Corn Bread

Had a great time! So much for the cheap Sabers tickets, though. We walked around for 45 minutes into the start of the game, and tickets were going for a couple hundred $$$ per! These weren't the Conference Finals, were they? Spent a lot of time at Pearl Street. That was great having the free train from our hotel down to the arena area. Game Day was great, and everyone was cool. I was surprised at how many Lions fans were there. Of course it had to rain on our one game we go see in Buffalo. Of course it would. I love the Ralph! Some Bills fans we met said not to get excited about it, because it's very plain, but I like it. It's simple old-school football. Not a lot of frills. Long lines for the boys room, though! The practice facility is great on game day. We don't have anything like that. Sat down and watched the round-table discussion. We looked for Sheldon Road to find the Robot's parking lot, but we couldn't find it. Then we thought we were pulling into the Hammer lot, and ended up in the wrong one. Congrats on your first win. I promised, and the Lions delivered. I knew, KNEW, they would not tie that game. The Lions were in NO danger of winning that game. They were playing out the same script they've perfected over the years. Do just enough to keep fans interested and let them down in the end. Thanks for a great weekend, Buffalo! Great fans, great city!

Well, we might not have all the "fun", but Lions fans have the "lion's share" of it. We're the franchise no one even thinks about, because we're so bad. We're not even good enough to make fun of; just insignificant. I think that's more common than we think. They're the same way in Detroit; not all of them, but some of them. They hate on our college and pro teams, it seems just to get a reaction. It gets old. I will report back when we return. We are VERY humble at away games. There's no other way for a Lions fan to be. Well, there's "ashamed" too I guess. I hear Jets fans are bad. There were some "colorful" ones at the game on Sunday. Philly seems to have the reputation of the worst fans. I've heard of people visiting Eagles games with kids and getting pounded! Our plan is to try to score cheap seats for the Sabers game Saturday night, and if we can't, just hang around the area. Sunday, we'll definitely head down early and experience all we can. I hear it takes a while to get in the Ralph, so you need to head in with enough time to get to your seats by kick-off. Here's a story we always laugh about. We went to Chicago a few years ago where, as everyone knows, they are an hour behind on Central Time. So, you wouldn't think we would make the mistake of thinking kick-off was at 1:00 Chicago Time, do ya? Who would be that stupid? They must head in late a lot there, because we were in a crowd heading in. We were walking up a ramp, and we heard the game going on, and then it occurred to us - CENTRAL TIME!!! It's just ingrained into our heads that early games start at 1:00.

Geez... I even looked at this view a while ago. I should have known to look at the view from the seats. Thanks! Well, we've had a lot more "fun" than you have over the years. At least you've been to Superbowls. We'd give anything to make it to the final game of the year. Yup. See you this weekend! And I would say the same thing about Detroit talk show hosts. They love to bag the home teams, college and pro. Seems they just want to get a rise out of everyone.

Hey, one more thing I meant to ask... Does your stadium have seats or benches? Until we went to Lambeau last year, I would have assumed seats, but I have to ask. I'm thinkin' seats. So we're heading off to Buffalo Saturday morning coming off a great game this past weekend. Only the Lions find a way to lose a game they're ahead in 20-10 with 4 minutes left. We're prepared for another loss. That's just how we roll. I've been listening to your sports talk on the net lately to get a feel for the fans. It sounds like there's a bit of conflict about whether it would be better to win or lose with 2011 draft picks on the line. This is how we feel every year about this time. No need for you to waste time on this dilemma. It's out of your control. Lions have it all under control and will give the Bills their first win. You have no idea how sucky Lions Nation is, year after year after year after year...

That sounds great, and if we could get tickets on the cheap like that, even better. That is really good to know about Chippewa, because we don't want to get caught up in a college scene. We'd be way out of place there. Just looking for pub/sports bars type places, and it sounds like the Sabers game and around the arena is promising. We're in section 109, row 9. These are almost identical seats to ours at Ford Field. Our season tickets are on the 30, row 19.

