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Those tickets were sold before the season as season tickets. Take a look at stubhub - there is no demand whatsoever for those tickets. If they had a season ticket base like the Bills - 60% or whatever of capacity, you'd seeing 12k at the games. Just like it was before '06. I totally agree with Alan Pergmament. Be careful what you wish for, Buffalo and other small markets (and the Dolphins pathetic orange colored fans looking like seats is a prime example): http://blogs.buffalonews.com/talkintv/2013/11/blackout-change-could-pose-risk-to-buffalo-and-small-markets.html?ref=brp

No, I never played soccer. I only played real sports. I have attended a lot of games, and I have watched enough on TV. There is no doubt that soccer players who progress are great athletes, and it takes way more endurance than baseball. But, I'm saying that a good portion of soccer having so many youth players who never have turned into this great fan base is because there's more than just right field where they can not embarrass themselves. BTW, the guy who made that funny remark is John Kruk, who has a lifetime .300 batting average. He might not look athletic, but that takes super world class hand-eye coordination to do that!

Actually, it's the opposite as far as my argument goes..........I find soccer people to be very pretentious (not the 2-3 guys I'm currently discussing this with). I mentioned earlier the d-bag factor. My college roommate freshman year was a soccer player. I pretty much couldn't stand him then...........I'm now good friends with him and he laughs about what a dbag he was.........Another guy on the soccer team I didn't konw well then, but have got to know a little better since, but he's always seemed like a good guy. At the last reunion he told me he couldn't stand the rest of the players because they were all dbags.............And, they were - these two are still the only ones I'd want to be friends with. I was standing in line at PNC Park for a Pirates game a few summers ago. I struck up a conversation with a guy who played soccer for Oklahoma. I never even mentioned my feelings. I told him how cool that he played at such a high level. He was a star in high school in a few sports but soccer was his best.............He says he wished he chose another one because the players are such aholes..............I couldn't believe he said it without me even coming close to bringing that up. Here's the aforementioned Bill Simmons email bag from 4 years ago: Q: Look I enjoy the soccer commentary and I really want to jump on the bandwagon but I just can't. The reason, every soccer player I've ever met is a total d-bag. How can I like a sport where every person who plays it drinks flavored vodka and attempts to screw every girl who walks by? -- Ryan, Atlanta SG: See, I think that's what took me so long to gravitate towards soccer. I haven't been in college since the early-'90s. I haven't been single since the early-'00s. I haven't seen soccer players disgracing themselves socially for such a long time that I now operate under the premise that they're like everyone else. Maybe that should be the new MLS PR strategy: targeting married guys over 35 with a slogan like "Professional Soccer: Because it's been so long that you forgot they were d-bags."

But, the size of the "arenas" are exactly why anybody can even claim that MLS draws better than the NBA or NHL. Their stadiums are more about 22K or so average, and they seem to draw about 80% capacity...........NBA arenas are probably 19K average capacity.............And, there are still a few American football stadiums that MLS uses. If it wasn't for Seattle's outlier - where it's part of their hipster culture - we wouldn't even be having this part of the discussion. They draw 44K at the Seashawks stadium with a capacity of 67K. More than double the average of the rest of the league.

Not by me. I still think Marv should have taken the points on 4th and five vs. Houston. It worked out great, but I'm not going to change my mind by the result. This call was !@#$ing horrible. The game is on the line and you call a super low percentage call. You're actually talking about another series. The last one - and I agree - I thought that's why they ran and picked up six on 3rd. So, they could kick the three and then if they got the onsides kick, they would have had over a minute to get to the end zone.

I never realized that those were painful.

Because the OP claims, with his usual air of superiority (and usually that superiority is pointed at my beloved baseball) that it is the 2nd most popular sport for 12-24 year olds. There is no freaking way. None. Zero. I don't have kids, but my niece and nephew are in that age range, as are almost all my friend's kids. My niece is a soccer fanatic, and plays at the college level (I sat on a wet bleacher in 40 degree driving rain last week to watch her, so I'm not that opposed to the sport. I think it's the best sport for girls/women).............But, the boys in that range - I don't know one of them who could care less about soccer. And, most of them mock it out. And, all these stats being thrown out are so misleading. 122 brings up the attendence, so I looked it up. Soccer had 6M, NBA and NHL around 17M, and baseball was 81M! Of course, that is because the number of played games. But, that is also the only reason for the rise in attendance for soccer. In 1996, here is the MLS attendance: 1996 160 2,785,001 17,406 15,093 That's games played, total attendance, average and median attenance. So, now they've added a bunch of teams, and for 2012, the games played would be 323 and average attendance is 18,807. Not exactly a meteoric rise in pretty a whole generation later. Edit - Sorry about that formatting change - Jeez!

