Are Bills games really that family unfriendly?

[jonramz]

With the Bills starting their tailgating crackdown I wanted to see what others thought

 

I've been going to Bills games since I was 5 years old... so I've been going for almost 30 years, my dad took me to games and we had some of the best times going and tailgating and rooting for the team, good or bad. And it is a shame with what is going on... when I was a little kid my dad didn't take me to the rowdy places like the pinto (which I don't actually think is that bad compared to some others). Just like you wouldn't take a little kid into a bar.

 

He taught me right from wrong and the proper ways to do things. If anything, seeing those things every once and a while and my dad explaining to me what I should or shouldn't do probably helped me in life instead of living a sanitized sterile childhood.

 

I think there is plenty of room at a Bills game for families and the people who want to party, if anything the crowd is far less rowdy than it used to be. The rowdiness of the tailgaters is what gives the Ralph its party atmosphere and what makes the games worth going to. It makes it an event. If I want to watch the game in a quieter environment I can watch on my couch and save over $100 a game. If you want to see rowdy and crazy go see a European soccer game, that makes our football crowds look quiet.

 

So basically I think the Ralph is a fine place to bring your family for a game... should you bring them everywhere? Or course not, but nor should you bring your kids everywhere you go in your normal life either. If you kill the "event experience" at a Bills game, you kill most of the reason to go to the game

 

EDIT: I just wanted to add that when I was little we sat in the endzone and upper deck, so I saw my share of crazy... now I sit in sec 134 so I am definitely not one of the wild partiers, I just love the atmosphere of going to the games

Edited September 17, 2010 by jonramz

[John Cocktosten]

Wait until around week 6 when the Bills are officially horrible and even the most optimistic of fans have given up and tell me that it's a family atmosphere.

[KD in CA]

Unfortunately, I think most pro football games are far from family/kid friendly environments. Even if 90% of the people are normal and courteous, that still leaves a lot of drunk a-holes screaming profanities at people over what hat they are wearing.

 

College football by contrast has almost none of that. That is where to take your kid if you want a family environment.

[BillsFanNC]

My dad started taking me to games when I was seven and of course I saw some rowdy drunks back then, but nothing like it is today. I have an almost six year old now and there is no way that I'd bring him to a game. No way in hell.

[K Gun Special]

really? i dont notice that much difference. Ive been going since i can remember and there were always rowdy drunkards. People always say its worse than the good ole days regardless of the topic. But realistically i don't think its that much worse. The Bills have sucked so people are talking about it more. Kinda like shark summer syndrome.

[major]

I have been to a lot of NFL stadiums for games and I can honestly and sadly say that the games I have been to at the Ralph are the most unfriendly I have encountered. For example, I witnessed two fans in their 40's harrassing a 6 year old kid for wearing a Jaguars shirt to a game, etc... There is no way I would bring my child to a Bills game. It's sad when I have to tell people that the most unfriendly atmosphere I have been to is my own team's.

[K Gun Special]

I have been to a lot of NFL stadiums for games and I can honestly and sadly say that the games I have been to at the Ralph are the most unfriendly I have encountered. For example, I witnessed two fans in their 40's harrassing a 6 year old kid for wearing a Jaguars shirt to a game, etc... There is no way I would bring my child to a Bills game. It's sad when I have to tell people that the most unfriendly atmosphere I have been to is my own team's.

 

Interesting take, i too have been to many other stadiums and found them to be similar, with albeit less tailgating but still obnoxious fans. For example in a 31-0 routing of the bills at pats, i had beer thrown on me, stuff thrown at me. And i was with pats fans and never stood once--nothing to cheer about.

[Ever Since '86]

Depends on the age of the fans IMO...but the space to tailgate is so large I don't think it's too hard to avoid most of it if you have kids.

[PromoTheRobot]

Depends where you sit. Some fans make it pretty scary. That said, must everything be like Disney World? Not everyplace needs to be family friendly.

