The Pacific Coast League Tucson Sidewinders are thinking of relocating to Reno, Nevada, and plans are already underway in Reno for a sexy new ballpark for the team.

Check out the rendering. Cool, or what?

More from the Reno Gazette Journal.

I have to wonder if the Sabres are pushing the envelope to see exactly what the market will bear in terms of pricing for their seats.

The team released their pricing and designations for their gold, silver, bronze and value games for this season, and as you can see from this chart on the team’s website, the disparity between the season ticket price and the window price has grown even larger than that of last season.

Furthermore, more games have been assigned that gold and silver category; while last year there were just 5 gold games and 17 silver games, this year 9 games have been assigned gold status, with 22 more earning silver designation. In what is the cruelest irony of all, the December game vs Philadelphia and the February game against the Rangers have also been placed in the gold category, and I am assuming this is based on front office’s premise that fans will want to come out to see the return of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury.

So what does this all mean? Basically this - those fans who have been casual ticket buyers all these years, or who have not been part of a season ticket partnership group, are going to pay through the nose to attend hockey games. Look at that chart again… the $200 single ticket threshold has been breached, and judging from some of the other prices up there, one would think that this was a Leafs game at the Air Canada Centre.

Now in today’s Buffalo News comes this article outlining the formation of a club for those on the season ticket waiting list. For a $100 deposit, which I assume gets applied to an eventual season ticket, the member gets first dibs on a presale of single game tickets, before the general public. Throw in coupons for merchandise discounts, Bandits tickets, newsletters, blah blah… actually not a bad concept and a way to keep that waiting list fresh and engaged with the team.

What will be interesting to see is this… will the ticket buying public jump right in and snap up all the remaining seats at those eye popping prices? What exactly will this market bear, especially with all the bad news coming out of HSBC Arena this past off season?

I am guessing that fans will swallow hard and take the plunge, but be much more judicious with their ticket buying decisions. I am also guessing that the lowest priced tickets will be the first to go, leaving those 100 level preferred seats and the club seats as the toughest sell. Lastly, the September 13 presale gives another layer of purchasing opportunities for true Sabres fans, meaning that those beady-eyed, flapping-head folks from 416 country will have a much tougher time snaring ducats to see their beloved Leafs. And that’s a good thing!

We’ve had four season tickets in section 113 since the arena opened, and upper blues in sec 11 in the Aud before that, and have split them up among shareholders all these years. We have always enjoyed the attention and the discounts and the perks that have come with season ticket ownership. If you are a late arrival to this party, well all I can say is that sux for you!

“Happy 125th Birthday, International League”

This week’s Play Ball. Check it out!

Yes, a game at The Ralph on the preseason list.

No, not that game, and no, not that Ralph. We’re talking Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota, home of the Fighting Sioux and the college home for Sabres winger Drew Stafford.

Here is the complete schedule, which will include two home games at HSBC Arena:

Friday, September 21 Buffalo vs. Columbus, 7:00 p.m. (HSBC Arena)
Sunday, September 23 Buffalo at Columbus, 5:00 p.m. (Nationwide Arena)
Monday, September 24 Buffalo at Minnesota, 8:00 p.m. (Grand Forks, ND)
Wednesday, September 26 Buffalo at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. (Air Canada Centre)
Friday, September 28 Buffalo at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. (Mellon Arena)
Saturday, September 29 Buffalo vs. Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m. (HSBC Arena)

For the record, the USRT did make a visit to The Ralph back in January of 2005, as part of a trip which also included Winnipeg’s new MTS Centre 150 miles to the north.

Our take on The Ralph? One of the most amazing and most opulent hockey venues on the planet.

There will most likely be little or no fanfare tonight at the Buffalo Bisons game, when the Ottawa Lynx will make their final ever appearance at Dunn Tire Park. The Canadian and US anthems will be performed together at the ballpark for the last time, and next year this franchise will debut in the International League as the “Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs” in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Hard to believe that this team drew almost 600,000 fans back in 1995 enroute to it’s first and only Governors Cup Coupe Gouverneur. Since then it’s been nothing but downhill for this franchise. Fans have stayed away in droves, the city has sold off parking lots around Lynx Stadium for non-ballpark development, leaving only 650 spaces near the venue, and despite a myriad of attempts to spark interest and attendance, efforts there have gone for naught.

