“The Worst Bisons Team Ever?”

In this week’s Play Ball, we compare this year’s Bisons squad to some of the teams of yesteryear, and discover that things aren’t really all that dire.

Check it out!

Flanked by Managing General Partner Larry Quinn and General Manager Darcy Regier, an ebullient Ryan Miller met with the media this morning at HSBC Arena to discuss his new contract with the Buffalo Sabres.

Miller is now locked up with the Sabres through the 2013-2014 season.

Quinn pointed out that Miller has been part of the Sabres family for about 10 years, and stated that by signing with the Sabres, he was leaving a significant of money on the table in comparison to the marketplace. “I love the buy-in that he’s giving to the organization.”

“It’s a very good time for the Sabres” added Regier. “When we look at where we are we’re in a good place and we’ll go on from here.” Regier stated that he is now working to lock Jason Pominville to a new contract, and had done some work on this project just earlier this day.

When Miller spoke, he said “I chose Buffalo. It is a bit of a buy-in. I buy into what they are all about. I have a great relationship with everyone in this organization, so it made a lot of sense to stay here… I didn’t want to leave. I like the community I like everything about it.” Miller dismissed any notion that his boyhood team the Detroit Red Wings was ever a really serious consideration. “There was no point where I was thinking to leave. I grew up about an hour and fifteen from Joe Louis Arena, but to be honest I was just a big fan of hockey growing up. But my goal is to be with an organization that backs me up and respects me and I have all that here.”

I asked Miller what his thoughts were about pairing up with new backup goaltender Patrick Lalime. “I haven’t had a chance to meet him but I hear great things. I’ve watched him his entire career. He was an inspiration to me when he was a rookie in Pittsburgh and it was lights out. I look forward to meeting him and having some fun.”

It was a pretty packed house in the media room, which even had Darcy saying “wow” as he entered the room. Quite a difference from a year ago, when “Maybe I know something you don’t” was the signature of the event as the brass tried to explain the Drury and Briere departures.

You’ve gotta get the feeling that the Sabres are back - their valuable assets are getting signed up long term, the pipeline is being restocked with blue chip prospects, season ticket holders are resigning in droves. All good stuff. Bring on training camp!!!

The sport of “futbol” has been known to have incidents of fan violence, commonly referred to as “hooligans” for decades. Hooligans tend to be people who simply show up at soccer games to start trouble rather than watch events going on the field.

It’s been a part of the culture of soccer in European countries for decades whether it be friendlys between clubs or major event involving national sides.

And last night it made its way to US soil. According to this article in the Columbus Dispatch some scuffles broke out during a friendly between the homestanding Columbus Crew and English Premier League’s West Ham after some West Ham supporters ventured into a crowd of Crew supporters at the half.

What can I say, I think this will earn more respect around the world for American soccer than anything David Beckham or Pele ever did. We’re finally starting to have enough passion for the game to get involved in stuff like this.:)

Oh by the way, West Ham won 3-1.

-Peter Farrell

Over the past three seasons, the Buffalo Sabres have implemented a variable pricing formula for single ticket sales, assigning a “gold”, “silver”, “bronze” and “value” designation to each of the games on the schedule, depending on night of the week and the quality of the opponent, among other factors.

For the casual buyer, the difference between a gold game and a value game can be substantial… for example, in our 100 level II seats in section 114, in ‘07-’08 a value ticket went for $48, while a gold ticket fetched a hefty $161.

Last season eight games earned the “gold” designation, and early on the Sabres got bit in the ass, as a weeknight game in October against Toronto fell 400 patrons short of a sellout. I remember Kevin Sylvester making this remark to me in the media room after the morning skate that day - “Well I guess we’re finding out what our price breaking point is”.

I kinda sorta agree with Bfloblog and Kevin’s take on the schedule, which isn’t all that inspiring. Back in the 70s and early 80s, Sunday nights was a big thing on the Sabres schedule, and I remember doing the Bills/Sabres doubleheader on a couple occasions. But Sundays really isn’t a busy night in the NHL anymore, and the Sabres have gone to Friday nights as their marquee nights out.

So anyways, here is the Sabres schedule, and here are my picks. I also invited Pete to make his selection, which appear here as well, and we will have one of our “soda bets” to see who nailed this one, once the Sabs release their single ticket information.

Who do you think will win? Chime in if you wish, unless you’re Matt Pearl. We don’t need Matt to muddy the waters around here, seeing he took exception to MY commentary on the “hallowed” Anchorman’s challenge.