I was just so happy that the people in the 2-3 rows ahead of me opted not to wave their pom poms in the air. It's OK to wave pom poms and terrible towels, but if you put your hands in front of the person's eyes behind you, I'm sure you'd be kicked out!

I guess I'm answering in reverse order - for the 2nd time, the corruption thing is in regards to AJ's loss of love for baseball due to steroids. What I'm saying about youth soccer is that this idea has been put forth for what - 30 years or so? Look at all these youth soccer players - when they grow up, they're going to be huge soccer fans and it's going to be one of the most popular sports. Well, I'm not the first to contend that a lot of youths playing soccer are not very good athletes. They'd rather not play baseball - because there is no hiding when you're at the plate or the ball is hit to you..........But, in soccer who is going to notice if a 10 year old stinks? Obviously there are a lot of great athletes playing soccer as kids. But, I'm talking about these "huge numbers" that in coming decades are going to turn soccer into a juggernaut in this country. Let me ask you a question - why has that never happened after hearing for decades how it will?

it's a joke.

Am I really supposed to answer all those questions? PS From what I read, what you said here is the real story: As the hispanic polpulation rises in America doesn't it make sense that interest levels would rise? Maybe soccer isn't recruiting new fans as much as the demographic is changing and now includes people who were fans. Probably explains why kids I know are no more interested in soccer than when I was a kid.

Yes, you are totally wrong.

My father was yelling at the TV 40+ years ago "Quarterback sneak!" When they did it - it worked! Look at how effective Brady has been with it for all this time.

That's insane!

I really didn't have as much of a problem with this play (although I do have to see it on my DVR again). Actually, I should say I don't mind the pass, but the pass into the middle of traffic was stupid - it should be a fade route. But, what I was going to say is I had a major issue with the fourth down call for a long pass down the side. We needed a first down and you're trusting Tuel to throw for a touchdown in that situation??

I read that Richie I. made Martin pay $15K towards some party that he wasn't even going to, and there is more regarding this type of thing. I think that stuff really is bullying and BS. I remember listening to Jon Corto, who had a show with Brad Riter.........He said that the day before, Kawika Mitchell and the vet linebackers made the rookies pay for steak dinners.................In NYC! They had probably a private jet to get them there, as well as a top of the line Manhattan steak house...........Corto said "I don't make that much money."..........I thought it sucked because you knew he was a guy who would maybe only play a few years, so he really couldn't afford that crap.

I have been asking that for 30 or more years, since Vermeil burned out, and you'd hear about Gibbs, etc.

That's good! Well, the idea of a white out in November didn't turn out so great. Definitely more white than usual, but still probably 35% Maybe 40%? Didn't exactly look like a Miami Heat playoff game.

You're probably right..........But, if the roles were reversed today, they would have upheld the catch and not reversed that either............And, I'd like once for Ref #1 to say buzz off, I know what I saw!

Lonnie Johnson running backwards down the field was pretty brutal.

My question about that is why is when the closest guy makes a call (he said complete) and then the further away guy says no such and such happened, they always defer to the further away guy??

Hey, keep Junior's name out of it! It's never been hinted that he juiced, and if he did, he got a bad supply! I wonder how many people are going to subconcsiously drift away from football due to that nagging thought of how much destruction these guys are doing to themselves.

I don't remember it ever not being mandatory to take showers. When did this start?

The only reason this phantom ESPN poll is being mentioned and only on soccer sites (Michael Jordan is the most popular among these teens - what kind of BS is that?!?) is that ESPN has been trying to shove soccer down our throats for a number of years now. All of a sudden Bill Simmons is a soccer fan. It's all across the company and is so easy to see. I'm only talking about the soccer scandals because AJ seems to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater on baseball because of steroids. I'm guessing there are PEDs in soccer. Somehow football gets a pass, as well, even though we know there is so much juicing going on. Turns out MLS' attendance is DOWN this year: The news doesn't get much better when it comes to MLS attendance. Overall league attendance is, following the weekend of September 14-15, down roughly 2.5 percent from last year's average. Take away that hipster thing going on in Seattle, and it wouldn't even be close, I bet. As for TV numbers, you don't even want to look, in terms of both viewership and how much money the networks pay the NHL and NBA Besides, it's usually a soccer vs. baseball debate - since they are outdoor games. That isn't close on any level. The one thing I do agree with you on footy - the no commercials thing is very cool. Especially compared to American football - which is disgusting with commercials.

Thanks