MickeyG

http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/TB/9449817

at least he is going home soon and i hope he can make a full recovery.

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ABuccsFan

TAMPA - Before Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer suffered his second stroke last month, he had a succession plan in place to keep the NFL team in the family.

Under such a plan, Glazer's sons - who run the team's daily operations - would continue controlling the NFL team.

"It's fair to say that there is succession planning in every organization, but what those details are, it's inappropriate to discuss them at this point given the expectation that Mr. Glazer will be coming back to Palm Beach and continuing his rehabilitation," said Eric Land, the Bucs' chief operating officer.

Three of Glazer's five sons - Joel, Bryan and Edward - run the team's business operations as executive vice presidents. Joel Glazer also helped the family gain control of the world-famous Manchester United soccer team last year for nearly $1.5 million.

"The day-to-day operations of the Bucs have, for some time, been handled by the Glazer family and predominantly by the three sons. I see no change in the short or long horizon," Land said.

Succession plans outline the terms for family members to transfer the assets and power of the business to other members.

"I'm sure they have (a succession plan) in place. The boys are committed to the football team. I don't expect any changes of the operation," said Leonard Levy, a retired Tampa printing company owner who was instrumental in Tampa Bay getting an NFL team.

Glazer, 77, a billionaire who controls a real estate and fish oil empire, was in the Cleveland Clinic in Weston as of Friday. He was admitted to the South Florida medical facility April 30 after suffering the second of two recent strokes last month. His first stroke was April 16.

Joel Glazer, in a statement last week, said, "Doctors expect my father to return home in the next few weeks . . . As a result of this stroke, his rehabilitation period will be longer and more challenging."

The NFL does not require families who own teams to have a succession plan, said Greg Aiello, a league spokesman. Generally speaking, the NFL will work with estate planners for an owner's heirs to maintain control of a team.

Glazer's connection to the team was mostly limited to attending home and away Bucs games this past season, and he was not seen in public. Glazer no longer attends every NFL owners meeting.

For example, when a Tampa Bay contingent made its pitch at an NFL owners meeting last spring to host the 2009 Super Bowl, it was Bryan Glazer who spoke before an owners panel to clinch the Super Bowl host selection.

Either Joel or Bryan is expected to attend the NFL owners meeting in Denver this week.

The sons were unavailable for comment Monday. Their father is a Rochester, N.Y., native who bought the Bucs for a then-record $192 million from the Hugh Culverhouse estate in 1995. He is chief executive officer of First Allied Corp., the holding company for his many businesses that include commercial and residential real estate.

http://www.tbo.com/sports/bucs/MGBMDRGCJNE.html

ABuccsFan

TAMPA -- An injustice took place Saturday. Thousands of people showed up at Raymond James Stadium looking for autographs.

None of them wanted the real hero's autograph.

Malcolm Glazer wasn't there -- and probably couldn't have signed if he'd wanted to. The Bucs' 77-year-old owner recently had two strokes and might never fully recover. That made Saturday's FanFest a good time to do something completely heretical:

Praise Malcolm.

"At first, I thought he was a [bleep]," Tim Salmons said. "But he's proven himself."

Salmons has loved the Bucs for 30 years now. As such, he was like almost everybody else around Tampa Bay a decade ago. Scared, angry and blaming it on Glazer.

Glazer had bought the Bucs, ushering in the psychodrama that has played out in cities all over America. A rich owner says he needs a new venue, or he might move his team. Opponents say it's time to stand up to greedy tycoons looking for tax dollars.

If Rich DeVos thinks he has had a hard time in Orlando, he should walk a mile in Glazer's Guccis.

"This stupid [bleeping] yank GIMP hasn't a [bleeping] brain in his stupid [bleeping] head."

So reads the home page of Malcolmglazer.com, one of the Web sites set up after Glazer bought Manchester United last year. Judging by some of the postings, like "stroke of luck," British soccer nuts always will believe he's Osama bin Glazer.

No doubt, he' s a hardball negotiator afflicted with a disease most business people have:

A desire to make a profit.

That's simply not acceptable if, like DeVos, you have money to begin with. Owners make easy targets, especially when they have Amish beards and wear their belts around their chests. Glazer's push for a new football stadium met the usual resistance.

There were stories about how kids wouldn't get vaccinated, cops wouldn't be hired and teachers would starve. Despite that, Hillsborough County voters approved a half-cent sales tax (oh, what Tampa would have given for a tourist tax to tap into), the Bucs got their stadium, and Glazer did what good businessmen do.

He took care of his investment. He hired Tony Dungy, expanded the payroll and got rid of the Creamsickle uniforms.

In return, Glazer got a franchise that probably has tripled in value. Tampa Bay got a Super Bowl game, a Super Bowl trophy and a civic entity tens of thousands of citizens virtually live for.

And funny, you never read a follow-up story about how a child starved because funds were diverted to build Malcolm a stadium.

If cities waited until all serious social issues were solved, they'd never spend a dime on stadiums, museums, performing arts centers, parks, bike paths, boat ramps or any of the things that make a place worth living.

Yes, it's crazy that players make millions, and owners make even more. But that won't change.

The product they bring means nothing to a lot of people. To others, it means more than you'll ever know.

"We're going to the Super Bowl this year," Spencer Bray said.

He and Salmons drove over Saturday from St. Petersburg for fan appreciation day.

The field was a bubbling sea of humanity as kids ran around playing interactive games. There were hundreds of Cadillac Williams jerseys. Nobody was spotted wearing an Amish beard and high-water pants.

Would Tampa be a better place if the Bucs had left, if there were no Super Bowls and Raymond James Stadium was still a parking lot?

There never will be an owner appreciation day. Looking around Saturday at how things worked out, maybe there should be.