GhostsOfTheRockpile

Rest assured the NFL wouldn't allow that, May Day. Any new stadium that is built needs to pass muster with the NFL. I'm not saying the league has say over every aspect of a stadium's development (they do have certain requirements for things like the filed, locker facilities, broadcast booths, coaches booths, where cameras are to be placed, etc), but there will never... EVER... be any "bargain-basement" stadium built in the NFL. They simply won't allow their collective product to be sullied by another Pontiac Silverdome or Three Rivers Stadium. And no offense, but nobody's going to give you any assurances about anything. Some of the "soul" of going to a Bills game is going to die no matter what sort of stadium they move into... and like I've been saying throughout this thread, that won't necessarily be a bad thing.

I have no problem with it and still enjoy going to games there, but it IS a dump. The parking lots, the stadium concourses, bathrooms.... the entire place (minus the suites and club levels) is a toilet. But I do agree leaving it for a dome would suck. If only [insert new owner here] were rich enough to build an open air stadium downtown with an attached events/convention center to generate revenue year-round.

Lambeau is unique. It has grass but with synthetic grass and other support "woven" in. The field is, believe it or not, its half turf/half grass. Stadiums with grass: FedEx Field Arrowhead Stadium Mile High Stadium Dolphin Stadium Bank of America Stadium Cleveland Browns Stadium Qualcomm Stadium Candlestick Park LP Field Lincoln Financial Field Jacksonville Municipal Stadium Raymond James Stadium Heinz Field Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Soldier Field University of Phoenix Stadium Reliant Stadium Stadiums with turf: Ralph Wilson Stadium Meadowlands / new Meadowlands M&T Bank Stadium Qwest Field Paul Brown Stadium Gilette Stadium new Cowboys stadium Ford Field Georgia Dome Superdome Lucas Oil Stadium Metrodome Edward Jones Dome I'd love to get a grass field - especially considering our stadium isn't used for other events that would tear up the turf - but with grass in this climate you run the risk of losing the ability to grow grass later in the year, resulting in a terrible playing surface. That's why the Pats changed to turf, and why folks in Pittsburgh are often crying out for turf (but the team refuses to switch... so far).

Good point, nucci. It worked like a charm. My roommate in grad school was from Philly, and his family has had seasons tickets since the mid 80's. They had four tickets to games at the Vet, but were "priced out" of two of them, but still hold onto two. To this day, they all maintain moving to the Linc was the best thing that ever happened to the Eagles. Not just for business reasons, but because it changed the atmosphere at games. He tells me you'd be surprised at how energetic and fun a game can be even without the "raucous" drunks in the upper deck. Think about Sabres playoff games. People go nuts, and yet the percentage of drunk idiots is TINY compared to your average Bills game. Its possible to create an amazing home field advantage atmosphere without treating the stadium and surrounding property like a toilet. There has to be a way to capture the middle ground between the family friendly Sabres game atmosphere and the often ridiculously over-the-top atmosphere at Bills games.

Just a quick note to whomever made the comment about Pollian being happy with the Colts $500 or so million dollar stadium. New estimates peg costs of construction and last-minute-fix-ups at over $800 million for Lucas Oil Stadium.

I love it to death, but The Ralph is a dump. Period. As 8and8forever mentioned, too many people turn the stadium and parking lots into their personal toilet. Concourses are tight, dark, dank and disgusting; bathrooms are tiny and scarce; there's what... ONE ATM on the entire property? Places I've been to: M&T Bank Stadium: in my opinion, the best stadium in the NFL, bar none. I've sat down low and up high, and the sight-lines from both are fantastic, concourses are open, the stadium is easy to get around, plenty of bathrooms and concession stands, its clean... top notch. FedEx Field: as another poster mentioned, the amenities are second to NONE at this point, the stadium is clean, the concourses are nice... but there's ZERO atmosphere in there, and if you're sitting up high it can feel like you're a mile away from the field. Plus, the stadium has obstructed view seats. IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Epic fail. Gilette Stadium: quite the paradox. Its one of the nicest stadiums I've ever been to (and I've been to about 17 MLB stadiums on top of these football stadiums), but its miserable to watch a game if you aren't in the club level. The lower bowl is on a gentler slope than I'm used to at my seats at the Ralph, so looking around people in front of you gets annoying, and if you're in the upper deck... forget it, you're a mile away. Plus, the way it is constructed with open endzones and corners makes it nearly impossible to retain any sort of sound. Miserable. Heinz Field: awesome. Second only to Baltimore, and amazing for the same reasons. Meadowlands: as big a dump as the Ralph, only cleaner. SkyDome / RogersCentre: I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. To be honest, some of the idiots at Bills fans could USE getting priced out. It isn't always a bad thing when the car full of 20-year olds that shows up, gets wasted, pukes and passes out in the stadium can't afford to come to the games. Ideally, any new stadium or Ralph renovation would cut capacity to the high 60,000's, raise prices a bit, drive up demand/cut supply, and price out some of the jerks who use it as an excuse to make asses of themselves (and yes, I realize this would likely result in the pricing out of perfectly civil, die hard fans... to them I say, welcome to the NFL of Kraft, Snyder, Jones, Johnson and Mara).