Andrew’s gold games:
Fri Oct 10 - Montreal
Fri Nov 28 - Pittsburgh
Fri Dec 12 - Toronto
Fri Jan 9 - NY Rangers
Wed Feb 4 - Toronto
Fri Mar 20 - Philadelphia
Fri Mar 27 - Toronto
Andrew’s sure fire value game - Mon Dec 1 - Nashville

Peter’s gold games
Fri Oct 10 - Montreal
Fri Nov 28 - Pittsburgh
Fri Dec 12 - Toronto
Fri Jan 9 - Rangers
Wed Feb 4- Toronto
Fri Feb 6 - Montreal
Fri Mar 27 - Toronto
Peter’s sure fire value game - Thu Oct 30 - Tampa Bay

-Andrew Kulyk

Schedule day is always a big one for the Ultimate Sports Road Trip.

By now we know the routine… the NFL releases their schedule in mid April with big fanfare; ditto for the NHL, which usually is released right around the baseball All Star Break. The NBA comes out with theirs two weeks later, and then the AHL piggybacks on them. As for MLB, the teams each release their respective schedules in dribs and drabs… some teams announce the following year as soon as the regular season is over, while others (i.e. Mets, Yankees, Braves and Red Sox) are exasperatingly late in announcing.

As for NCAA college football… the big aggravation there is that many teams don’t release start times until 12 days before the games are played, and that makes it tough to plan, say, a Saturday college doubleheader, or calculating driving times.

Even now, we’re going to be in Bloomington. Indiana on Saturday, October 11 for the Indiana/Iowa football game, as a prelude to our visit at Lucas Oil Field the following day. What time is that game? Who knows! Why does it matter? Well, the Sabres season opener is Friday night October 10. If the kickoff in Bloomington is 12 noon, we have to hit the road Friday and will miss the hockey game. If it’s a night game, we can depart after the Sabres, catch some zzzz’s in Cleveland, and continue on Saturday.

Anyways, we got very little help in terms of “alignment of the planets” from the NHL schedule gods (a Sabres at Leafs game 12/6 in Toronto the night before the Bills/Dolphins game would have been awesome, for example).

These past few days, we sliced and diced the schedule, and since Artvoice gives us a small travel budget for us to cover road games, that certainly helps out, so we decided on these hockey games:

Thur 1/1 Buffalo at Toronto

Mon 1/19 Buffalo at Florida

Wed1/21 Buffalo at Tampa

Sat 2/28 Buffalo at New York Islanders

We’ve added a couple more OHL games (including the soon to be shuttered Windsor Arena, home of the Spitfires and former venue for the NHL Detroit Red Wings, we’re stopping there on Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving as we make our way back from Indy). We also are filling out a roadie the second weekend of September, which may yet change depending on college football start times.

We’ve got the last weekend in October open as well, and right now we’re thinking AHL venues in the midwest which remain on our “to do” list. Or we might just stay home.

Here is the USRT schedule. Lotsa cool adventures await!

(By the way, we’ve also updated the roster of “new venues” on our web site. Construction is currently underway on seven new venues in the four major sports. Here is the lineup.)

Heading to Indy to see the Indianapolis Colts? Then you better hope your ticket doesn’t read “Sec 433, row 13, seats 27-28-29″ (pictured above).

The media was given a tour of the new stadium yesterday, set to host its first football game on August 24 when the Buffalo Bills play the Colts in a preseason game. What they found was about 200 obstructed view seats, in each of the four corners of the stadium up in the nosebleed seats.

For what it’s worth, the Colts ticket operations people say that “these seats are not part of the ticket program”.

Whatever that means.

But then according to the Indianapolis Star, one of the suits from the front office offers this nugget:

Pete Ward, senior executive vice president of the Colts, said that fans who buy partially-obstructed seats would know in advance that their view will not be unobstructed, like most of the seats in the new stadium.

“Absolutely. It is printed on the ticket,” said Ward.

The official USRT visit to Lucas Oil Field is set for Sunday, October 12, Columbus Day weekend. Tickets have been procured (via eBay) and *shudder*, here’s hoping we’re nowhere near a support post!

We’ve reported in this space in the past about the impending move of the International League Richmond Braves to suburban Atlanta, Georgia for the 2009 season. There they will be known as the Gwinnett Braves and will play in a new ballpark which is hastily being built along I-85, in order to be ready in time for April 2009.

