Bucs deserve stadium, fans deserve better Hubert Mizell, The St.Petersburg Times, published 26 December 1995 A teetering, volatile romance between Tampa Bay and its Buccaneers came to a thudding Saturday separation, a Christmas Eve eve goodbye that may or may not be forever. "Somebody Turn Out the Lights" suggested a homemade placard taped to Tampa Stadium's north end-zone wall. Not far away, another sign posed, "This is The End?" Does anybody really know? What we do know for sure is that a 1995 season which began with 5-dash-2 Bucs chest-pounding has pitifully, shamefully, unentertainingly gone down in 2-dash-7 flames. Saturday was Buc-ugly. A whale of a flop. This is not the optimum time to shout, "Tampa Bay has a National Football League team that is worth saving!" Worth investment of tens of millions of Hillsborough County dollars to erect the fancy stadium that can keep the Bucs in Tampa until at least the year 2028. No matter, I'm screaming ... Hillsborough should find the leadership, the courage and the funds to assure the Glazers an apt new ballpark, while demanding that Malcolm-Bryan-Joel agree to an airtight 30-year Tampa tie-up of the Bucs. Okay, in regard to Buc-ugly ... In return for a stadium deal, Tampa Bay should powerfully prod the Glazers into vowing that you will see (1) a new and better head coach in 1996, plus (2) considerable player-personnel upgrading, plus (3) a replacement for Bucco Bruce the logo, plus (4) a change of horror-orange Bucs colors. Some of it will happen. Sam Wyche will not be back as Tampa Bay's head coach. That's a no-brainer. Especially in the wake of his Nixonesque post-mortem Saturday, it would show all but no Bucs management brains if Wyche were allowed to stay. No chance. Even when Sam is gone, an ax that should fall before New Year's, the far larger question will remain: "Are the Bucs going to be back as Tampa Bay's team?" Prior to kickoff, before the 37-10 Tampa Bay embarrassment, Joel Glazer stood at midfield, watching his Bucs warm up. His Bucs; his daddy Malcolm's Bucs; his brother Bryan's Bucs. "We just want to get the stadium thing out of the way," Joel said, "so everybody can move ahead with making the Bucs a far better football team. I'm always optimistic. Without any doubt, there will be options (for relocation), including the rumored places (Los Angeles, Baltimore or Cleveland). But we want it to work out in Tampa. We are not at all disappointed in the fan support at Tampa Stadium this season (average attendance: 59,193, Bucs' best since 1982, their most recent winning season). Those people up in the seats have been great. That is not the issue. But we do need a stadium that allows us to compete in today's NFL. I promise that the Glazers will do everything within reason to make that happen for Tampa Bay." After three weeks of negative emotions on the stadium issue, the Glazers and Bucs general manager Rich McKay have felt a positive uptick. At least a feeling that negotiations with Hillsborough County and the Tampa Stadium Authority are more realistic. I wasn't sure how I would feel Saturday, upon driving up to Tampa Stadium. I didn't know if a "last game ever" emotion would stalk me. But, for some reason, I didn't feel that. While I remain anything but positive about the Bucs finding a way to stay in Tampa, I'm now anything but sold that they are going to flee. Does that make sense? If it had struck me, "This really is The End," surely my mind would've been Saturday deluged with 1976-1995 flashbacks, recollecting a bucketful of positives and a barrel of negatives from 20 Bucs seasons. There would have been vivid visions of John McKay's torment-to-triumph early years as Tampa Bay head coach, sweetened by my positive memories of Lee Roy Selmon, Doug Williams, Ricky Bell, Jimmie Giles, Batman Wood and many more. Especially an extraordinary 1979 season when the Bucs came within one win of Super Bowl XIV. But, sadly, the Bucs double decade has been more battered than buttered. More goats than heroes. Many of them currently employed by the Glazers. There have been just three winning seasons in 20 years. None since 1982. Tampa Bay people deserve better. As long as the Glazers really, really understand that, it should be worth the fiscal and physical pain to make a new stadium a reality. It has to get better. I mean, doesn't it?