 

PTR

[billsfaninvgs]

Unfortunately, I think most pro football games are far from family/kid friendly environments. Even if 90% of the people are normal and courteous, that still leaves a lot of drunk a-holes screaming profanities at people over what hat they are wearing.

 

College football by contrast has almost none of that. That is where to take your kid if you want a family environment.

 

 

Not all stadiums don't sell beer... For example in Las Vegas and Reno you can buy beer until the start of the fourth quarter.. Now Unlv usually is a bad team (like the Bills) so the games don't sell out and are usually pretty good.. When a big time school comes to play the games sell out and those fans aren't use to drinking beer during the game so they get way to drunk and start fights and it's usually a mess..

[plenzmd1]

I have two kids,9 and 11, and they have been to two games. One last year and one about 4 years ago, and they absolutely loved it. Did they hear some cussing(outside of mine lol) and see some drunks, absolutely. But they are "teachable" moments so to speak. Kids are pretty smart, they see how foolish these folks look, and think that will stay with them a while. Now, we have not seena brawl yet, and that may scare them a bit, but we shall see.

[mikey98277]

Depends where you sit. Some fans make it pretty scary. That said, must everything be like Disney World? Not everyplace needs to be family friendly.

 

PTR

 

 

 

It has to be if you want to be a good buisness, as many are talking about on here how they went as they were little, and it is a tradition from when there were little, if the company (NFL) does not make it that way it is allot less likley that they will want to go to every game out of the blue if they had not already been exposed to it. They will be more likley to be content watching the game on a TV as they had grown up doing. So just like cigarettes, you gotta hook em when they are young so you continue profits down the road with the new generations.

[sharper802]

I am bringing my 7 and 8 year old sons to the Jax game. I am 39 years old. If anyone is drunk and rude to my kids or won't sit down when they are supposed to I am reporting them to security. Go ahead call me names but I am flying across the country and paying a lot of money to go to the game. If someone wants to get drunk stay at home or at least be a happy drunk. Why should my fun be ruined by someone acting like an ass? You all know there are many fans that act that way. We are no better and no worse than any other fans.

 

Unfortunately, I think most pro football games are far from family/kid friendly environments. Even if 90% of the people are normal and courteous, that still leaves a lot of drunk a-holes screaming profanities at people over what hat they are wearing.

 

College football by contrast has almost none of that. That is where to take your kid if you want a family environment.

You have never been to a college football game then. They are just as bad. If you sit in or near the old alumni section then maybe it is ok. Anywhere else it is one big drunken party. I went to Ohio State and heard some of the worst things I have ever heard directed at the other teams's players and fans. Now OSU may be one of the worst but I have many friends from many other schools that say it is exactly the same.

[CountDorkula]

I think in the very near future you will see tailgiting times mandated by The NFL. I honestly think they will push to have a 3 hour time limit between hours between when the lots open and game time.

 

Many people dont like going to games because of the Drunks and the idiots. They also have to battle with the vastly improved TV coverage of teh games. The NFL is pusing very hard to get the stadiums to be more family friendly, and I applaud them for doing so.

 

I enjoy tailgaiting as much as the next person does, but I dont understand why you have to get blackout drunk as to where you cant walk, cant find your way to the stadium, or get rejected at the gate.

[Mike in Syracuse]

Mostly yes! But it really depends on where you sit and who you sit with.

 

I posted this in another thread but I think it's worth putting here:

There are people that like to go to the games TO WATCH THE !@#$ING GAME?

 

The purpose of a Bills game is not to see how much alcohol you can drink before you're unable to walk into the stadium. I've been to dozens of Bills games and every time I see guys and gals who are so unbelievably drunk that they can't sit up on the freaking seats.

 

Here's the crux of the problem, it costs me about $175 to bring my 11 year old son to a Bills game. I'd LOVE to bring my 5 year old daughter to a game but there is NO WAY that is going to happen. I'm not going to shell that kind of money so my son can sit there and watch some drunk stupid ass shout "MOTHER !@#$ER" for 2.5 hours.