Okay! Everything sounds great. I hope we're sitting around people as friendly as what I'm seeing here! We'll be in section 109 - row 9 - seats 1 & 2. If there's anything good about having an awful team to road trip for, it's that we've lost wherever we've gone and the fans don't take out a loss on us. We were winning at one point in Chicago 2 years ago, and that's when we got real quiet and sat low in our seats. I've seen the opposite at Ford Field. Visitors egging on Lions fans in our own house and getting abusive. NOT-A-GOOD-IDEA!!

More great ideas. Thanks! One more thing. Is there an area in the tailgating lots where you pay for food so we can hang out without worrying about a grill? It would be great to have a section where we could either pay a set fee and get a wrist band or just pay for food as we hang out & throw the rock around. We bring our own gear to Lions games, but bringing everything there would be a hassle.

Hey, the Sabers game sounds great... but so does this tour! So much city, so little time. We're staying until Monday, but usually Sunday night is more about recovering from Saturday night and Sunday at the game. Back in the day, we could go through to Monday, but we're in our 40's now. Not much stamina left by Sunday night.

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies! I'm going to print off this thread by the time we go. We'll have about 5 hours to talk about what we're going to do. I don't think I thought it through very well when we chose our hotel. But it sounds like things are spread out a lot, so maybe you can't stay downtown AND be near the statdium. One thing I've picked up here I think, is that we will plan on driving to a lot and tailgating. We just really want to experience the city and the game day atmosphere. I can't, in good conscience, not wear our Lions gear. We like to represent, but we do it in a good way. I've seen that guy at Ford Field from the other team, and I never want to be "that guy". If we're guests in a city, we're going to act like guests; not provoke anyone. Actually, we got a lot of razzing when we first sat down in Chicago. By half-time, we made so many friends, people who started out giving us the business were actually buying us beers and defending us when others got vocal. Someone asked what kind of bars/restaurants we like. Really, whatever is "Buffalo" and allows jeans and a jacket is good. We really like the sports bars/pubs where we can have some fun. Actually, the more casual, the better I suppose. Just some places to hang out, have a beer and talk with Bills fans. Someone commented that there will probably some empty seats. LOL! We know about empty seats at Ford Field. When our season's officially over, around week 5, our stadium looks a lot more blue - because that's the color of our seats. Thanks again for the feedback. I hope to get some more, but even if I don't, this has been a lot of help.

My friend and I have Lions season tickets (yeah, we got it bad) and take a road trip each year. Roll out the Red Carpet, folks. There's nothing more certain than when the Lions come to town. We make everyone happy wherever we go. This year we're heading to Buffalo for the game, and we're staying at the Holiday Inn on Delaware by E. North Street. I'm hoping some people can help out with 2 things. Are there shuttles that take people to the stadium from this area? And are there Must-Go-To bars and pubs in the area? Are there bars around the area that have any kind of shuttle deals? We like to get around town on a pub crawl on Saturday and get a feel for the city. We'll wear our Lions swag, but we know the deal. Lions fans have NOTHING to be obnoxious about. We know we're the door-mat of the league. How can anyone hate on Lions fans? Usually, we're just an after-thought, but our recent 0-16 season makes us relevant for a laugh if nothing else. If anyone's wondering about my user name, "corn bread" is like Cool Aide around Detroit. They keep baking it and selling it, and we keep bellying up to the table and paying for it. We've been to Chicago and Green Bay. Both are division rivals, so they can have hate for the Lions even if we're the laughing stock of the league. Chicago fans were rough, but Green Bay fans were very welcoming. I'm thinking Buffalo couldn't care less about the Lions. We're looking forward to experiencing Buffalo's night life and game-day atmosphere. We'll be humble. That's all we can be. I know you must be frustrated by your season so far, but at least you're not the Lions! Thanks for any help.