Peevo

Yeah its very tough. As far as I understand, and an economist I am not, but the real problem is in their retirees' pensions/health insurance plans. I think I read somewhere that GM only makes a couple hundred bucks/car they sell? And on average a GM vehicle is, what, $15,000? Maybe more? It seems on here NOBODY wants to talk about anything other than the Bills and their immediate opponents. Which is understandable because its a Bills message board. But I think the original intent was to tie some issues currently to the local economy at hand, which, in turn, affects the Bills. Call me crazy.

Totally nailed it right there. A generation ago, the US economy shifted from manufacturing to service. The "Rust Belt," cities in the Midwest/Eastern Bloc, near the Great Lakes (Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Erie, Detroit, Milwaukee, et all) still have yet to truly recover or redefine themselves from that image. As much as I love our history, and I cite my Rust Belt roots with pride, our attitude about how we do business in Western New York HAS to change for us to have any growth in the future. I was raised in the 'burbs, I admit. Kenmore is first ring though, the city is at least bordering the village. Sprawl has KILLED this region. Either from fear of crime, or simply the city schools are just too bad to raise a family in, suburban sprawl and the systemic shift of resources really hurt us. While I've read that the housing market in Erie County, and the city municipality is on an uptick from the rest of the industry, its still VERY hard to do business here. The highest property taxes and sales tax in the country? Erie County. How do businesses survive when the county that "supports" them bleeds them to death? And of course, no surprise, but the teachers unions are all up in Collins's grill because he wants to make it easier for bad teachers to lose their jobs without all the bull sh-- and red tape. You wonder why the city schools suffer? Cause nothing ever changes, nobody wants to be held accountable. The fastest rising industry in Buffalo, and the country as it stands? Debt collection. Wow. Seriously? Is our entire economic system just made of charging people obscene interest, and then renegotiating the terms when they can't pay it?

You didn't read my post. I was born in '87. I have, well, no recollections of the 80's. Sorry I was 2.

I don't post here often at all. I'm sure I'm probably gonna get flamed to all hell for this post. But after witnessing this nuclear holocaust of a football game last night I have to get some thoughts off my chest. Any Buffalo sports fan born on or about 1985 or after, I was born in '87, must be suffering from an inferiority complex the size of the Atlantic. Seriously. We have NEVER witnessed anything close to a winner. I was 2 years old when Norwood missed the field goal. I have no recollection of any Bills playoff games of that era, let alone any of the regular season games of the "days." The only playoff games I can remember vividly remember watching, were '98-'99, when I was literally 12 years old, worrying about Star Wars, Magic Cards, and Final Fantasy VII. I'm SICK OF LOSING EVERY YEAR, EVERY TIME. I can't take it anymore. These teams, Sabres, Bills, et all find ways to make me miserable time and again, every year. I just want FOR ONCE in my life, to sip a beer, and watch a Bills playoff game. Just one. Seriously. We can get killed 53-3, I don't care. I just wanna watch the Bills in the playoffs and appreciate it. The older generation at least can look back and say, "well at least I can remember when..." Anyone from 16 years of age on can only remember heartbreaking loss, after blowout, after heartbreaking loss, after blown call et all. We haven't had a winning season since I was a senior in High School, and even then, we choked vs Pittsburgh's 3rd stringers. Yes, this is a rant. I'm offering no analysis or contribution to yesterday's meltdown. But I really don't care. I'm sick of this. Someone convice me how to stop caring so much, so I won't be this depressed again. There needs to be SOMETHING to do here besides drink and watch sports. Good job Bills, you've reaffirmed all young fan's cynicism, fatalism, and distrust in anything you guys do. Call me a baby, a whiner, fine. But seriously, if anyone is below the age of 30 reading this, I think can somewhat identify with what I'm talking about. JUST ONE WINNER. That's all I want and Ill never complain again. I promise.

wow. look at the big brains on brad.

This probly sounds terrible, and I'm not trying to make light of the situation at all. If Lynch is found guilty, he should be subject to the punishment suitable for the crime. But in all in honesty, I just don't really care. I really hope that he just doesn't get suspended so he can carry footballs past the line of scrimmage, get first downs, get touchdowns, and all that professional football player stuff. If we're only gonna have a team here for a few more years, I wanna have an opportunity to enjoy every play, and hell, who knows, win football games while we still have the Buffalo Bills? Selfish, I admit entirely, but I'm sick of worrying about all this crap.

Ha-larious. I crack myself up on that one.

I think Shopp is coached to be arrogant, and some what pretentious to his audience. It makes for good radio. You can't have every host go through the motions on every broadcast. WGR is trying to establish and expand their listenership. He said it himself, "how do you get people to listen to sports radio, make it not about sports radio." And he's absolutely correct. There's plenty of time on their show when sports isn't even close to the topic. Bulldog will talk about his wife/kids and their funny mishaps, trying to attach himself to the 40+ adult male market. I'm 21 years old, don't have kids, I don't identify with him, but I certainly can understand why most people will. Who listens to sports radio? Mostly adult men, correct? So what do you adult men like? (Speaking in pure demographic, maybe even stereotypical means) Beers, hot chicks, golf, then somewhere down the line, pop culture (movies, music, video games, etc). You can't please everybody, but I think their jobs are to entertain their base listenership. I just think the one thing that I can criticise Shopp for is his sometimes just lack of factual knowledge. He gets on callers A LOT for not having their facts straight, yet he'll say things completely wrong and pass them off as fact. (he said the Miami heat won the championship in 2004, wrong it was 2006, there are other examples, that's just what comes to mind). And back to the appeal to the demographic point, Shopp gets on the NFL a lot for their marketing techniques, that it is only for the hardcore, total fantasy football nerds, not for the traditional, "for the love of the game" sports fan. But the same is true for WGR in general. They have "ball girls." IE, hot chicks that go promote their events because they're hot. If WGR was sports for the "love of the game," they wouldn't need hot chicks just to get people to their promotions and such. Its all just appealing to one's demographic. This was a long rant, I'm out.

Yeah that's probably correct. I think as more time passes, we're all getting a cold, hard lesson in the economics of "big time" sports. What's really sad, is just like any other corporation, the NFL is legally bound, per SEC law to hold no accountability to anyone other than its shareholders. Its only purpose, as a corporation, is to make profit. Not only profit, but as much profit as is humanly possible. Therefore, as PTR said, if Rogers Centre generates twice the renevue per game as it would in Buffalo, it benefits the best interest of the league proper to have all games played there. More revenue for the Bills means more revenue shared to the league. What's amazing is how the NFL still markets itself as some, "every man" league. That baseball is "America's passtime" but football is "America's game." Brilliant. Yet really, football now is truly "corporate America's game." It may be a shotty point, but anybody think that a politician could have the balls to bring Anti-Trust legislation against the NFL? Is not the National Football League a monopoly on the game, thus, preventing any successful or alternative competition? Just a thought.