 

The people who can't control themselves are ruining the experience for everyone. The reality of NFL ticket prices mandates that they appeal to a wider audience. Working dads with disposable income are thinking twice about buying tickets because of the atmosphere.

 

If you want to go to a tailgate, there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself and having some drinks. It's just not necessary to get drunk at levels that would get you thrown out of any bar in the state.

[Golden Wheels]

For example, I witnessed two fans in their 40's harrassing a 6 year old kid for wearing a Jaguars shirt to a game, etc...

 

1998 Niners @ Bills. I saw a group of grown men in Bills gear taunt a 10-year-old boy in a Steve Young jersey.."Go back to San Francisco with the rest of the f@gs you little P*ssy." People around them were telling them to STFU, but they wouldn't. It was one of the more disgusting things I've seen at RWS.

[beerme1]

I wouldn't bring a kid under 14 to a game and dont really want to see one at the game either. Then again, I wouldn't take a kid to Vegas, or Key West and want to have explain whats going on lol.

[CountDorkula]

I wouldn't bring a kid under 14 to a game and dont really want to see one at the game either. Then again, I wouldn't take a kid to Vegas, or Key West and want to have explain whats going on lol.

 

Why should kids under 14 not be going to games with their fathers? That seems like one of the best father son moments you can have. I know when my dad brought me to my first Bills game, its a day i wont forget. Now your telling me kids under 14 should not go to games because people cant control themselves and have to act like a bunch of animals. If you want to act like an animal thats fine, but do it at your own home where the rest of us dont have to put up with you.

 

That drunk guy heckling everyone may think he is being funny, you are not.

Edited September 17, 2010 by CountDorkula

[Campy]

Unfortunately, I think most pro football games are far from family/kid friendly environments. Even if 90% of the people are normal and courteous, that still leaves a lot of drunk a-holes screaming profanities at people over what hat they are wearing.

 

College football by contrast has almost none of that. That is where to take your kid if you want a family environment.

 

Last Bills game I went to I took friends from here who had never been to an NFL game. Not kids, these people were in their 50's, and they didn't care who was playing whom because they were tailgating at an NFL game! And they wore their jerseys for their favorite team, an NFC team we hadn't played in years (Rams) - because I said it'd be fine. I knew that once Bills fans saw my Jeep covered with Bills flags and magnets, and me with my jersey and hat and Bills tablecloth...

 

Not all Bills fans are a-holes, obviously. But the crew that showed up yelling f-bombs in to their faces with so much passion that spittle flew in to my friend's faces more than made up for the normal people. Yell, cheer, chant, holler and hoot. It's all good. But those drunks ruined the NFL experience for my friends and for the first time ever, made me embarrassed to be a WNY native and Bills fan.

 

Just not worth that crap - life's too short. Oh, and Hi KD, hope all is well...

[akm0404]

I think a lot of the people here get off on wildly exaggerating the amount of unruly behavior at the Ralph. I've been going to games all my life (early 30s now), and have had season tickets for a long time. Sure, I'll see the occasional person who is visibly intoxicated staggering around the parking lot before games (esp. the rare night game), but some people make it sound like every other person is literally vomiting on them.

 

I've tailgated in every stadium lot, and I've had seats in the endzone corners, and seats closer to the middle of the lower bowl. As the seats got better, the rowdiness declined. But even in the rowdiest of sections you won't hear/see much more than some crass language and an occasional shouting match.

 

People like to drink a few beers and get loud. If you (or your kids) come to the stadium wearing the jersey of the opponent, you absolutely should expect to get razzed about it. Oh no, someone told little Jimmy that the Dolphins suck. I suppose he'll be committed to a life of crime now.

 

My childhood memories are much the same - hearing some language that I didn't hear on a daily basis, and it was pretty darn fun and exciting.

 

Let your kids out of the house - it'll be ok. People aren't running around murdering each other and projectile vomiting all over your precious snowflake.