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very revealing info about fan support


dave mcbride

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Buffalo, despite being in the bottom half of capacity (90.1) is ranked sixth overall. The metro area size (1.5 million) is second to last, but the Bills are essentially tied with Jacksonville (1.6 million). There are a number of teams more likely to move than the Bills, as this makes clear: the Raiders, the Chargers, the Jaguars, the Vikings, and (to a lesser extent now) the Saints.

 

You need to click through this to see all of the profiles:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/slideshow/13.html?page=1

 

My read on all of this: fan enthusiasm is a major factor in the NFL's decision process, and TV ratings are significantly more important than metro area size (my sense is that the Bills are a more popular TV draw nationally when they're fielding a good team than many teams with larger metro areas). From this, I see the current rhetoric as the beginning rumblings of a drive for a new stadium, a drive that will most likely be successful.

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My read on all of this: fan enthusiasm is a major factor in the NFL's decision process, and TV ratings are significantly more important than metro area size (my sense is that the Bills are a more popular TV draw nationally when they're fielding a good team than many teams with larger metro areas). From this, I see the current rhetoric as the beginning rumblings of a drive for a new stadium, a drive that will most likely be successful.

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I'd love to see the Bills build a new stadium. That would mean they're in Buffalo for the long haul.

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I'd love to see the Bills build a new stadium. That would mean they're in Buffalo for the long haul.

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What about building a new stadium around the Niagara Falls area just across the border? That's a booming economical area and will likely increase fans coming in from the Hamilton and Toronto area?

 

Just a thought and you could still of course call them the Buffalo Bills and get some Canadian funding to build it?

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Building the stadium on the far side of the border would create a traffic nightmare before and after the games - 70,000 fans clearing customs? While I think marketing the team to Toronto and Hamilton is going to be important to the long-term viability of the franchise, it's never going to make up the support of Buffalo/Rochester.

 

We should play and annual preseason game in Toronto and another one at the Carrier Dome. That'd save the season ticket holders money and expand the regional.

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Building the stadium on the far side of the border would create a traffic nightmare before and after the games - 70,000 fans clearing customs?  While I think marketing the team to Toronto and Hamilton is going to be important to the long-term viability of the franchise, it's never going to make up the support of Buffalo/Rochester. 

 

We should play and annual preseason game in Toronto and another one at the Carrier Dome.  That'd save the season ticket holders money and expand the regional.

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How about building the stadium in Niagara Falls, NY?

 

Closer to RaChaCha and the Canadians as well.

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What about building a new stadium around the Niagara Falls area just across the border? That's a booming economical area and will likely increase fans coming in from the Hamilton and Toronto area?

 

Just a thought and you could still of course call them the Buffalo Bills and get some Canadian funding to build it?

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Abso :w00t: inglutely NOT!!! The Bills will not go to Canada...Niagara Falls isn't a terrible idea, the American side is where they need to be....

 

Dowtown Buffalo wouldn't be open enough for the tailgating experince....

 

There is nothing like the drive up Abbot road though....they should stay in OP

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I like the idea of having a new, state of the art facility built in Buffalo, with city landsca[e as the backdrop. The best way to eliminate this talk of moving would be to field a playoff contending team. We still have the lowest ticket prices in the league, I think fan interest has dwindled because of the fact that we have not been winning football games and we don't have a team leader ala Jim Kelly, Brett Favre. If we re-sign the core of this team (Losman, Evans, and to a lesser extent, McGahee) the fans will stay.

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Buffalo, despite being in the bottom half of capacity (90.1) is ranked sixth overall. The metro area size (1.5 million) is second to last, but the Bills are essentially tied with Jacksonville (1.6 million).  There are a number of teams more likely to move than the Bills, as this makes clear: the Raiders, the Chargers, the Jaguars, the Vikings, and (to a lesser extent now) the Saints.   

 

You need to click through this to see all of the profiles:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/slideshow/13.html?page=1

 

My read on all of this: fan enthusiasm is a major factor in the NFL's decision process, and TV ratings are significantly more important than metro area size (my sense is that the Bills are a more popular TV draw nationally when they're fielding a good team than many teams with larger metro areas). From this, I see the current rhetoric as the beginning rumblings of a drive for a new stadium, a drive that will most likely be successful.

865288[/snapback]

 

cool list, interesting study- I don't know how I feel about Pittsburgh being number 21 though

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Building the stadium on the far side of the border would create a traffic nightmare before and after the games - 70,000 fans clearing customs?  While I think marketing the team to Toronto and Hamilton is going to be important to the long-term viability of the franchise, it's never going to make up the support of Buffalo/Rochester. 

 

We should play and annual preseason game in Toronto and another one at the Carrier Dome.  That'd save the season ticket holders money and expand the regional.

865311[/snapback]

 

And you will need a valid US passport to return.

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What about building a new stadium around the Niagara Falls area just across the border? That's a booming economical area and will likely increase fans coming in from the Hamilton and Toronto area?

 

Just a thought and you could still of course call them the Buffalo Bills and get some Canadian funding to build it?

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Why not just rebuild the Ralph the Right Way. They could do half of the stadium a year.

You already have, the road system setup, the land so no one has their land stole from them for pennies on the dollar, electric, sewers, water drainage already, no environmental studies needed, no goverment where to put stadium decisions (which takes forever) Enviromental friendly.

If new stadium is built off site than what do you do with current property which pays no taxes, and new stadium site will pay no taxes.

Re-habed stadiums, Packers, Bears, and now Chiefs.

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A new stadium would be fantastic, and I agree that this might be what all the posturing is about. I'm sure the league, and some of the larger market owners, would love to see it as well.

 

The main reason is that new stadiums bring greater revenue -- mostly due to the luxury suites, though. That's where the argument suffers, I think. Buffalo has never been able to sell it's luxury suites easily, whereas it's much easier in larger markets.

 

I do think that a new stadium which seats more in the 60,000-70,000 range would benefit the Bills in terms of sellouts, but the problem is that ticket prices are bound to go up, and even at the current bargain prices (relatively speaking) we still can't guarantee sellouts.

 

So I think there are a many good things that could come from a new stadium, but a lot of question marks remain.

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My read on all of this: fan enthusiasm is a major factor in the NFL's decision process

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It's not fan enthusiasam - look at who's #1 on the list - the Cleveland Browns. It's been years since the team was good, the winter temp is cold, the metro area is small and still they support their team like nobody's business. This would be the same football-crazy place that had its team yanked from under them and move to Baltimore some years ago.

 

I think Buffalo is much like Cleveland in terms of a smaller metro area, blue collar fans and serious dedication to their long-historied team, so it scares me when the league could let the Browns move - they could easily let that happen in Buffalo regardless of the great fan support the team has had.

 

I think the "fan enthusiasam" factor comes into play when you talk about how many people nationwide follow a given team - the Packers are a great example - they have fans everywhere who are crazy for them - they are popular. Look at the Browns on the other hand - how many Brows fans do you see in Texas? Ever go to Los Angeles and see someone wearing Browns gear? They aren't popular nationwide even though they have great support at home - reminds me of the Bills again.

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If a new stadium were to be built, and the team were to generate more revenue, I think the stadium should be built off of the Thruway near Batavia. This would essentially double the size of the metro area to draw from (Buffalo and Rochester), making it much easier to sell suites, and would draw additional fans from Syracuse as well.

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If a new stadium were to be built, and the team were to generate more revenue, I think the stadium should be built off of the Thruway near Batavia. This would essentially double the size of the metro area to draw from (Buffalo and Rochester), making it much easier to sell suites, and would draw additional fans from Syracuse as well.

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Yep...that argument took place before Paul Brown Stadium in Cincy was constructed. Put it north of the city, get a bigger regional draw, and so forth. And that was all true, but the Hamilton County and City of Cincy politicos hated the ideas...an attack on their kingmaker power, so it ended up as an amazing sweetheart deal for owner Brown. There is zero promised area development - can't have folks not be captive to Brown's overpriced stadium food, etc. There used to be several eateries and bars within normal walking distance of the old stadium - but no more.

 

Latest insult...the deal had a clause that owner Brown would get taxpayer $$$ for any and all construction if any of the other 31 teams made improvements. He just got a million taxpayer bucks for replacing his original crappy natural turf 3 or so years ago.

 

Two months ago, the County had to re-finance the bond issue for Mikie's free palace.

 

The way it works here is if you are over 18, you can vote to peel money off of everybody even if you don't pay a lick of tax yourself. The politicians have won and the current generation is too thick and self-centered to figure out the long term consequences.

 

Sad.

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The way it works here is if you are over 18, you can vote to peel money off of everybody even if you don't pay a lick of tax yourself. The politicians have won...

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I remember hearing about what a sweetheart deal that the Brown family got. Especially since the team was not winning, attendance was still down and he was not doing anything to improve the team (i.e. they were still well below the salary cap.)

 

The politicians and the extremely wealthy always win.

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It's not fan enthusiasam - look at who's #1 on the list - the Cleveland Browns. It's been years since the team was good, the winter temp is cold, the metro area is small and still they support their team like nobody's business. This would be the same football-crazy place that had its team yanked from under them and move to Baltimore some years ago.

 

I think Buffalo is much like Cleveland in terms of a smaller metro area, blue collar fans and serious dedication to their long-historied team, so it scares me when the league could let the Browns move - they could easily let that happen in Buffalo regardless of the great fan support the team has had.

 

I think the "fan enthusiasam" factor comes into play when you talk about how many people nationwide follow a given team - the Packers are a great example - they have fans everywhere who are crazy for them - they are popular. Look at the Browns on the other hand - how many Brows fans do you see in Texas? Ever go to Los Angeles and see someone wearing Browns gear? They aren't popular nationwide even though they have great support at home - reminds me of the Bills again.

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It's all about winning. If we win we will create new fans from the TV exposure. Some will be bastardized bandwagon jumpers, and some will stay for the long term. I became a fan under those circumstances following the 1989 season.

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