I love sports. I live in the Tampa Bay area and have always supported and will support the local team. After all, we have some pretty good teams here in the Tampa area. The Bucs took home a Superbowl trophy in 2003. The MLB’s Tampa Rays played in the World Series and the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team won the Stanley Cup in 2004. I have my season tickets to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I go to as many Tampa Rays games as I can and I really want to like hockey…maybe this year I’ll try harder.

So why is it so hard to be a Tampa sports fan? Well, because we are in Tampa! The Tampa/St. The Pete area has more than its fair share of transplants, mostly from the Northeast. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to live here. We have great weather, great beaches, amazing sunshine, and of course some great sports teams.

The last home game at Raymond James Stadium, we were surrounded by black and gold Pittsburgh Steelers with the “terrible towels” spinning around our heads. It’s almost impossible to go to a Rays game when they play Boston or the Yankees. There are as many Rays fans as there are opponents, so when we jump up and shout about the grand slam the Rays just hit, there are as many people booing as there are cheering. Something is wrong with that. It’s hard to be a sports fan in Tampa…

The only saving grace is that most of these other fans are usually nice and we all get to cheer on our respective teams together. There will always be a handful of fans who border on unpleasant, but what can you do? Come on BUCKS! Come on Tampa!