Yet back in Richmond, the R-Braves aren’t ready to call it quits just yet. Despite pressure from civic officials in Richmond, the Braves have yet to opt out of their lease at The Diamond, which runs through 2009.

Why the hurry? Richmond is trying to plan their baseball future in a post Braves world, and one idea has the AA Eastern League Erie Seawolves relocating to Richmond. There are also RFP’s due for ballpark redevelopment proposals, none of which can move forward until the R-Braves’ departure is a totally done deal.

Meanwhile back here in USRT country, we have penciled in a planned trip to Gwinnett County for 2009, and that has us saying “&$%^@*)!!!” rather than jumping for joy. Why, you wonder? The distance will involve a flight rather than drive, plus we just did a return visit to Atlanta’s Turner Field a couple years ago so no pressing reason to see that venue again when there are several other MLB yards overdue for another looksie. So that means lots of expense just to visit a AAA ballpark, and maybe tie in some A-ball teams like the Rome Braves or the Greenville Drive.

*Sigh*, but that is what we do… we are the Ultimate Sports Road Trip after all.

So says the club today, as they announced that 97% of their season ticket base has re-upped for the 2008-09 season.

500 tickets will be made available to the season ticket waiting list, which at this point is at about 1000 names requesting 2500 seats. It will be interesting to see how much of that list the Sabres will burn through to reach their maximum threshold of season tickets.

If the Sabres hold true to their single ticket pricing matrix of the past two years, then Sabres season tickets will remain a big big bargain.

The team also announced that their 2008-09 schedule will be released at 12 noon on Thursday (although we will get a sneak peek at some of the games today.) We are setting our sights on some USRT adventures, so we will be pouncing on the data as soon as it is out!

It’s coming down.

For old farts like me, the site of one of my childhood’s biggest heartbreaks - watching The Dead Fat Woman lumber out on the ice to croak out her song, then seeing her ‘Bullies roll over my beloved Buffalo Sabres in the ‘75 Cup Finals.

The Flyers organization, primarily through their AHL affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms, will have a season long celebration commemorating this building and its rich history. A possible regular season Flyers and 76ers game in the old venue is one of the ideas under consideration.

Here is a web site outlining all the plans for the final season, and even a place for fans to post their good thoughts and memories.

I’ll be nice and hold my tongue.

-Andrew Kulyk

And the back of that line is getting farther and farther away.

Donte Whitner promised us a playoff berth, and if the Bills should be fortunate enough to land a home game this postseason, this is expected to be one hot ticket. After all, the Bills should cross the 55,000 season ticket threshold, and with a smaller stadium post-renovation, that leaves fewer single tickets than the last time the Bills hosted a playoff game in 1997. Now take care of league requirements and tickets for sponsors and advertisers, and, natch, that number goes down even further.

But lookee here and see who gets next dibs. Yessiree, our beady-eyed, flapping-head good friends to the North who plunked down the big bucks for club seats up in Toronto, that’s who!

“Priority access to purchase Bills Playoff tickets in Buffalo (limited inventory)”

Memo to Billsfan: BOHICA!*

-Andrew Kulyk

*bend over here it comes again*

“A Star Spangled Bisons Celebration”

This week’s Play Ball resets last week’s Independence Day eve festivities at Dunn Tire Park.

Check it out!

Posting again from my hideout in suburban Buffalo, the City Where Great Ideas Go To Die. Whether it be a signature bridge, major waterfront zoo, or Bass Pro on Lake Erie(gee, a fishing store on a Great Lake - who would kill that idea). Yep we would here in Buffalo.

And now it’s the Seneca Casino in downtown Buffalo that the nitwit, crackpot obstructionists kill off. Once again a vocal minority throws around a ton of lawsuits to stop something positive in the community until one of them actually succeed in destroying it.

What the hell does this have to do with us? I don’t know, part of me is venting against morons who are doing their damndest to maintain Buffalo’s negative status nationwide. But I suppose it’s also a reminder to me of all the casinos that we’ve passed by or stopped into on our travels.

We don’t gamble…stop that, we gamble very little and certainly don’t make a point to do so on any of our sports roadies. Yet we’ve managed to stumble into quite a few along the way. Two in St. Louis….one in KC……Vegas obviously….and a stop at the Greektown Casino in Detroit the night before the final stop(12/02) @ Ford Field where I hit a slot jackpot for $2500 - and haven’t bothered to hit one since. And those are casinos I remember being in, frankly.

And it hits me as I write this just what a nonsense position these anti casino folk have taken on this issue. Allow me to tear it to shreds using the above.

