Bills vs. Jets Tickets Selling as low as $8

[JMF2006]

9 hours ago, JohnNord said:

Pretty crazy, just checking out the prices for the game on Sunday.  The tickets seem to be selling for super cheap.  You can buy 300 level seats for $8.  $8!!!!!!  Everywhere else seems cheap as well.  Endzone for $50?

Am I missing something?

 

I guess there are some reasons for this:

 

Vaccination Mandate

Bad weather

Issues with Canadian border

Lack of interest in Week 18?

 

Any other thoughts why ticket prices would be so low?

 

Its a bit surprising considering the Bills could win the AFC East Championship with a victory.  
 

Could this be a sign fans are sick of the crappy winter weather?

 

https://www.ticketmaster.com/buffalo-bills-vs-new-york-jets-orchard-park-new-york-01-09-2022/event/00005A8799AF1DE4

 

We are waiting for a dome  

 

Vaccination Mandate

Bad weather

Issues with Canadian border

Lack of interest in Week 18?

 

Plus all of the above

[JMF2006]

My thinking is we already have an open air venue and while its not perfect its viable.

 

A 500m in a reno would do the trick

 

If your building a new one for 1.4-1.6m why not get a roof?

 

To me it makes sense.

[ProcessTruster]

9 hours ago, Jimboismyman said:

It’s also the Jets. Most fans won’t want to over pay to watch the bills play a crappy team 

Factor in the time change. Im not looking forward to a 4:25 kick off. I would much rather have my typical 1 pm Sunday kickoff. 

yeah, around 630 in the dark and cold and wind , you'd be completely frozen ...no thanks.   Tough scheduling year this year with 2 last games at home, which should be an advantage, but watching the game Sunday the fans looked really cold

[WotAGuy]

6 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Are you dense?  We don't resell our tickets online so they aren't being transferred........so they would not know this information.   And no........they have no idea whatsoever who sits in our seats.   I could give you more specific examples to prove that but let's just say the banned ***** tossers could walk in with some of our ST cards for all they know.  As far as they know we have 30 full time ST holders when it's more like 15 people who pay for all of the tickets and actually attend every game.

 

Those 15 tickets will be all that's left if they triple in cost.  

 

Now there is plenty of money in Bills fandom to fill 60K considerably more expensive seats........Joe-sixpack doesn't think so but there is..........the key is making it worthwhile for them to show up.    The outdoor environment in Nov/Dec/Jan closes the market off to people with means who might bring their wives and kids or people who might fly in from their seasonal homes or just ex-pats with means.   The kind of people who aren't put out by the cost.

 

 

I just don’t think the Bills care about this issue of late season game attendance; they probably have a plan to make it more tolerable, like heated areas to have a drink and watch the game. 
 

The Bills are a multi-billion corporation. They know the market. They will be focused on selling licenses and season tickets. They won’t be depending on people buying/using tickets to late season games because the tickets will already be sold. 

I can see why you and others that buy extra season tickets as an investment (either financially or as a business-related “gift” for customers) are concerned about being able to dump your late season tickets.  But the Bills already have your money and they don’t care. 

 

[Mr. WEO]

Yes build a dome for future week 18 games.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It's been like this for as long as I can remember, even the Super Bowl 90's. You couldn't get rid of December tickets, especially for an NFC team. That's why I'm stunned the Pegulas are insisting on an open-air stadium.

 

Insisting?

 

If they wanted one they could add easily a dome.  They don't want to pay for one. 

[mead107]

Been going to games 30 years. 
sat in a lot of cold rain snow weather 

that’s football 

 

suck it up. 
 

now that I’m old I like the club seats. 
under the heater or sit inside club and watch TV 

next year I will not be a season ticket holder 

will make one or 2 games 

Buy tickets last minute for next to nothing. 

 

[Canadian Bills Fan]

11 hours ago, JohnNord said:

Pretty crazy, just checking out the prices for the game on Sunday.  The tickets seem to be selling for super cheap.  You can buy 300 level seats for $8.  $8!!!!!!  Everywhere else seems cheap as well.  Endzone for $50?

Am I missing something?

 

I guess there are some reasons for this:

 

Vaccination Mandate

Bad weather

Issues with Canadian border

Lack of interest in Week 18?

 

Any other thoughts why ticket prices would be so low?

 

Its a bit surprising considering the Bills could win the AFC East Championship with a victory.  
 

Could this be a sign fans are sick of the crappy winter weather?

 

https://www.ticketmaster.com/buffalo-bills-vs-new-york-jets-orchard-park-new-york-01-09-2022/event/00005A8799AF1DE4

 

 

Ugh...

 

$8.00 USD is still like $4,354.75 Canadian :(

[LewPort71]

11 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

It's supposed to be a rainy, sleeting and snowy day.

