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RTW2012

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Posts posted by RTW2012

  1. I'm all for a downtown stadium IF it can be a multi-use facility that can bring people into the city more than 7-9 times a year. The author does not mention what this new downtown Gateway would be used for, outside of Bills games, and presumably Bisons games, since he wants it to be on the site of Coca-Cola Field. That suggestion alone, that Coca-Cola Field could be razed/renovated/expanded to accommodate his vision, is absurd. Does he want a AAA baseball team that averages maybe 10k a game to play in a 70k-seat football stadium? CC Field is working just fine as it is- why fix what ain't broken?

     

    I'll give him points for thinking big, and I agree that sinking $200 mil into a 40 yr-old stadium in the suburbs might not be the best investment, but he needs to come up with at least some ideas what a downtown stadium can be used for outside of Bills games. I'm surprised the News published this, given its lack of details.

  2. George Wilson said: The Bills will have full integration of the Nike technology into our uniforms, rotating 3 uniforms during the season. https://twitter.com/#!/GWilson37/status/187215231938854912

     

    and followed up with: I've only seen the uniform that I wore today, and only been told about the other 2. We all will have to wait and see. https://twitter.com/#!/GWilson37/status/187216727959027713

     

    Based on that my guess is the Bills will wear the retro 60s unis this year, with the 3rd jersey being the blue one they wore with the standing bison helmet.

  3.  

    Also, what do you think the Bills will have for their 3rd?

     

    The main jersey is pretty similar to the historical Bills jerseys, so I am hoping the bring back the red jersey to have something different.

     

    I don't think the Bills have a 3rd jersey in their immediate future. This year's fashion statement is the unveiling of the previously sequestered blue pants.

  4. Ummmm is this post a joke? How will they ever know it was the person who got kicked out in say the week after's game?

    Ummmm obviously this is virtually unenforceable, unless all the gates have photos of people not allowed. "Do not let this person enter." Kind of like the old "Do not accept a check from this person" photos at the grocery store. ;)

     

    However, perhaps the threat of revoking season tickets might get some people's attention. It's unfortunate the gameday experience has deteriorated over the years due to the boorish crude behavior of some fans.

  5. Oh, gee, I don't know, 'cuz most of us have been drunk and stupid at some time in our lives?

    And most of us grow out of it, or at least tone the drinking down if it costs us something we want (like watching the game)

     

    Bit harsh any, mate?

     

    Not for mature adults who should know how to behave in public. It's the drunken macho louts who ruin the gameday experience for everybody. One and done.

  6. This is an excellent article about the dubious anture of the convention center business and how craven politicians foolishly keep asking for more.

     

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577126603702369654.html

     

     

    There is no stadium debt--he never paid a penny for its construction or many expansions and upgrades since. Also, with 30-40 million a year in operating margin, there would be no need to take a loan for "signing bonuses".

     

     

     

    Conventions don't use domed stadiums. The use multiroom facilities to handle large and small meetings/subgroups/demos/exhibits. I have been to conventions all over the country--never even heard of one involving a football stadium. Organizations that hold conventions have 2 major criteria: it has to be in a place that will maximize attendance and it has to have low costs/overhead (usually that means a non-union setting). Buffalo would fail on both of these accounts.

     

    Thanks for that info. If domed stadiums aren't used for conventions, then what exactly is any new domed stadium in Buffalo going to be used for?

     

    7 or so Bills games per year.

     

    Concerts? Unlikely. The days of stadium concerts are over.

     

    Super Bowl? Keep dreaming. Lack of hotel rooms dooms this.

     

    NCAA Final Four/Regionals? Don't hold your breath for a Final Four, but Regionals are a possibility. However, the First Niagara Center has already hosted a few subregionals, and appears to be in the NCAA's rotation of sites, without a domed stadium.

     

    UB football? UB has its own on-campus 30K-seat stadium, and can't even come close to filling that.

     

    A Bowl game (Blizzard Bowl/ Niagara Bowl/ Buffalo Bowl)? There's too many of those now, plus any new bowl game will be relegated to lowest-tier status. Not a whole lot of revenue generated there, with the potential of being a money loser.

     

    What other events can be held in a dome that would attract out-of-town dollars? I'm hard-pressed to think of any. Monster truck rallies, anyone? If the future owner of the team wants a new playpen, fine. He/She/They can pay for it themselves, because I doubt it's gonna be used more than 10-20 times a year.

  7. I remember the News did a study of convention centers in midsized cities, and Buffalo's came up woefully undersized compared to cities like Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Cincinnati. And that was in the 90s. If a downtown dome could be used to increase convention floor space, then by all means make it happen. Do conventions use domed stadiums?

     

    As far as the Ralph goes, I believe there was talk a few years ago about how the structure was aging. Do wider concourses increase revenue? No, but they do increase gameday comfort. If the Ralph can be maintained indefinitely with regular upkeep, fine, but if it's aging to the point of becoming a money pit, then start planning its replacement.

  8. AND AGAIN, WHEN HAS THE WEATHER EVER BEEN AN ADVANTAGE IN THE LAST DECADE FOR THE BILLS? Players are coming from all over in todays NFL, and the weather has been all over the place recently with Nice warm Sundays happening into Decemeber sometimes. If a new stadium is going to require that it be a dome to make it viable as a year round facility for other events, then thats what it will have to be.

     

    Agreed. The "weather advantage" is BS. Didn't stop the Dolphins from winning 10 straight games up here in the 70s. Hell, didn't stop the Dolphins from winning up here last year.

  9. The two biggest mistakes made in Buffalo in my lifetime were the decision to build the main UB campus in Amherst instead of downtown on the tnen vacant waterfront, and the failure to build the Bills stadium in Cheektowaga as a domed stadium. That being said, the ships have long left the dock, and it is way too late to rectify either situation. Fix the Ralph and move on.

     

    If the proposed Lancaster dome had been built, it would've have been outdated and most likely replaced years ago. I believe the seating capacity for football was somewhere around 60,000, and it was going to be configured for baseball as well as football, making sightlines less than ideal.

  10. I'm having a nice discussion with my friend about this topic. Here is what would make the most sense. Keeping the Ralph in O.P. Moving Coca-Cola field to the river front. Anything they want to do in a new stadium can be done in that. No excuses. The only thing you won't be doing is playing NFL football in it. Ralph should NOT leave to go down town.

     

    To me this sounds like it makes the least sense.

  11. In other Council matters Tuesday, Pat Freeman, sports director at WUFO 1080-AM radio, gave a presentation calling for the construction of a domed football stadium in downtown Buffalo, rather than making renovations to the current Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park.

     

    Freeman was invited to the session by Majority Leader Demone A. Smith.

     

    buffalonews

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