I spoke with IL President Randy Mobley a couple of weeks ago, and he emphatically stated that the league wanted to keep its presence in Ottawa. “We did everything we could to help the ownership group and even repeatedly met with the Mayor, but ultimately the market dictates what will happen and clearly this market just did not want this team anymore” said Mobley.

I suggested to Bisons game night coordinator Matt LaSota a while back that he might want to play Billy Joel’s “Allentown” when the Lynx takes the field for the final time at Dunn Tire Park. Matt thought it was a cool suggestion but has probably since forgotten the conversation. Nonetheless, I will be quietly humming the tune tonight, yet somewhat saddened that the international footprint of the International League will be no more.

For you Sabres fans, and you Sopranos fans, this clip is really cool.

Thanks to Derrick Dale from our posse at the Buffalo Roadtrip Herd for sending this along.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYZB1xIDLZY]

If you haven’t been to St. Petersburg, Florida in a while, you wouldn’t recognize the city today. What was derisively called “God’s Waiting Room” has been reborn into an energetic and vibrant city, with a downtown skyline changing constantly with new condos and office buildings and retail venues opening in recent years.

Nestled in the middle of all this exciting growth is Progress Energy Park, better known as Al Lang Field. For 90 continuous years, this venue has been used as as a Spring Training headquarters, but all this might come to an end after the Devil Rays depart for Charlotte and their new practice facility after the 2008 season.

So now the city is debating whether to demolish the park for condominiums, keep it as greenspace or retain the ballpark for some unspecified future use.

More from the St. Petersburg Times.

There’s been much debate and controversy surrounding the Bonds home run chase and the topics are many. Should Bonds’ record stand? Should it have an asterisk? Is Barry most to blame for this? Is Bud Selig at fault for allowing the “steroid era” to taint the record books? I have a few thoughts and ideas on the subject.

Bonds-like most others outside of (phone company name here) Park, I disdain him for using the performance enhancing drugs and for the extraordinary lengths he’s gone to defend himself against the allegations brought forth. Having your longtime friend and personal trainer go to the slammer to cover for you isn’t cool in my book, quite frankly. But by the same token he is a player, and despite using such substances certainly was not the only player to try to improve his game through such methods. Caminiti, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro…..the list goes on.

Selig?- To be sure, he had his head in the sand on all of the rumors going around about PED abuse. But he took his head out of the sand at some point in the 90’s and set to work on getting something…..anything done to help in cleaning up the game. And frankly that leads me to the biggest culprit in this whole mess, someone who’s not getting nearly as much grief as he should be.

You see, in order for Selig to get an MLB steroid policy in place, he had to go through the Players Union.

In order for Selig to make a policy with testing, he had to go through the Players Union.

In order for Selig to form a policy that hands out any kind of punishment, he had to get the agreement of the Players Union.

And that’s why the biggest culprit in all this is one Donald Fehr. For years prior to the time of the first MLB steroid policy(2002) Selig was banging the drum for comprehensive steroid testing with suspensions for violators. Fehr’s response was normally a very PC way of saying “F*** you Bud, steroids are a privacy issue and any policy will HAVE to be negotiated in the next CBA!” and battled the very notion of any of this for years up to and including saying such to the pols on Capitol Hill. Even when one was finally put in place in ‘02 under the new CBA it was still nothing more than some testing to see if there is enough of a percentage of positive tests to continue the policy.

The nonsense continued when the policy began to include some suspensions for multiple offenders in ‘04 and Fehr would have likely kept it at that had it not been for the debacle of Sosa(no habla ingles), McGwire(I’m not here to talk about the past) and Palmeiro(I have NEVER used steroids) testifying on Capitol Hill in ‘05.

Only then did Fehr finally cave in to the notion of common sense, the same path that the NFL had gone down decades earlier with steroids and punishments were intensified to their current levels. It’s something that should have been in place at least a decade prior.