So, it's a normal day at The Ralph.

 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

$8 for the Nose Bleed of Nose Bleed seats. 
 

in the furthest upper corner seat 💺 

[Greg S]

I know its the secondary market but $8 is pathetic for a potential division clinching win at home. When was the last time the Bills clinched the division at home?

[BearNorth]

December 28th 1963.  Pats at Bills in the Rockpile, AFC Playoff to meet Chargers in the title game.  21 degrees wind chill of 9, tickets were my big christmas present - our seats in the bleachers were formed by pressing a garbage can into the snow since Buffalo had a foot of snow earlier in the week.  Makes me think hey, a dome would be good.

[Rochesterfan]

9 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

 

That's like a half face truth

 

12 home playoff games at the Ralph in the bills history

 

How many have not been sold out? 2-3? Jim Kelly wasn't playing in one of them either   

 

The Ralph used to hold 80,000 plus back in the '80s 90s..  place was rocking the majority of the time 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this above is a half truth - there were a few that didn’t sell out, but even with the ones that did sell out - there were a bunch that Ralph or several other local businesses had to pick up the last 5-10,000 tickets to get the sell out.  They would then distribute to Veterans groups or give away to the snow shovelers.

 

It seemed nearly every late season and playoff game after the 90 season - everyone was on the edge of their seats on Thursday waiting to see if we would hit the magical sell out number by the 1pm cutoff for the game to be on TV.

 

Then we would get notification that Ralph picked up the last 8,500 tickets and gave them to this charity or that group.

 

If the companies or Ralph hadn’t bought those tickets - we would of never seen most of the late season and playoff games in the 90’s.

 

At the peak of team success - late season games would garner about 69,000 fans and the remaining tickets were almost always difficult to get rid off.

 

It is even worse now as you can bring less in with you.

 

 

[PromoTheRobot]

9 hours ago, Bills fan since 87 said:

 

I grew up in the ADKs.  It was odd.  Channel 7 was cbs out of syracuse sometimes, even though it was technically a "watertown station".  Both 5 and 7 were CBS.....Maybe that played into it?

 

Anyway, go scoop up some cheap tix folks!  We got a division to win!

 

Except that was not Montanas last game.  He lost to the Fish the following year in the playoffs as a Chief..

 

Well it was the beginning of the end. He got pulverized by Bruce Smith that game.

[Matt_In_NH]

I find this surprising with the division on the line.  I get its December and weather but $8 is basically free, $50 too.  Wish I lived in the region still

[Just Jack]

2 hours ago, BillnutinHouston said:

The stadium holds 71,608 and there were significant chunks of the upper level unoccupied.  It was the most sparsely attended game of the year.  My guess would be the attendance was closer to 62,000.

 

That was after the renovations.  Before the 1997 (or maybe 1998) season, the stadium held just under 80,000.  

8 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I’m guessing this is why the new open air stadium will only have 60k seats.

 

Funny side note, when the Pats* were looking to relocate to Hartford, CT, the stadium design that Kraft came up with, was only going to have 60,000 seats and 60 suites, similar to what is rumored for the new Bills Stadium. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Just Jack

[Gisele]

Didn't read all the comments but I'd say a lot of this is the fact that everyone is sick.  Lot's of people are either physically sick or just getting over being sick.  

[djp14150]

11 hours ago, JohnNord said:

Pretty crazy, just checking out the prices for the game on Sunday.  The tickets seem to be selling for super cheap.  You can buy 300 level seats for $8.  $8!!!!!!  Everywhere else seems cheap as well.  Endzone for $50?

Am I missing something?

 

I guess there are some reasons for this:

 

Vaccination Mandate

Bad weather

Issues with Canadian border

Lack of interest in Week 18?

 

Any other thoughts why ticket prices would be so low?

 

Its a bit surprising considering the Bills could win the AFC East Championship with a victory.  
 

Could this be a sign fans are sick of the crappy winter weather?

 

https://www.ticketmaster.com/buffalo-bills-vs-new-york-jets-orchard-park-new-york-01-09-2022/event/00005A8799AF1DE4

 

vaccination required existed at start of season…not an issue.  The Covid spike is though,

 

weather concerns…this can occur with every  game.  Many fans drive from 2+ hrs away to see the game.

 

border isn’t an issue because it’s been going on all season 

 

STH selling tickets because 3 home games in 4 weeks is tough on them to do…especially with another hone game next week…thus 3 weeks in a row and 4 in 5.

 

game time concerns people  who drive farther out where getting home is 9 pm or later.
 

Concerns of more drinking pregame.  

 

 

the Jets suck.  The ticket sellers could be Jets fans hoping their team had something to play for. Now they don’t.

 

Ticket holders now are Covid positive or close family members or friends are.