Disclaimer: I think - at this point in her life - Megan Fox is really hot. That said, she's the kind of broad who's looks are going to go FAST. She's got that slightly trashy-yet-sexy thing going now, and that's freakin' sweet and all... but up close she's not THAT great. Her skin looks all pockmarked, she's always got makeup caked on, has the unnerving ability to look like a decades-long chain smoker. I understand this could be said about MANY female celebrities, but she's the subject of this thread, so there ya go. (Somewhat related, I've always agreed with Gregg Easterbrook... NFL cheerleaders are much hotter than anorexic Hollywood starlets).

Again, just to be clear, the 3-4 and the 4-3 have NOTHING to do with cover-2. We all understand that, right?

ANOTHER 3-4 discussion? Seriously? I'm not sure any of you advocating for the 3-4 actually know what it is. Stroud at NT with Denney/Kelsay/Schobel at DE's? HAHAHAHA... you'd have the worst defense in the league, bar none. Our non-existent pass rush would, somehow, get worse. Posluszny and DiGiorgio inside?!? HAHAHAHA... this defense would get run over each and every game (yes, even worse than it does at times now). Cover-2 has nothing to do with the defensive front you play, as some of the more knowledgeable posters have pointed out. Teams in a 3-4 can run a cover-2, teams in a 4-3 can run a cover-2, teams in a 46 can run a cover-2. The problem with the Bills defense isn't the scheme, its the PLAYERS. I know people worship at the altar of Whitner and Posluszny around here, but these guys are - at best - AVERAGE players. It doesn't matter what defense you run. If you have talent, you'll succeed. Putting Posluszny into a 3-4 isn't going to suddenly make him good. Nor Whitner. Nor Schobel, Kelsay or Denney. The roster simply isn't good enough for ANY defensive formation right now.

As I wrote in a post earlier in this thread, Denver WILL NEVER have a Super Bowl because their mean temperature at the time of the Super Bowl is NOT above 50 degrees and they do not have an indoor stadium to counteract that fact. Whatever their convention situation happens to be is irrelevant.

Not entirely true. The fact is, NOBODY knows where each cent went. That project has been a clusterf--k from the start. But the state has paid HUNDREDS of millions of dollars for roads, infrastructure, land acquisition, building parking ramps, etc. The Yankees completely ripped off the taxpayers of the city, county and state of New York. Of that there is no dispute.

I'd love to have Tebow... if we had a creative offensive coordinator. The kid is a great football player. I'd find a way to get him on the field, whether at TE, some sort of H-back... and give him 10-15 "wildcat" snaps a game. He can make plays and needs to be given the chance. That said, if I'm him I stay at UF. They're going to win it all again next year as the SEC takes a bit of a hit, UF returns everyone on D, and he has the chance to win a 3rd national title and a 2nd Heisman and get consideration for best college player ever (although I think Young was a better college player this decade... Reggie Bush is close, not to mention the fact Leinart and Ken Dorsey had fewer losses COMBINED).

I have to agree with Tortured, Bullpen. I don't think that's what's keeping Denver out of the Super Bowl running. Two things work together to keep it from going to Denver: 1 - open air stadium 2 - NFL rule requiring mean temperature of 50 degrees at the time of the game Can't imagine Denver in February is that balmy.

It should be, but it isn't. The last lease with Erie County gave the Bills exclusive rights to negotiate the sale of the stadium's naming rights. Ralph isn't cheap and I personally don't think he's senile... I just think he's a bad businessman. "Dumb" is more apropos.

