DFlo Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Diary of a Small-Market Team in the NFL Here's a piece I wrote about the struggles of a Small-Market Team in the NFL and what we as Bills fans can look forward to in the future. Basically a bunch of thoughts I think most of us Bills fans have been dealing with over the years. Let me know what you guys think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucci Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Small market in the NFL means less than other leagues because of the billions of dollars they get from TV and the fact that much of the revenue is shared. While it is not a perfectly level playing field it is pretty close. Put a quality management team together and you can be very successful no matter where you are located. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonabb Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Small market in the NFL means less than other leagues because of the billions of dollars they get from TV and the fact that much of the revenue is shared. While it is not a perfectly level playing field it is pretty close. Put a quality management team together and you can be very successful no matter where you are located. Agreed! A committed owner with good management can do well in any small NFL market because the NFL brand is such a huge advantage, not to mention league committed to revenue sharing that helps the small markets. I for one think the small market moniker doesn't fit bflo due to a haphazard definition of geography by the league. Someday I'll make that argument here with some good analysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFlo Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 Small market in the NFL means less than other leagues because of the billions of dollars they get from TV and the fact that much of the revenue is shared. While it is not a perfectly level playing field it is pretty close. Put a quality management team together and you can be very successful no matter where you are located. You make a great point about the small market effect in the NFL not being as bad. What I'm trying to point out is that it's not just that. Other small market teams in the NFL are succeeding, so why not the Bills. It's a history of mistakes and a whole slew of reasons that I point out in the article. Also, I agree with the quality management team remark with the condition that you have a franchise quarterback, or have the ability to obtain a franchise quarterback. Agreed! A committed owner with good management can do well in any small NFL market because the NFL brand is such a huge advantage, not to mention league committed to revenue sharing that helps the small markets. I for one think the small market moniker doesn't fit bflo due to a haphazard definition of geography by the league. Someday I'll make that argument here with some good analysis. Agree with the first part. Would love to hear your reasoning for the second part Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucci Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 You make a great point about the small market effect in the NFL not being as bad. What I'm trying to point out is that it's not just that. Other small market teams in the NFL are succeeding, so why not the Bills. It's a history of mistakes and a whole slew of reasons that I point out in the article. Also, I agree with the quality management team remark with the condition that you have a franchise quarterback, or have the ability to obtain a franchise quarterback. Agree with the first part. Would love to hear your reasoning for the second part When considering the Buffalo market, many include Rochester and Southern Ontario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2020 Our Year For Sure Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 It's a small market because despite selling out The Ralph we can't make nearly the revenue other teams can from ticket sales. Whether the market is literally small or not geographically doesnt really matter-- the dollars arent there. Still agree we could win with a dedicated owner and good management Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewildrabbit Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) It's a small market because despite selling out The Ralph we can't make nearly the revenue other teams can from ticket sales. Whether the market is literally small or not geographically doesnt really matter-- the dollars arent there. Still agree we could win with a dedicated owner and good management That is because the owner chooses to have the cheapest ticket prices in the NFL.... what this man doesn't realize is he is the owner of one of only 32 teams in America's most popular sport. Put a winner on the field and he could charge top prices, instead he wants to go the Walmart way. Bill Polian tried in vain to teach him how to build a successful NFL franchise, Wilson does things his way. The biggest flaw in the history of the team has been the owners reluctance to hire a top president-GM-head coach and give them the power, and when he did happen to hire-find the right people he didn't retain them for whatever reason. Let's not forget that this owner had a GM who was arguably the most brilliant football mind the NFL has seen for the last 30 years in Bill Polian, and fired him He had John Butler (AJ Smith) and fired him He had Chuck Knox and didn't retain him You can make up any "small market" analogy you want, the bottom line is this owner is simply happy with a profitable business.... rather then a winning organization. Edited August 1, 2011 by Harvey lives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8-8 Forever? Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 That is because the owner chooses to have the cheapest ticket prices in the NFL.... what this man doesn't realize is he is the owner of one of only 32 teams in America's most popular sport. Put a winner on the field and he could charge top prices, instead he wants to go the Walmart way. Bill Polian tried in vain to teach him how to build a successful NFL franchise, Wilson does things his way. The biggest flaw in the history of the team has been the owners reluctance to hire a top president-GM-head coach and give them the power, and when he did happen to hire-find the right people he didn't retain them for whatever reason. Let's not forget that this owner had a GM who was arguably the most brilliant football mind the NFL has seen for the last 30 years in Bill Polian, and fired him He had John Butler (AJ Smith) and fired him He had Chuck Knox and didn't retain him You can make up any "small market" analogy you want, the bottom line is this owner is simply happy with a profitable business.... rather then a winning organization. yep. top FA won't come for that reason as well, if they can get the same $$ elsewhere. we get the Kawika Mitchells, the Marcus Strouds and Nick Barnetts of the the world, guys on their last contract. We're like a minor league baseball team. Until stable long term ownership is in place, top tier NFL people are not coming to this franchise. Of course, the team will also be gone at that time. Sucks to be a Bills fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFlo Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 Thanks for reading and replying guys. Pretty much agree with everything you have to say, most of which I reiterate in the article. Also, bump for those who haven't had a chance to read this yet. I'll just post the article in: Diary of a Small-Market Team in the NFL The offseason is a time of hope in the NFL. It is a time when the disappointments of seasons past are forgotten, fan bases rejuvenated, and the common fan can gradually begin to ‘Bill’-ieve again. However, for one small-market team the end-of-lockout euphoria and revitalized hope towards the future was short-lived. It took all but 5 days for reality to suck the hope out of the entire Bills fan base. Reality can be harsh. It can bring with it the bitter chill of a truth too hard to swallow. For most teams in the NFL, reality is a cycle of peaks and valleys. Having some good years and some bad ones. Some playoff runs and some years at the bottom. Maybe even a Super Bowl or two. But for the Buffalo Bills, reality is a state of dormancy with highs of mediocrity and lows of a league-wide laughing stock reputation. A dormant phase that can test the loyalty of even the most devout Bills-Backers. Quick question: Why do the Bills have such a loyal fan-base? Because only the most loyal of human beings can put up with what they put up with - the rest were weeded out during the Mularkey/Jauron era’s. But other small-market teams have proven to be successful in the NFL (see Packers, Green Bay.) Why can’t the Bills be more like them? First off the Bills are a small-market team in a state with a relative high income tax-rate (8.97% compared to say Texas or Florida with 0%). Therefore, right off the bat the Bills must pay more for their players to compensate for this than other teams. Secondly, to put it nicely, the Bills do not have the geographic appeal of most of the other teams in the NFL. Add to that a sense of uncertainty regarding the future of the organization centered around a cloudy succession plan for their aging owner, Ralph Wilson. And for good measure, sprinkle in a somewhat frugal owner, a culture of losing, and a jaded fan base. And there you have it. This is why the Bills can’t be more like the Packers or the Colts. If the Buffalo Bills have so little going for them, how then can they compete with the ‘have’ organizations of the NFL? It boils down to two things. They must out-draft their competitors and be able to maintain their home-grown talent. The Bills over the years have been one of the worst drafting teams in the league with early-round blunders like Mike Williams, JP Losman, John McCargo and the Aaron Maybin debacle. The second part of the equation is retaining your home-grown talent. The Bills have, again, struggled with this as they have failed to retain top players like Pat Williams, Jabari Greer, Jason Peters, and just recently Paul Posluszny. This problem is a little bit more complicated in that you can’t just throw more money at these players. They must want to spend the next significant part of their careers in your city and sacrifice their bodies for the benefit of your franchise. With uncertainty at the top of the organization, a culture of losing, and a fan base growing more and more impatient - simply put, players just don’t want to play out their careers in Buffalo. The organization took a step in the right direction and addressed the drafting issues with the addition of Buddy Nix in 2009 and his subsequent promotion to General Manager in 2010. Now, it’s time for them to address the second part of the equation and build something special that players want to be a part of. Scouting is a significant piece of the puzzle, but the only way to get over the hump and compete with the elites of the NFL is with a franchise quarterback. It’s time for Buddy Nix to pull the trigger and invest in a franchise quarterback for the team. A franchise quarterback will not only give a team an identity, but also organizational stability in that coaches will be given at least a few years to develop their team around their quarterback. The Bills currently have a stop-gap quarterback in Ryan Fitzpatrick. A guy who Nix has stated the team can win with, but doesn’t see as the future of the franchise. At the same time, the Bills, along with a few other teams, have a golden opportunity. This opportunity comes in the form of a talent loaded quarterback crop for next year’s draft class, headlined by Stanford’s Andrew Luck. If the Bills can get their hands on a guy like Luck, it will do wonders for their organization as well as the city of Buffalo. Now the quarterback they take doesn’t have to be Andrew Luck, they just need a quality franchise quarterback. Although many see Luck as the best quarterback prospect since Peyton Manning, that’s not why I brought him up. I brought him up because he’s already proven that he can take a laughing stock program like that of Stanford and turn it into an elite championship contender. It won’t be a Mark Sanchez-like situation in which he inherits an elite defense to mask his mistakes and ease him into his role. The next franchise quarterback the Bills take is going to have to do it himself with mediocre talent surrounding him. The chips will be stacked against him. It will be easy to fail. That’s why it’s critical to get the right guy. The bottom line is that the Bills can’t afford to miss on a quarterback this time around. The franchise is at the tipping point. The new regime has settled in. They have brought in some talent. Whether the Bills dip back into mediocrity or take a giant leap forward will depend on who they bring in as their franchise quarterback. If they get it right, it will restore the hope of a city. If they get it wrong, the cycle will repeat itself. Your move, Buddy Nix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Linen Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 As soon as you wrote this " It took all but 5 days for reality to suck the hope out of the entire Bills fan base.", I stopped reading. Why dont' weak people like you just speak for yourselves? I'm feeling optimistic and hopefull. But I guess misery loves company. The piece should should be titled "Diary Of A Wimpy Fan". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 It's easy to claim "small market" except every team gets a pretty good percentage of their revenue from television. It's easy to claim "income tax" except the JETS' and Giants' (and others) players pay really high income taxes but have no issues sticking around or signing as free agents. Those free agents will spend SIGNIFICANTLY more money to equal the standard of living they'd enjoy in Buffalo. It's easy to say "weather" until you realize that Green Bay and Pittsburgh have pretty crappy weather and have zero problem building quality football teams using every available avenue. The only reason the BILLS can't compete is because their owner has stuck with the same vision/tactics that has had the team mired in the NFL basement for most of his tenure. The Polian era was the aberration of Ralph's ownership, not the rule. Those of you who find other reasons for the continued failures are simply too young to see the history repeat itself yet again. I actually have small reason for hope because of Gailey/Nix. They seem to have a clue about how to build a football team, despite the handcuffs that have obviously been placed on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNTANBILLSFAN Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 It's a small market because despite selling out The Ralph we can't make nearly the revenue other teams can from ticket sales. Whether the market is literally small or not geographically doesnt really matter-- the dollars arent there. Still agree we could win with a dedicated owner and good management I always thought players salaries were covered by the tv money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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