“A casino will only draw locals, not tourists” - Bullsh*t, I’ve been to more casinos than I can think of as a tourist visiting a town. You know darn well people who come into Buffalo from the outside will most certainly hit that place. A businessman, a gang of visiting team’s fans going to a Sabres/Bills game…they’re heading there. You know it, I know it. Cut the crap.

And as far as locals go, the ones who will lose the most business aren’t other restaurants, bars and such. It’s those bingo halls, Monte Carlo nights at the church, and the scratch off tickets at the Wilson Farms that’ll take a hit. Tit for tat, simple as that.

The strange thing is, amidst all of the talk in the aftermath of Judge Skretny’s decision no one has brought up a major factor as to why the demand for casinos in Western New York came to be. The photo below will be a huge hint.

When Casino Niagara opened late in 1996 it was a smashing success raking in the coin by the millions. No doubt in huge part thanks to all of the Western New Yorkers who took their hard earned money made on this side of the border and spent in Canada.

The casino was a great addition to the Falls, so much so that they added a permanent one nearby, and opened a smaller operation in Fort Erie as well. And hence came the idea of “Hey, why not one over here! If people are going to spend casino money, why not build one here so the money stays here!!!”

Yep I know, the deal that the City of Buffalo made with the Senecas and the state stinks. In a perfect world(which the delusional obsNIMBYwhackos see as the only solution possible) the city would see more than the 5 to 7mil that they’re supposed to take in.

But remind me again how much money did the City of Buffalo and the City of Niagara Falls get from the Canadian casinos when they were the only place to go locally? Empty pockets….zero dollars…..nil….nada….zilch….nothing….which is less than a few mil last I checked.

It’s this line of thinking, the notion to keep dollars where they are made that got Detroit it’s three casinos, and when people’s heads clear it will be this line of thinking that gets Buffalo it’s newest attraction. One that brings in people from out of the area, one that increases options for entertainment in downtown Buffalo, and one that keeps some of the dollars here in the area.

A privately financed 330m$ investment at no cost to the taxpayer? On land that no businessman would touch with a ten foot pole? And we’re saying no????

Welcome to Buffalo, what can I tell you….where great ideas go to die.

Peter Farrell

Caught Bob Dicesare’s column in today’s News and flipped when I saw part of his take about the “Raptors In Buffalo” scenario:

“If Buffalo lands a Toronto Raptors preseason game then let’s use the night to celebrate our basketball heritage. Bring in Bob McAdoo, Randy Smith, maybe Ernie DiGregorio and Bob Kaufmann, and acknowledge their place in Buffalo sports history. And while we’re at it, let’s raise McAdoo’s No. 11 to the rafters at HSBC Arena in recognition of all he achieved as a Brave and beyond. “

Halleh - freaking - lujah!

For too long we have seen ourselves as a city that is highly ambivelant about the NBA, almost to the point that where we enjoy such a status. Almost as if we’re supposed to be proud of not caring about basketball at its highest level here.

For whatever reason that may be it’s time to trash that mindset, at least for one night if this Raptors/HSBC Arena idea comes off. Let’s celebrate the fact that this city was once home to an NBA franchise, and one that gave us some great moments to boot during its short-but-sweet run at the Aud.

Bring in Boston, the team that had become the Braves’ archrival and opponent during two memorable playoff series. How about Atlanta? A nice young team whose roots also date back to Memorial Auditorium in the forties. Or if we want to have a villain - send in the LA Clippers, the club that bolted from Buffalo three decades ago in a bizarre franchise ownership change.

And at some point during the evening, do exactly what Dicesare suggested. Put a sky blue #11 up to rafters at HSBC Arena. Quite frankly, someone who is celebrated amongst basketball’s all time greats in Springfield certainly deserves far more of a presence in the arena than a passing notice and photo in the “Headlines” area of the venue.

But I highly doubt that you’ll ever see the right thing done. We’ve personally pushed for this virtually since McAdoo was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. The good folks downtown know of our mission, know others who are on board, and ought to know that he deserves such an honor as much as anyone who has ever worn a Buffalo pro sports jersey in this town.

That they appear not to is a shame and nothing else.

Today is one of those days where I’m not proud to be a sports fan.

Today the Seattle SuperSonics and over four decades of history and tradition are now officially just that. History and Tradition.