A few points: 1 - believe it or not, there is NO ROOM on the outer harbor for a new stadium, unless you're rehabilitating the steel mill brownfields. The old Pier land isn't nearly wide enough, there are still viable businesses (Nanodynamics, for one) utilizing large swaths of land south of there, and besides... we've made so many mistakes with the waterfront in the past, now is the time to continue the momentum of creating public spaces there. Bike paths, boat docks, living and work space... not some white elephant that - even if it had a retractable roof - would only be used at MOST 30-40 times a year. Not to mention access to the outer harbor is TERRIBLE (how many times would the Skyway be closed during the season?). 2 - A Super Bowl is never... EVER... coming to Buffalo. Detroit, Minneapolis and Indianapolis have much larger convention infrastructure that NFL rules demand (large conference spaces, a large number of hotel rooms, etc.). It would take a massive turnaround for the city - and a billion dollar+ retractable roof stadium - to even warrant CONSIDERATION. 3 - Jim Kelly couldn't run a restaurant in the Main Place Mall, which - by the by - he still carries debt for (people he owes money to are STILL trying to collect). I'd have very little confidence in him running the Bills. The best we can hope for at this point is that he's become hunting buddies with someone - or met someone through his Hunter's Hope/universal newborn screeing work - with boatloads of cash. Billions. He'd likely be a figurehead/minority owner for a purchase group at that point.

Ralph has money. The team makes money. More could be spent. Ralph continually compares the Bills to the Cowboys or the New York teams or the Patriots. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should be looking to Cleveland, Cincy, Pittsburgh, etc. And don't just have the knee-jerk "those cities are larger and have bigger corporations." I understand they do, but consider... the Cardinals have 88 suites (they call them lofts) running from the $65k range up through the $125k range. Some of the worst suites at the Ralph - the Dugout level, in the tunnel end-visiting team corner - cost $80k a year. And many (most?) are sold. I can only imagine what the club level "executive" suites (that are also much larger) cost. I'm not saying Ralph doesn't face challenges. He does. My point is merely DO NOT TAKE IT AT FACE VALUE THE BILLS ARE AT A MONSTROUS COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE WHEN IT COMES TO SUITE SALES. It simply isn't true. Yes, much of that comes from the fact there is little-to-no debt on the team or the stadium/facilities... but Ralph makes copious amounts of money.

Some of you need a refresher in stadium economics. The Colts just built a retractable roof stadium for over $800 million (budgeted in the $700 million range, but many reports about cost overruns have the final cost extending beyond $800 million) in a right to work state. In New Jersey - a union state like New York - the Jets and Giants are building an open air stadium for over a billion. A new open air stadium in WNY - even one stripped of the bells and whistles and ultra-luxurious amenities the Jets and Giants are likely to include - would still cost in the $700 million range or so. You cannot compare a new stadium built in today's economy to one's in Pittsburgh, Cincy or Cleveland built an economic lifetime ago. Energy costs have risen. Access to capital has severely constricted. The price of steel in the global market has skyrocketed. Not to mention the fact anything in the cities of Buffalo or Niagara Falls is going to include major demolition and utilities work. Anything with a retractable roof is going to cost near a billion clams. The best bet for the Bills is a Lambeau Field-like overhaul of the Ralph. I'm not talking about spending $10 million here or $20 million there like they have in the past... I'm talking a $300-$400 million overhaul of the stadium. Concourses, A/V, club levels, replace many benches with actual seats - lowering capacity and increasing demand, renovating each and every suite with modern amenities... the list goes on. If they were to build a brand new stadium, they're better off building in the lot just north of The Ralph. The infrastructure is already there and it wouldn't create a white elephant downtown.

Oh PLEASE!!! Jerrah is no saint. He just did what EVERY OTHER OWNER IN PROFESSIONAL SPORTS would have done. You don't get any credit for doing what you're supposed to do.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, no contest in my opinion.

"Skin" starring Ron Silver. "His father is the DISTRICT ATTORNEY!!!" Seriously though, "Freaks & Geeks." Hands down.

With respect to the original poster, that is still not a winning team. Not with next year's schedule and Jauron as coach it isn't. Still average at LB. No pass rush whatsoever. No help in the interior for Stroud. No good option if Edwards continues his regression and isn't the answer. Offensive line is still mediocre.

Who the hell said Rachel Nichols was hot?!? She's the James Laurinitis of female broadcasters... ridiculously overrated, only looks good against weak competition, can't hold a candle to the elite. Pass.

I'd rather be the Braves or the Colts... or the Marlins, or the Diamondbacks, or the Carolina Hurricanes, or the Tampa Bay Lightning... than the Buffalo Bills. Like Marv once said, "It helps to win that championship." Until the Bills do, they're one of the biggest laughingstocks in the history of professional sports.

Don't waste your time. The guy is an idiot.

Who cares. He's saying he wants to help name the guy who is in charge of personnel, not make personnel decisions himself. I applaud the guy for recognizing a coach can't generally pull off the GM role at the same, and for demanding say in who his future team names as the guy who scouts and drafts the players he's going to coach. I don't think its the ideal approach to take, but as I said before... I'd much rather have Cowher (hypothetically) picking the Bills' next personnel chief than Ralph, Russ, etc.