BillnutinHouston

Ah, so it's planned failure. How do the Mario, Lawson, Kiko, Carpenter, and Branch additions fit into this plan? Did Russ also slip those by the other signatories, i.e., Erie County and NYS? Or are they in on the plan too?

Steveie is quick but not fast. This is exactly why they moved him to the slot.

I don't understand the "Marrone as crony" charge. Many of Brandon's critics dismiss him as just a marketing guy, but if this is the case, how is hiring a crony who loses good marketing? I agree about Stevie, he doesn't have the fortitude you need to build your team around and at his salary, will most likely be cut.

Stating that games aren't sellouts is stating a fact, it's not blaming. Likewise, stating that the Bills lost is a fact, it's not blaming.

Thank you - concisely stated and based on experience. One thing I would add is, these revenue pressures will only intensify if/when the new owner demands a new stadium, assuming he has a stake in the financing. If we think Wilson is money-driven, we ain't seen nothing yet. Edit: Kirby, the last line of your edited post above echoes my concern. We simply can't count on a home town rescue by a Pegula type, this I why regionalization is so important to the future of football in WNY.

Interesting opinion. I hope the next owner shares it, but more likely his focus will be more on overall revenue than simple demand. In that equation, club seat holders are far more coveted than regular seat holders (remember, in addition to the premium price, PSL revenue is not shared) and for that matter, a season ticket holder in a stronger economic region is a better revenue generator than is a Buffalo season ticket holder. All this is why Brandon talks about the Bills business mode as a "volume business" - he can't charge high prices so he needs lots of butts in the seats to offset that.

Apparently not in Buffalo. Since the 90s the stadium capacity actually shrunk by 6-8,000 seats and Brandon still needs to manufacture sellouts. I sense a lot of fan defensiveness in these discussions, and I wish people would get over that. Brandon hasn't ever bashed Bills fans, he's simply answering the questions he's asked with facts. The cold hard facts may be tough to take, but you can bet that those facts (especially revenue numbers) are going to matter plenty to the next owner (in fact, much more to the new debt-laden owner) than they matter to Brandon or Mr. Wilson. I hope many fans who don't buy tickets realize this before it's too late. And I say this as a remote club seat holder.

Truth

I definitely see this happening soon.

Outstanding post.

Re: to your comment, the poster "Trader" said this in the Regionalization thread: "Boston household income is over 70k per year. Dallas is 56k per year. Both areas have many more residents that WNY, I will let you look up Buffalo metro income on your own. There are 20k unsold Miami Tickets. If there is no regionalization there is no NFL in Buffalo" Looking backward at the "good old days" and thinking the status quo will remain the same under the next owner is a very flawed strategy in my opinion. Hope you're feeling lucky when the franchise goes up for sale.

Way to think like a marketer! ^^ This 100 times.

Agreed, I feel your pain, but if it weren't for Stevie's & Chandler's fumbles last week, we'd be happy with those sacks..

Is there a Wingo story line? LOL Or, as Marrone's comments clarify, they pounced on the opportunity to pick up a productive tight end and needed a roster spot in order to facilitate that acquisition.

i don't think there's any indication they CAN get out of the deal. The linked article doesn't shed any light on that. While many here have their heads buried firmly in the sand, are oblivious to the big picture and just whine about one game being moved from their backyard, this is the most accurate summary of the reality that I've seen in awhile. Reading this thread is like watching a post-iceberg scene aboard the Titanic and seeing passengers complain about the warm champagne. The lack of vision is stunning. No wonder NYS is such a mess.

Wait, you're not actually arguing against the Bills regionalizing and expanding their market, are you? Should the Bills just accept the fact that they have available club seats, boxes, low ticket prices and manufactured sellouts? If you take comfort in the fact that the Bills "survived for decades" without regionalizing, what's your plan for making the market attractive to the next owner who will be wooed by big money markets? This line of thinking just amazes me.

Cool. Definitely shows the new defensive scheme + nice acquisitions have started to come together to produce results.

True, but those less-attended TO games still make the Bills more revenue.

The other plus is that many (if not all?) of the club sections have new radiant heating which have received rave reviews from what I've seen.

Clubs have nice and less crowded concessions, restrooms and access in/out. The club crowd is definitely less rowdy and a good place to take kids or elderly.

I was a WNY resident and season ticket holder (and still am) at the time of that "dance", and while I recall the situation to be dicey with respect to the lease, I do not ever recall any public statement made by Wilson or the Bills about specific places they would relocate to. I'd still like to see a link with quotes from Mr. Wilson or a team spokesman stating a threat to relocate. But giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you are correct that Mr. Wilson was vocal with threats to leave...did the stadium NOT need renovations to (among other things) increase the number of boxes? If you were the Bills owner at the time, how would you have persuaded NYS to get off the dime and put a miniscule $60 million into the stadium when your counterparts are getting $500 million - $1 billion dollar palaces left and right? Wilson was playing relative softball compared to what he could have done. Again I say, if he really was going to "bluff" WNY, he would have simply asked for a new stadium, then watched the mayhem as he easily built his case for relocating. We all know he did no such thing.

Ask yourself this - does the Toronto series make the Buffalo market more or less attractive as the future home to a franchise, relative to LA, London or elsewhere? Are you hoping that the next owner just happens to have a heart for Buffalo? What happens if the winning bidder is just a financial shark? If he is a shark, do you think his location decision will be unaffected by the proximity to the Toronto market? Before you answer, consider that Brandon just pointed out on GR this morning that Buffalo had only two true sellouts this year, with the other four being manufactured. And this is with ticket prices among the absolute lowest in the league. Bottom line, the Buffalo market has shown itself to be handicapped, and Toronto/Southern Ontario is the long term crutch. Nobody is asking people to like that, but the truth is the truth. People who whine about this fact only reveal the insularity and narrowmindedness of their thinking.

This link really does not discuss or refer to any threat that Ralph made to leave town.

Can you educate me with a link discussing an ultimatum that Ralph made at that time where he threatened to leave? I'm not recalling that.

Good point. The fact is, Ralph hasn't made waves to leave WNY in many, many years and even more revealing of his intention to work in good faith with Buffalo's sad-sack market is that he's never demanded a new stadium and has settled for a paltry combined $200 million or so in stadium upgrades over the last 20 years or so. That is extremely modest. If Ralph was ever going to "bluff" WNY, it would have been over the new stadium issue. Now consider the above statistics from the perspective of THE NEXT OWNER. Anyone who doesn't expect the next owner to keep the team in Buffalo without keeping or even expanding the Toronto series is extremely naive. The single biggest question facing the long term future of a Buffalo football team is how to make the economics work in Buffalo. And if the next owner demands a stadium, the numbers start looking even worse.