 

I went to Carolina game.  Was in town thst weekend thru mid week.  We went as a group of 8 to the game6 of us sat together in one area. The other 2 are STH.  
 

not sure if it was from the game, on Tuesday we found out one tested positive. It was very mild/ asymptomatic.  We got tested as negative. A few days later one of the other people at game tested positive as did his gf.  Unsure if his came from his work or gf. But gf had got boosted. He hadn’t.

 

we alsosocialized with him snd his gf on Monday night when we got together with friends+SO fir dinner. There was 15 of us. It could have been more but a few couples backed out.  The guys couldn’t go to the game because of other commitments with work and game schedule flex uncertainty in trying to plan around that.

 

 

 

 

[Bills fan since 87]

13 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Well it was the beginning of the end. He got pulverized by Bruce Smith that game.

 

Yep, I rememeber.  Had to leave the game in the 3rd qtr i believe

[PromoTheRobot]

46 minutes ago, Greg S said:

I know its the secondary market but $8 is pathetic for a potential division clinching win at home. When was the last time the Bills clinched the division at home?

Think about this: it costs more to buy Sabres tickets!!

[Greg S]

Just now, PromoTheRobot said:

Think about this: it costs more to buy Sabres tickets!!

 

Ouch. I get it if it was a meaningless game between two bad teams but the Bills can clinch the AFCE at home for the first time decades. 

[Son of a K-Gun]

1 hour ago, Canadian Bills Fan said:

 

 

Ugh...

 

$8.00 USD is still like $4,354.75 Canadian

And that's before we add in the $200 or so to get the impossible to book PCR test allowing us to come home.

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

It’s a myth that the “ravenous Bills fans pack the crib for every home game” …. No matter the teams record, actual game attendance tails off as the regular season nears an end

[Virgil]

11 hours ago, Mc1320 said:

If the new stadium only has 60K seats, that will right size the stadium for the market.

When they add PSL’s and jack up ticket prices, they are going to lose season ticket holders.  I’m very nervous they don’t understand their fan base.  
 

The fact that people can’t give tickets away should be another indicator of needing a dome.  Not wanting to sit in icy conditions doesn’t make you less of a fan.  Most people have 65* inch TVs at home and a family.  A dome would easily make people more inclined to go to a game 

[cd1]

12 hours ago, WotAGuy said:

It’s only a problem if playoff tickets are available for $8. 

 

Ha ha, but then again, January 3, 1993 was a blacked out playoff game in Buffalo that will both be never forgotten and never remembered by many.

 

[BillnutinHouston]

1 hour ago, Just Jack said:

 

That was after the renovations.  Before the 1997 (or maybe 1998) season, the stadium held just under 80,000.  

 

 

Right.  I said "holds" which is present tense, in response to a statement about current capacity, not past capacity.  

 

[Arkady Renko]

I would have gone last Sunday or this Sunday but I have a COVID outbreak in my house.  

[Jimboismyman]

11 minutes ago, Arkady Renko said:

I would have gone last Sunday or this Sunday but I have a COVID outbreak in my house.  

I had to take 2 tests last week because I was exposed prior to christmas. I wasn’t going to risk exposing everyone at the tailgate. 

That’s also a huge reason with ticket sales being so cheap. People would rather sell tickets for cheap instead of having their seats empty. 

my busdy has 2 extra season ticket seats. He just sold them to my friend for 30 each. 

[TheFunPolice]

I'm not a fan of this 17th game, although I thought I would be. 

 

This feels like a preseason finale. Actually, the entire Week 18 slate of games, except for a couple, is pretty pointless feeling. Not at all what the NFL intended. 

 

There's hardly any drama to this week's games, and they went all out with Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders expecting a bunch of high stakes games. I think it's because the NFC is a steaming pile of dog doo except for a few great teams, which makes for a ton of gross games that mean nothing.

 

Who could have foreseen that with 7 playoff teams per conference AND an extra game that pretty much everything is already settled before week 18 even kicks off? It's really down to 1 spot per conference open and 71 improbable things need to happen to even change anything. 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by TheFunPolice

[Captain Hindsight]

58 minutes ago, Virgil said:

When they add PSL’s and jack up ticket prices, they are going to lose season ticket holders.  I’m very nervous they don’t understand their fan base.  
 

The fact that people can’t give tickets away should be another indicator of needing a dome.  Not wanting to sit in icy conditions doesn’t make you less of a fan.  Most people have 65* inch TVs at home and a family.  A dome would easily make people more inclined to go to a game 

I don't think it matters. For me personally (as a ST holder) the thing that gets me at the end of the year is just a game takes all day. I leave my house in Rochester at 8am, i get home at 630-7 on a good day. 8 on a bad day.

