Zerovoltz Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Curious about the Bills footprint in it's market. I am not from Buffalo, WNY, the Northeast etc...I don't know your area etc. Denver would be a team with a large regional footprint where they have high numbers of fans in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, western Nebraska...that kind of thing. Mostly I guess I am wondering if Ontario is consider "Bills Country" or not? If it isn't why not? How much of New York do you say is Bills fan territory? What about Erie, PA is that where the Steeler or Browns butt up against Bills areas? Just wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyBatty is alive Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I would think Ontario is considered "Bills Country", at least judged by license plates at home games. Where is gets really iffy is when you get out to Rochester and east or down south toward Pennsylvania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I dont believe Ontario is Bills country. There are fans from many different teams. A lot of people from there root for the Bills and go to games though. I do think that if the Bills sustain some success here, people of Southern Ontario/Toronto will identify more with the Bills Erie PA is a good swing position between Bills/Browns/Steelers. Central NY about Syracuse is too 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo716 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 4 minutes ago, Zerovoltz said: Curious about the Bills footprint in it's market. I am not from Buffalo, WNY, the Northeast etc...I don't know your area etc. Denver would be a team with a large regional footprint where they have high numbers of fans in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, western Nebraska...that kind of thing. Mostly I guess I am wondering if Ontario is consider "Bills Country" or not? If it isn't why not? How much of New York do you say is Bills fan territory? What about Erie, PA is that where the Steeler or Browns butt up against Bills areas? Just wondering. Buffalo was once a huge city that has been shrinking for 50 years So there are buffalonians transplanted all over the US Western New York is obviously heavy bills country.. but everywhere you go from Florida to Texas to California you'll find pockets of Bills fans because they left and never came back 7 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg S Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Just now, May Day 10 said: I dont believe Ontario is Bills country. There are fans from many different teams. A lot of people from there root for the Bills and go to games though. I do think that if the Bills sustain some success here, people of Southern Ontario/Toronto will identify more with the Bills Erie PA is a good swing position between Bills/Browns/Steelers. Central NY about Syracuse is too I thought Central NY/Syracuse was a mix of Bills, Giants, Jets. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unbillievable Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Just look at the weekly broadcast map to confirm that Buffalo is a regional team. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albanyfan Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 1 minute ago, Greg S said: I thought Central NY/Syracuse was a mix of Bills, Giants, Jets. I think that bills, giants, jets (and pats) mix has shifted east to albany. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerovoltz Posted July 15, 2021 Author Share Posted July 15, 2021 1 minute ago, unbillievable said: Just look at the weekly broadcast map to confirm that Buffalo is a regional team. Sure...but that doesn't help me much with how they are followed in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
section122 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 10 minutes ago, Greg S said: I thought Central NY/Syracuse was a mix of Bills, Giants, Jets. In live in CNY and in my experience it is the Giants, Bills, Cowboys, Steelers. I'm not quite sure about the order but I don't think the Jets are a favorite in the area. If I had to rank I would put Giants as the clear favorite but that is fading with how bad they have been lately. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nester Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 30 year bills fan from British Columbia checking in to say hi! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyBatty is alive Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 16 minutes ago, unbillievable said: Just look at the weekly broadcast map to confirm that Buffalo is a regional team. So part of Wyoming now is Bills Country. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Otreply Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Former Rochester guy, living in CT, and snow birding to avoid winter, I see Bills fans everywhere I travel to, From up and down the East coast to the Bahamas, to California, we Bills fans are nation wide, and international 😁👍 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draconator Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 When I lived in San Francisco, there was a healthy amount of Bills Fans. The fun thing about that time is the Bills bar is across the street from the Jets bar. So there was a constant battle of the Shout Song vs J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets during games. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerovoltz Posted July 15, 2021 Author Share Posted July 15, 2021 3 minutes ago, RoyBatty is alive said: So part of Wyoming now is Bills Country. That's right....I had forgotten the Wyoming connection to JA. Northeast NON DFW Texas often gets Chiefs games for the same reason, as does Lubbock. Oklahoma City gets alot of Browns games for Baker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsFanSD Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I spent a few days hiking in the Rockies around Memorial Day, and of course I wore my Bills cap on the trails. I'd guess about half a dozen miscellaneous Bills fans said hi and stopped to talk about the team for a few minutes. That's indicative of a pretty good national following IMO. I mean, when was the last time you saw anybody wearing Jaguars gear unless they were literally just drafted and getting their hand shaken by Goodell? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Things Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 (edited) I consider the South Island of New Zealand, "Bills Country"! Not many/any other NFL fans around. Edited July 15, 2021 by Bad Things 5 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir andrew Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 For the most part, "Bills Country" stretches from Erie, PA from the west, St. Catherines, ON from the north, Syracuse to east and the NY/PA border to the south. As others have said, you'll find transplants just about everywhere. Particularly, in Florida. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msw2112 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 To respond to the original question, I would say yes, the Bills are a regional team. Bills "country" is all of WNY, extends east to Rochester and south to more or less the Pennsylvania border. Southern Ontario - Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, etc. is Bills country, but as you move west and north and get closer to Toronto, it becomes less so - NFL fans there seem to prefer many teams. Heading east, once you get past Rochester and get closer to Syracuse, it definitely becomes more of a mix of Bills, Giants and Jets. Separate and apart from this, as noted above in many places, the Bills have a very large national following. Bills fans are everywhere and are proud to be so. Bills fans in other markets tend to have a larger sense of comradery than fans of a lot of other teams that may be living out of their home market. I have encountered Bills fans all over the United States and internationally too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimShady'sSpaceForce Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 45 minutes ago, Zerovoltz said: Curious about the Bills footprint in it's market. I am not from Buffalo, WNY, the Northeast etc...I don't know your area etc. Denver would be a team with a large regional footprint where they have high numbers of fans in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, western Nebraska...that kind of thing. Mostly I guess I am wondering if Ontario is consider "Bills Country" or not? If it isn't why not? How much of New York do you say is Bills fan territory? What about Erie, PA is that where the Steeler or Browns butt up against Bills areas? Just wondering. what else is out there??? I’d say that KC and Denver share the same region because of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victory Formation Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 42 minutes ago, Greg S said: I thought Central NY/Syracuse was a mix of Bills, Giants, Jets. Central NY in my mind is mainly Bills fans, with Jets and Giants fans sprinkled in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chandler's Hands Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 What's amazing to me is if you live in NY state on the border with PA you find overwhelmingly it's Bills country (at least west of, say, Corning). Whereas if you drive 5-10 minutes south into PA it's clearly Steelers country. It's not like there is a river or mountains or a major city in PA splitting the two. Just the invisible border between states. Rochester is very much Bills Country. By the time you get to Syracuse it's more a split with the Giants and Jets, with Bills probably holding an edge. By the time you get to Albany it's Giants/Jets in the lead followed by Bills. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan in Cleveland Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Bills are a national team. It's not people from Buffalo that travel to away games. It is people that grew up and left the area that go to those games. There is a reason why there is a Bills bar in many towns and not a Browns or Jets bar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logic Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I don't know, but I'll tell ya one thing: the salary cap isn't real. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 1 hour ago, Buffalo716 said: Buffalo was once a huge city that has been shrinking for 50 years So there are buffalonians transplanted all over the US Western New York is obviously heavy bills country.. but everywhere you go from Florida to Texas to California you'll find pockets of Bills fans because they left and never came back Agreed… as opposed to Kansas City, where you will be hard-pressed to find a Chiefs fan outside of Missouri or Kansas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augie Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 55 minutes ago, Don Otreply said: Former Rochester guy, living in CT, and snow birding to avoid winter, I see Bills fans everywhere I travel to, From up and down the East coast to the Bahamas, to California, we Bills fans are nation wide, and international 😁👍 The TV coverage map is one way to look at it, but we don’t have sufficient coverage in any one area to affect what games are televised. Maybe a more telling way to judge it is the size of the crowds at Bills Backers bars and the attendance of people in Bills gear at road games all over the country. We are VERY well represented at away games, and it seems most (but certainly not all) of those fans live somewhere other than WNY. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punching Bag Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Hamilton area is very solid Bills with before pandemic had 10K Bills fans. As a Bills Backers president we used to have access to list of Bills Backers groups with numbers. The closer to Bills get with ticket resellers the less the Bills have been supporting such groups. When you get to Toronto area percentage goes down. There used to be Lions fans from from London to Winslor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerovoltz Posted July 15, 2021 Author Share Posted July 15, 2021 22 minutes ago, Rico said: Agreed… as opposed to Kansas City, where you will be hard-pressed to find a Chiefs fan outside of Missouri or Kansas. I'm not disagreeing with that. KC's fans are concentrated around KC and we pick up a bit of SE Nebraska, SW Iowa. Not much of a region compared to others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jauronimo Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 All teams are regional. Those regions are generally fairly small in the Northeast where you have half a dozen other metros within a few hours drive. The Patriots are the only truly regional team in the northeast as Boston is the main hub of the New England area. Denver is unique as they are bordered on all sides by massive states that do not have professional football. Dallas was also well positioned in that regard. The old Oilers leaving Houston crippled the Houston market. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T&C Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 1 hour ago, RoyBatty is alive said: So part of Wyoming now is Bills Country. Wyoming County always has been. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuvian Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 (edited) Ontario is bigger than most European countries and as such the Bills cannot claim it exclusively for their own. That said, the Bills can reasonably claim the Niagara region, St Catherine's and Hamilton. There are too many bandwagon fans in Ottawa and Toronto for the Bills to claim these cities exclusively. Ottawa is composed of many ex-Montrealers who fled separatist Quebec with Patriot loyalties. Ottawa and Montreal still have loyal CFL fanbases. Still Bills fans loom large in both Ottawa and Toronto. As you go west of Niagara Falls to Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Windsor you are in Detroit Lions Territory. Everything from Sault St Marie to Manitoba is split between the Packers and Vikings. This does not account for fans of "national" teams like Dallas, Pittsburgh and the Raiders for which there are strong followings. I have only met one Jets fan in nearly 40 years of living in Ontario. Edited July 15, 2021 by stuvian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motorin' Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 1 hour ago, Ethan in Portland said: Bills are a national team. It's not people from Buffalo that travel to away games. It is people that grew up and left the area that go to those games. There is a reason why there is a Bills bar in many towns and not a Browns or Jets bar. This map is pretty cool: https://map.paranoidfan.com/backers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChasBB Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 (edited) Here is map of Bills' region: Edited July 15, 2021 by ChasBB better link 2 1 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChronicAndKnuckles Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Absolutely. I am originally from Rochester and I would say we have just as many Bills fans per capita as Buffalo. Of course you have your generic “trying to be cool and go against the grain” Dolphins and Giants fans, but Rochester and all surrounding areas are generally pro Bills. There is also a huge following in NYC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickey Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Syracuse is mostly Bills country. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Given how tiny Buffalo is, the Bills define "regional team". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba Gump Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 3 hours ago, RoyBatty is alive said: I would think Ontario is considered "Bills Country", at least judged by license plates at home games. Where is gets really iffy is when you get out to Rochester and east or down south toward Pennsylvania. Being from Rochester I can confirm 100% that Rochester is at least 95% Bills fans. They start to fade the closer you get to Syracuse. Northern PA, like Bradford has maybe a 50/50 split between Bills and Steelers fans. Plenty of Southern Ontario Bills fans, just not sure I'd label it Bills country. Just like Detroit prolly has plenty of fans from Windsor, Ontario. But they wouldn't consider it Lions country. I'd consider true Bills country to be the NY/PA border to the west, Rochester/Geneva to the east and the NY/PA border to the south. IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 32 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: Given how tiny Buffalo is, the Bills define "regional team". Well, NYC area is massive, but you won’t find too many Jets fans outside of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 I represent Bills Mafia in Massachusetts. We are everywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 3 hours ago, Zerovoltz said: Curious about the Bills footprint in it's market. I am not from Buffalo, WNY, the Northeast etc...I don't know your area etc. Denver would be a team with a large regional footprint where they have high numbers of fans in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, western Nebraska...that kind of thing. Mostly I guess I am wondering if Ontario is consider "Bills Country" or not? If it isn't why not? How much of New York do you say is Bills fan territory? What about Erie, PA is that where the Steeler or Browns butt up against Bills areas? Just wondering. At the Bills lowest, least relevant or interesting point of the 2000's.......about 10-12 years ago.....about 15% of the season tickets were held by Canadians. Even then the Canadian base seemed to be growing...........though perhaps fueled mostly by the ability to have huge outdoor public tailgate parties. Ontario is much more restrictive in that regard. At the typical game in recent seasons there is a larger Canadian presence........I'd assume between 20%-30% of the crowd are from Ontario. Relatively easy to tell how many Canadians are around you because WNY and Ontario dialects are VERY different even if the people live as little as 10 miles apart from each other. There are about 15 million people in Ontario so it's got the potential be much larger still for the Bills if they can become important and develop a generation of new fans. The drought Bills survived and thrived because the SB-era Bills built a young, durable fanbase that became ST holders in the early 2000's...........another sustained run could really develop the market even more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalove1 Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 (edited) Im in Ithaca and its split with Bills and Giants. But Bills dominate in the rural areas and surrounding cities like Elmira and Cortland. With the Bills doing better and Giants sucking lately definite edge to Bills these past 5 years. Jets 3rd Steelers distant 4th Edited July 16, 2021 by Buffalove1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts