Mark Dominik: Tampa Bay Buccaneers not moving to London, annual game abroad a possibility

Everyone seems to be picking this up, so I guess I have to go write about it as well: Mark Dominik said today that the Bucs are not going to relocate to London. He's quoted in the St. Petersburg Times and basically every other outlet:

"What I can do is say this team is not going to relocate from Tampa and move to London, emphatically. We're the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and I do know that for a fact.

That's pretty clear. Of course, if you had read my article about a possible move to London yesterday, this shouldn't be news.

It's more interesting that Mark Dominik wouldn't rule out an annual home game in London. A new agreement among owners on games to be played in the UK stipulated that a team could volunteer to play one home game per year in London. So far, the Bucs seem to be a good candidate: they are playing their second game in three years in London, while they're struggling to fill the stadium at home. Of course that would not be good news for the Tampa Bay area, which loses some much-needed revenue, although apparently it saves the Tampa Sports Authority about a quarter of a million dollars per year.

While Mark Dominik wouldn't rule out this option, he also said that he hasn't discussed it with ownership yet. We'll see whether anything comes of this. Considering the fact that attendance seems to be on the rise, while the Bucs have a terrific stadium deal, it seems unlikely the Bucs are going to give up many more home games in the future.