They’re gone because current ownership bought this team with the intent of taking them to their hometown of Oklahoma City. And they were able to do it because the Seattle area had the gall to actually vote down a public referendum on a half billion dollar showplace to replace “aging” Key Arena. I mean, how dare the good folk there do that considering their taxes had already been used to:Spend 74.5M$ to completely renovate it in time for the 1995-96 season(they had been forced to play in Tacoma the previous season due to the work.)

Spend 517M$ to build Safeco Field for the Mariners(who of course used the threat of moving if the taxpayers didn’t pony up)

Spend another 300M$ to build Qwest Field for the Seahawks(also under a very real threat of moving - see Behring, Ken.)

So lets see, get shaken down again to leave a building that opened in its current state just one season prior to the opening of HSBC Arena here in Buffalo. That’s an obsolete venue???

Of course the voters the new arena proposal down(to say nothing of current economic times), and of course the new Oklahoma ownership(and Commissioner scumbag Stern) knew this would happen. Thus handing ownership an excuse to bolt and helping to grease the skids to do so.Last ditch efforts to save the team did come into play after it became apparent that things were out of hand. Microsoft bigshot Steve Ballmer suddenly wanted to buy(sorry, not for sale. Where were you in ‘06?) And the city of Seattle sued to force the Sonics to honor the lease at Key Arena through its conclusion in 2010.

Which leads us to today, as the city and the Sonics came to a monetary settlement of 45M$ so the Sonics could buy out the remainder of the lease and bolt for Oklahoma ASAP. Why this happened is a mystery considering that many legal experts believed that the city had a strong case against the Sonics, and a win in court could have given the city two more years to possibly frustrate slimeball #1 Sonics owner Clay Bennett into selling the team to local interests.

Still out there is a lawsuit filed by former Sonics owner and Starbucks magnate Howard Schultz, claiming that Bennett violated terms of sale by not negotiating in good faith to keep the team in Seattle by bolting for OKC just one season after purchasing the club.

Just one thing Mr. Starbucks….you really weren’t that naive. Were you???? I mean, how exactly did you build one of the preeminent franchise chains of this generation thinking like that? You ain’t got a chance in hell of winning that one. I gotta admit though, that’s a pretty smooth PR move.

So off go the Slimeballs to Oklahoma City. Gone with it: the first major pro sports franchise to call Seattle home. The only one to bring Seatlle a title(1979). The franchise that gave made Lenny Wilkens into a Hall of Fame player and coach. Shawn Kemp was known only as a player on the court in Seattle, and what a player he was. Tom Chambers winning the All-Star Game MVP at the Kingdome……The Glove- Gary Payton….Jack Sikma’s hair. Could go on and on.

And to think folks, as we debate the economic viability of pro sports in the future in our own city. Seattle is a booming city,12th largest market in America with corporate megagiants such as Starbucks, Boeing, and Microsoft to name a few. A city that plays in modern, state of the art venues all built or renovated in the mid 90’s or later. A city that has all the ingredients to keep(or steal) a franchise in today’s day and age.But none of those factors could save the Sonics. I shudder as to what could happen here.

I leave it with a couple more youtube clips…..

the ear splitting hysteria of Key Arena during pregame intros during the 1996 NBA Finals. For my money, the strains of Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell” was the best intro song EVER. And also a clip of the final home game as fans plead to “Save our Sonics”.

-Peter Farrell

This past week Buffalo got to officially open the first phase of the Canalside project, on the Inner Harbor and immediately adjacent to HSBC Arena. It was a long time coming, and finally we can start picturing how this will all come together… maybe even in our lifetime.

Of course, all the excitement on the Inner Harbor didn’t stop the macadamias over at ElmwoodBuffalo Rising from chiming in with their usual ridiculous drivel.

But how would you like to be in St. Louis’ situation?

Two years ago they opened the new Busch Stadium, and after the rubble of the old Busch was cleared, they promised an exciting mixed use project of offices, condos, hotel and retail, to be developed by the Cordish Group (yes the same Cordish Group who lords over the vacant eyesore known as Rainbow Mall in Niagara Falls).

Now here it is… 2008, and the site sits vacant, litter strewn, and a large swail in the center collects stagnant water. One of the city’s aldermen, who chairs the committee overseeing ballpark development, has named the site “Baghdad on Broadway”.

A year from now, the eyes of Major league Baseball will be on St. Louis when the All Star game comes to town, and right now they can’t even agree on replacing the chain link fencing with something more durable and some “coming soon” murals. How embarrassing will it be when viewers get a gander of this mess from the blimp cameras?