 

By game 6-7, I'm pretty tired. Its hard to convince my wife to give up another Sunday or to leave our child for a whole day. Having 3 straight home games to end the year with a home playoff game is a month straight of Sundays away from the house, unable to do what I need to do and its expensive to park, tailgate ect. For people that aren't diehards, its hard to do that, especially after the holidays when money is tight for most families. Add in Covid

 

If the game was inside, I would still be worried about losing a day at home, costs, travel time, food/drink. The weather isn't a big issue IMO. Certainly not to the people of WNY who grew up in this  

[Captain Caveman]

I had my tickets in section 126 listed at less than half face (face is 88$) for the last 2 home games and couldn't sell them. I tried giving them away and couldn't find takers.  I think it's a combination of bad weather, and aa reduced audience due to border closing and vaccination manadates.

[Mickey]

12 hours ago, Just Jack said:

 

You sure Syracuse had it? I had to watch it on the Watertown station.  Maybe you got it on the Utica station? 

I watched the game in Syracuse, at my brother's house on Tipp Hill.

 

[SF Bills Fan]

I'd just give the tickets away to youth groups and people that normally could not afford to attend. 

[DasNootz]

I went last weekend and sold 2 extras for 50% of face.

 

If you want to sell the idea that we can't fill the current stadium and should build smaller -

Vaccine mandate - Check
Border crossing issues - Check
Move the game to 4PM - Check

 

Throw in some poor weather and you're left with a market of local underage drinkers and tiktok wannabes. 

1 minute ago, SF Bills Fan said:

I'd just give the tickets away to youth groups and people that normally could not afford to attend. 

If you're a season ticket holder - donating is better than selling for 20% of face depending on your tax bracket.  

[GottaRun]

1 hour ago, Son of a K-Gun said:

And that's before we add in the $200 or so to get the impossible to book PCR test allowing us to come home.

Off topic but - what's your plan for the playoff game?  The test has to be done in the US so we can't do it ahead of time.  I'm not finding a lot on the internet about places a Canadian can book a PCR test in the US.

[BuffaloMatt]

Last game I went to Bills cinched east against the Jets. Weather was bad. Smerlas blocked FG. We stormed the field after the win and took the posts down! How do you compete with that! 

[BuffaloBill]

14 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

It's supposed to be a rainy, sleeting and snowy day.

 

That is very bad weather for a game. Did that once in my life and will not ever do it again.

[Royale with Cheese]

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/buffalo/14202/afternoon-weather-forecast/349726?day=5

 

UPDATE

 

AFTERNOON

43°

Real Feel® 30°

Rea lFeel Shade™ 30°

1/9

Cloudy and breezy with a little snow and rain

Wind WSW 22 mph

Wind Gusts 39 mph

Humidity 59%

Dew Point 28°

Probability of Precipitation 61%

Precipitation 0.08 in

Rain 0.08 in

Cloud Cover 99%

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Royale with Cheese

[Son of a K-Gun]

12 minutes ago, driddles said:

Off topic but - what's your plan for the playoff game?  The test has to be done in the US so we can't do it ahead of time.  I'm not finding a lot on the internet about places a Canadian can book a PCR test in the US.

Oh I missed that requirement that the test has to be outside of Canada, that's new.  I had planned on testing at a Rexall but had to wait for the playoff game to be set as I would be crossing back into Canada anywhere from Saturday night to early Tuesday morning.  It is becoming way too complex...I have no idea how to go about getting a PCR test with same-day results in a foreign country.

 

For any other Canadians thinking of going...

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada

Arriving by car, bus, boat, ferry or train

You must take a molecular test outside of Canada within 72 hours of your planned entry into Canada.

[RyanC883]

2 hours ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

It’s a myth that the “ravenous Bills fans pack the crib for every home game” …. No matter the teams record, actual game attendance tails off as the regular season nears an end

 

yep, even in the 90's.   It's 100% the weather factor.  Build a freaking dome.  (1) louder, (2) more out of town fans will buy season tickets because they won't have to worry about the weather.  I would.  

18 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

That is very bad weather for a game. Did that once in my life and will not ever do it again.

 

try doing it with kids, even worse ! 

[BADOLBILZ]

2 hours ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

It’s a myth that the “ravenous Bills fans pack the crib for every home game” …. No matter the teams record, actual game attendance tails off as the regular season nears an end

 

 

Game attendance falls off but the level of fandom of those that show up also gets VERY watered down.

 

Early in the season the fans scream over me at Daboll for his play calls...........late in the season fans also scream at Daboll when the Bills give up a big play on defense. 

 

I wish I was joking about that but I'm not. 

 

A significant portion of the crowd are just a bunch of casual fans/tourists on free passes late in the season..........always gets like that when the weather gets bad.