rays are 1-for-485 when it comes to sellouts. Or when the Lightning's good old days involve a cow barn and a baseball stadium.
You could point out the Bucs have a waiting list of 100,000 or so for season tickets. You might add the Lightning had the best attendance of any NHL team during the last postseason.
But this remains a market with flaws. If you didn't believe it when Tampa Bay was chasing franchises in the 1990s, you should by now. There are too many residents on fixed incomes and too few corporations with dollars to spread. Everyone, it seems, is from somewhere else and dang proud of it.
Mostly, this is a market without a history.
"When you talk about why it's not a great sports town, you have to say yet," said Lightning president Ron Campbell. "It's still fairly new as a professional sports town. You need to have a lot of good memories to get fan loyalty. You have to sustain it. That's our goal, personally. Get to the point where making the playoffs is almost a habit.
"Ultimately, the biggest issue is tradition. It just takes time."
The problem is owners no longer have time. Thirty years ago, expenses were minimal enough that attendance did not need to be spectacular and franchises could afford to grow in the community.
Consider some of baseball's past expansion teams:
Kansas City didn't draw 1-million fans for its first four seasons. Milwaukee failed in its first three. San Diego never drew more than 650,000 in any of its first five seasons.
But payrolls were under control and profits were easier to come by. Teams could keep ticket prices low and build a following.
It wasn't until salaries went through the ceiling that fan demands were raised. Now owners need lots of fans and they need them to spend fistfuls of cash. And teams can't afford to earn loyalty. They need it now.
The Rays have drawn more than 1-million fans every season for a last-place team, and still are considered a box-office bust.
Is that the fault of the market? Or is the market a reflection of the team?
Put it this way. The Bucs were once a joke and are now one of the NFL's model franchises. Raymond James has been packed from the day it opened.
Maybe it's because this is a football area. Maybe it's because the team has been here twice as long as the Rays or Lightning. Maybe it's because the Bucs have been successful of late.
Maybe it's all of the above.
"As a market, we've emerged with the Bucs and are getting there with the Lightning. We hope (the Rays) have our day soon, too," Rays senior vice president of business operations David Auker said. "But it's not overnight that a sports market is made.
"People think of great sports cities because of a title they've won. People look back at their heroes. How many people say, "I remember when,' in talking about their team? You hang your hat on those fond memories."
So how many memories are necessary to guarantee a good crowd?
Lightning general manager Jay Feaster recently criticized fans for not coming out more often. The Lightning, after all, reached the playoffs last season and has one of the best records in the league today.
But is that enough to erase a half-dozen losing seasons and a succession of penny-pinching owners? Who, exactly, owes whom?
Some cities, such as Denver, needed only to open their doors to have affluent young fans rush the turnstiles. Others, such as Boston, have a history of fan support handed down from generation to generation.
Tampa Bay is not in either class. It has neither the wealth nor the tradition.
That does not make this a bad sports market. Just an unproven one.
The truth is in the future. And in the cash register. The truth is whatever Tampa Bay fans decide it should be.
