A Times Editorial

Secret assigned-seating factor

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 26, 2000

There is a rumor going around that the Tampa Bay Bucs are trying to improve their image. In recent weeks, the team agreed to pay its back taxes and drop defamation lawsuits against its fans. It may even allow a plaque honoring the University of South Florida football team to hang at the taxpayer-financed Raymond James Stadium.

This all is very unusual behavior. Is team owner Malcolm Glazer going soft?

We are pleased the fans who claimed they were cheated on their seating assignments at Raymond James will receive, under a settlement with the Bucs, cash credits, payments for legal fees and their choice of 50-yard line seats. Yet it's dismaying that the settlement and its accompanying gag order deprive this community of a public airing in court of charges the Bucs used "secret factors" in assigning seats at Raymond James that may have benefited VIPs and elected officials.

The county, which owns Raymond James and leases the facility to the Bucs, certainly could ask the team to explain how seating was assigned. The elected commission has shown no such interest. Maybe the best we can say is that a drama the Washington Post aptly claimed belonged on Jerry Springer has been laid to rest on, at least from the public's standpoint, less than satisfying terms.

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