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No one should be surprised by this news, but it still stings a little. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' home opener will be blacked out locally, as it has failed to sell enough tickets to meet the blackout threshold of 85% of general admission tickets.
The Bucs have been positive about recent ticket sales, with co-chairman Bryan Glazer saying that they expect fewer blackouts in 2013. The Bucs have been plagued by blackouts in recent years, but hopefully they'll at least diminish during the regular season.
The blacked out area extends roughly 100 to 120 miles around Raymond James Stadium in practice. Officially, the blackout zone is much smaller, but any signal that penetrates the blackout zone has to be blacked out in its entirety for its entire area. If you're outside the blackout zone but still local enough to receive WFLA channel 8, you should be able to watch the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET