sullim4

My dad and I are going to the Giants game this coming October. We always purchase tickets in the club section as we only make it out to Buffalo once a year, and figure that we might as well go for nicer seats. Today I saw a listing on Stubhub for a pair of tickets at $500-ish each. Not cheap, but for club seats on a Sunday night, it's a pretty good deal that's not completely "too good to be true." Turns out when I received the electronic transfer, the seller fat-fingered or miscategorized his listing, and the tickets were actually in the corresponding 3XX section, not the 2XX section. This is obviously very annoying as now I am going through a rigamarole with Stubhub to prove that these are not some other random pair of tickets, and that the seller indeed sent me tickets that were worse than what I had paid for. Stubhub has told me that they will replace these tickets, but they make no guarantee on where those tickets are, nor when I will receive them. They could literally come the day of the event. I was told I have "plenty of time" before the event and they will replace them. That's just crazy to me as I want to be able to choose what tickets I want to buy, not be at the mercy of some bean counter at Stubhub to replace them. I make a big deal out of this because this is now the second time I have been hosed by Stubhub in 3 months. I had purchased tickets for a concert at a local winery over the Memorial Day weekend. Stubhub never delivered the tickets. They kept telling me to wait - literally until the day of the event - and then admitted that they couldn't give us what they promised. I got a refund in that case, but missed the event. The tl/dr: Stubhub does not verify that sellers actually hold the tickets they are selling. Only Ticketmaster's resale system seems to be able to do that. Do not assume that Stubhub's "Fan Guarantee" will mean you'll be happy. I think once venues switched to mobile ticketing, it has removed resellers' ability to verify tickets and thus you're dealing with a bit of the wild west on their platform.

With Yolo gone… it has been tougher for me to get the up-to-the-minute news since I don’t have a Twitter account. I do hope he eventually comes back.

Well we can see that CBS is going all-in on the Aaron Rodgers bandwagon.

Retirement isn't doing nothing. Maybe he enjoys the part time job with little pressure to perform. I have to admit, when thinking about what to do when I retire, the idea of being able to take people around to learn about a passion of mine has high appeal to me. This is the type of gig that I might be interested in when I retire. It keeps you active, moving around, meeting new people - it's a pretty healthy thing to be doing in retirement. Plus it's supplemental income.

This is the death knell in their coffin. No one in their right mind is going to pay this. Look at the newspapers from smaller metros for the future of The Buffalo News - they have a reporter or two that writes a couple articles a day, with a bunch of filler from wire services like the AP, AFP, Reuters, and Bloomberg. As others have said, many don't have home delivery anymore and rely on the USPS. Interestingly the downfall of the local rags is going to hit the major nationals - NYT, WSJ, WaPo, etc. Local printers are responsible for printing and delivering those newspapers nationally. They will lose their circulation partners as these smaller newspapers fail.

Oh come on guys, it was a gray Ford Taurus!

If that's the case, I feel really bad for the guy. Always, always swim parallel to the shore until you can break yourself loose. Never fight the current.

Agreed... but there's other stuff unrelated to "fluff" that's wrong with Highmark. Namely that the stadium is structurally deficient. The "trough"-style urinals are about 40 years past their prime. I'm fairly certain it is one of the only NFL stadiums that retains bleacher-style seating. "Dated" is exactly the right term. The sightlines are great, as is the atmosphere... but it's time for a new one. It doesn't have to be fancy or have over-the-top amenities.

... but can he hold for Bass?

https://www.stubhub.co.uk/nfl-london-2023-jacksonville-jaguars-vs-buffalo-bills-tickets-tottenham-hotspur-stadium-8-10-2023/event/105905006/ I have to think they'll go down in price after the initial public sale. These prices are currently more expensive than the airline tickets over there from the west coast for goodness sake.

Patience. Ticket prices usually peak right after the schedule release as out-of-towners lock in their plans, and season ticket holders evaluate which games they want to go to. Just check in every day or so for a month and you'll see someone looking to dump tickets at close to face.

That's a big loss for Delaware North, to lose the hometown deal. As the article alludes to, it's likely a drop in the bucket, but it doesn't reflect well on them. FWIW I've always thought concessions at the stadium weren't very well run and so I'm sort of happy that someone else will get a chance at making them better.

The NFL overplayed their hand on this one. I suspect if it was Amazon or YouTube that got it, there'd be less backlash as those services are at least already streaming some games. The funny thing is that you don't even have to pirate the game in the traditional to see it if you have something like YoutubeTV. VPN + F12 to change your lat/long to one of the local markets that gets the game over-the-air should be enough.

Their home schedule is absolutely loaded this year. Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Miami, Chicago, and Detroit are the 6 non-divisional opponents they play. Detroit hadn't visited Arrowhead since 2003. Miami was the logical choice. They try not to move divisional games. They originally were going to move Chicago over there, but KC blocked that as they wanted to play them at home. I would guess that would be a higher revenue weekend for them versus, say, Miami.

The one thing to watch for this year - it's the first year of the new media contract. The concept of AFC games on CBS and NFC games on Fox is largely dead. Each network will be able to select games from their traditional conference that will be televised on that network. All other games are up for grabs. This goes beyond the cross-flexing we've seen during the last contract. Expect a lot of 1pm non-headliner games to be on the non-traditional network to try to balance the network lineups - stuff like Falcons/Bucs might end up on CBS when FOX has a bunch of stinkers, and Browns/Broncos might end up on FOX if CBS has a boatload of bad games: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2023/01/nfl-media-rights-deals-refresher-monday-night-abc-espn-sunday-ticket-youtube/

Sounds like the perfect Edmunds replacement!

Count me in with the group that feels this is kind of stupid in 2023. With streaming being delayed, we're all getting the live feed at different times anyway. Are cable viewers "tipping" selections because they get the video 45 seconds before streaming subscribers? I'd rather get the news from a Bills fan anyway, as opposed to waiting for the talking heads and hearing it from Goodell. There's more excitement in that moment anyway.

I like the pick. Knox simply has not been a reliable pass catcher and Kincaid seems much better at that. I was never a fan of the Knox contract, and this feels like Beane would want it back if he had the chance as well.

I still don't think this is going to go well for either party, for several reasons: His off the field comments are going to be constant fodder for the New York media. This is not the Green Bay Press-Gazette or Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he is dealing with. It's going to be a distraction to the team at some level and I suspect it will be a constant source of drama during the season between the Rodgers and the coaching staff. Rodgers spent his entire career in one organization, one with a history of winning and a fanbase that's got a ton of patience. Neither of those apply to the New York Jets. Change at the age of 40 is a lot harder than it is at, say, 26 or 27 when many players hit free agency for the first time. He's clearly thin skinned and I suspect he's gonna play the blame game if/when things go south, just like he did in his last year in Green Bay. Finally, Rodgers just wasn't very good last year. He was in an average division in the easier conference and they still missed the playoffs. They had a win-and-in game against Detroit, a team he usually defeats with ease... and they lost. He doesn't strike me as the Tom Brady type of player that will be successful well into his 40s. His primary motivation this year appears to be to spite the Packers rather than a true desire to play - the guy nearly retired a few months ago. Spite only gets you so far. This move just wreaks of desperation to me. It's something the Bills would have done during the drought - and they did do it with Bledsoe. That got them a 9-7 season and a bunch of mediocrity. The reaction to this trade feels a lot like the Russell Wilson trade - that the AFC West was gonna be this super competitive division and that the Chiefs better watch out. Call me a homer, but I'm just not convinced this is gonna work for the Jets.

Paging @Jimmy Spagnola.... Thoughts? Did Baby Face Wilson get rubbed out?

I once saw Jeb Bush in the security line at MCO, about 10 years ago or so? I said hi to him, he seemed slightly annoyed. For a politician with presidential aspirations, he didn't seem very eager to talk to people. He ended up on a flight to DFW, and at the gate, he did the "fake talk on the phone" thing. He was facing a wall so as not to be noticed.

I do this with my parents. We are in the same DMA, but they live about 60 miles north. It's not a problem, they consider our houses in the same general area and thus we don't have to actually log in at the home IP address. NFLST will allow up to 2 concurrent streams. I believe YTTV otherwise allows all family members registered on the account to stream simultaneously.

I think this will help the defense, but it worries me as McD is not known as a strong in-game head coach. Particularly on things like challenges and using timeouts. I hope there is someone in his ear that he can trust that will alert him to stuff like this.

I'm gonna cut him some slack for going back to his old team. Doesn't hurt that Washington state lacks an income tax, either.

I actually think this makes a ton of sense for both parties. The Jets have to give up a first to GB anyway, and probably some conditional pick or a halfway decent player. Jackson gets out of Baltimore. A first round draft pick is gonna play for you for five years at a rookie deal. You really want to trade that away for a cranky 39 year old quarterback that has been using retirement as leverage against his team? I am not a huge Lamar Jackson fan, but I would rather trade two firsts and pay him than make a deal for Rodgers. Rodgers is a drama queen, hasn't been nearly as good as past years, and has been spoiled by playing in a small market for a good franchise. The Jets are the complete opposite of "small town, well run". He is going to be in for a rude awakening if this deal consummates.