Fishhead, I figured youd be the perfect guy to ask this question to. Now that the Lightning are doing this well and going far into the playoffs, has the city of Tampa Bay gone crazy now for hockey and its team, or is it still a dead city for hockey. IOW, are people everywhere talking hockey now on the streets. Has the city of TB fallen in love with our Canadian sport, or not really. I would love to know if our national sport has taken off now in TB because of this run, or do people generally still dont care about hockey there. Please tell me the city of TB has gone hockey mad, with this tremendously exciting team they now have. Thanks..
Just look at them fans.
Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore endures the celebration of Lightning fans after Vinny Lecavalier's first-period goal.
Tampa Tribune - VINNY VINNY.
Lightning forward Vinny Lecavalier is congratulated by teammates after scoring with 2.4 second remaining in the second period. It was Lecavalier's second goal of the game and fourth of the series.
wil.
Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore endures the celebration of Lightning fans after Vinny Lecavalier's first-period goal.
Tampa Tribune - VINNY VINNY.
Lightning forward Vinny Lecavalier is congratulated by teammates after scoring with 2.4 second remaining in the second period. It was Lecavalier's second goal of the game and fourth of the series.
wil.
Sick-
Thanks for asking sir.
The city of Tampa actually has quite a large core of Lightning diehard fans.
Last year, with the Lightning getting to the second round of the playoffs, the city gained some new fans.
However, let me tell you, the MAJORITY of the citizens of Tampa do not really care about the Ligntning unfortuaely.
An example of this would be evident if you went to my favorite watering hole here in Tampa which is one of the TOP sports bars in the city. In the last week of the season when the Bolts were battling for the Presidents Trophy, I had to demand the game be put on the big screen and virtually NOBODY was watching the game before that.
This city is a BUCS city through and through.
But like I said, there are a ton of rabid Bolts fan throughout the city and the people are definetly more jacked up for the playoffs more so than last year.
If the Lightning could somehow manage to make it to the STANLEY CUP Finals, it would really turn alot of people on.... not just to the Bolts, but hockey in general.
To bad the season is up in the air next year.
But it really gets my gonads if I am at the bar watching the Bolts in a playoff game and there are people not watching the game.
There are many transplanted citizens down here that are huge fans of other teams........the FLYERS in particular, that just cant give the Bolts their full support.
Thanks for asking sir.
The city of Tampa actually has quite a large core of Lightning diehard fans.
Last year, with the Lightning getting to the second round of the playoffs, the city gained some new fans.
However, let me tell you, the MAJORITY of the citizens of Tampa do not really care about the Ligntning unfortuaely.
An example of this would be evident if you went to my favorite watering hole here in Tampa which is one of the TOP sports bars in the city. In the last week of the season when the Bolts were battling for the Presidents Trophy, I had to demand the game be put on the big screen and virtually NOBODY was watching the game before that.
This city is a BUCS city through and through.
But like I said, there are a ton of rabid Bolts fan throughout the city and the people are definetly more jacked up for the playoffs more so than last year.
If the Lightning could somehow manage to make it to the STANLEY CUP Finals, it would really turn alot of people on.... not just to the Bolts, but hockey in general.
To bad the season is up in the air next year.
But it really gets my gonads if I am at the bar watching the Bolts in a playoff game and there are people not watching the game.
There are many transplanted citizens down here that are huge fans of other teams........the FLYERS in particular, that just cant give the Bolts their full support.
thanks for the answers fishhead. its really too bad because i was hoping to hear the city has gone mad for hockey and the lightning. They had one of the best teams this year and definitely the most exciting.I was hoping you would say people are talking about our sport in bars, cabs, offices and that theyd be wearing Bolts jerseys on the streets, and that everyone has fallen love with the sport and kids are playing it on the streets everywhere because of how good theyve become. Fish, you have to come to montreal and see what the fan reaction for the habs is like. you will totally freak out. if you come by, i will treat you to a habs game and dinner, so come on down, its really something to see. even now they are down 0-2, cars everywhere honking their horns and i have seen over 700 cars and houses in the last week alone with habs flags hanging. I was hoping to hear somewhat the same thing.
also fishy, the reason i asked this is bec i was in florida early to mid february and i was lucky to see the habs and the pens at the office depot centre playing there. we were only 20 min by car from there, so we said, lets go and see if we can find tickets for those games.i swear to god, we found tickets for the habs game for 7 bucks. i was in shock. not only that, but the place was half empty and consisted of 70% french canadiens cheering for the habs in there. but what freaked me out was i saw about 15 fans LITERALLY asleep and the fans did not understand what was going on. theyd boo offsides and penalties against fla. they were so clueless, so i was hoping to hear that it was not the same with tb fans. and for the pens game, we got tickets for 5 bucks and sat both games right over the visitors bench, as we snuck down. i didnt understand why it was so dead. great arena, parking was across the street and free in a big mall.. but no one seems to care in florida about hockey. my dream is to see florida love hockey one day because it really isnt a bad sport..
It is the same everywhere. In the Bay Area there are plenty of Sharks fans to fill up the Tank (or HP Tank if you prefer) yet 90% of the population would have no idea they are on the verge of their first Conference finals. Stanford was #1 in hoops and much of the area didn't have a clue. Now the Raiders go 4-12 and even in the final game they still get decent TV ratings for that debacle because the Bay Area is easily an NFL focused crowd. You can't change an area's people. Most teams are just happy to pick up 10% more fans each year, you can never make an area that had no interest suddenly start buzzing about a sport no matter how well the local team does.