There’s no telling as to how much different things would be had Fehr taken the path of the NFL and treated steroids as a health issue for the protection of the players instead of a privacy issue. Would Ken Caminiti still be with us?

Bud may be part of the mess that is the steroid era, but the Donald failed at many turns to protect his membership and in part the game by doing everything in his power to see to it that performance enhancing drugs and henceforth, the steroid era remained a part of baseball.

And that above all should be his legacy.

The first 4000 fans through the gate at the Bisons game tonight got this cool promotional giveaway.

Last year’s giveaway was a replica of Dunn Tire Park, and this year’s memento will take a hallowed spot on the shelf right next to the first one.

Can we expect an Offerman Stadium replica in 2008? Here’s hoping!

Thank you Mike Harrington!

With the AHL schedule being released yesterday, we could finally put the final pieces of the puzzle together for Ultimate Sport Road Trips for the 2007-08 season.

And what a lot of great adventures await! We start off this Labor Day weekend with a trip to Texas, two minor league ballparks, and a Texas Longhorns football game in Austin.

In December it will be a trip to California, catching two Sabres road games, the USC v UCLA football game at the Coliseum, and a USRT first, two NBA games in ONE day in the same venue, as the Clippers and the Lakers hold a day-night doubleheader at the Staples Center.

January 8 is the next “official” USRT stop - the New Jersey Davils will open their new arena, the Prudential Center in downtown Newark which opens this fall.

In mid February, we head to the Big Apple to see the Sabres face off against the New York Rangers, and wrap two AHL games around that date - in Bridgeport and W-B/Scranton, two venues we have yet to experience.

But then in March - a massive driving trip to Florida and back, where we will take in the NCAA subregional in Tampa, some Spring Traning games, and on the way back hit the NCAA East Regional in Charlotte, an AHL game in Norfolk, and the Johnstown Chiefs (the venue where “Slap Shot” was filmed.)

Four new NHL pressboxes will be visited during this season as we follow the Sabres on the road.

HERE is the complete and up to date USRT schedule. Check it out!

With the Bisons on a long road trip these past two weeks, Peter and I decided to do a quick jaunt to Dwyer Stadium this past Friday, and take in a game of the NY-Penn League Batavia Muckdogs.

After the sour experience last month up in Niagara Falls watching the Power (and the Glory), I had a bit of hesitation going to another low level baseball game, and driving down the Thruway and seeing the “Kingdom Bound Festival” directional signage was almost enough to give me cold sweats and reminders of the hosannahs we had to endure a month ago at Sal Maglie.

So wasn’t it great to arrive at Dwyer Stadium and find a ballpark filled not with Christians, but dogs. Yes, dogs; lots and lots of dogs. It was “Bark at the Park” night at the ballpark, and the venue was full of our four legged friends, there to enjoy a night of baseball with their owners.

I’ve got to say this about Batavia - their ballpark is definitely an “old school” experience. The field is tucked down a side street in a non descript residential neighborhood with nicely groomed houses; parking is free in the adjoining lots and on side streets; tickets are a reasonable six bucks; and the stadium seats about 3000 tops, with ads plastered on the outfield wall, a simple scoreboard and none of the bells and whistles you’d find in places such as Brooklyn or State College. But I say that as being a good thing.

Make no mistake - come to a Muckdogs game and you will have yourself a great time. Beer is cheap ($4 for a 16 ounce beer and a nice viewing deck on the first base side) and the main concession stand at the comfort station behind home plate offers a pretty varied menu, including hot dog and burger platters with pasta salad and baked beans for $6; I had the white hots ($2) while Peter enjoyed a “Muck Dog” ($3), which is a brat slathered with some sort of tangy red sauce. There are other stands in the concourse area, and even a big wall of fame on the first base side which displays names of the big leaguers who played here (Doc Ellis, Cito Gaston and Ryan Howard jumped right out.)

We got a real kick out of the Bark at the Park promotion. The game night host, an affable young fella named George did a pretty good job entertaining the crowd on this night, doing all sorts of zany contests in an area in the stands behind home plate. One was dogs which looked like their owner; another was for the biggest and the smallest dog; and winners were decided by audience applause, and plenty of prizes handed out to the winners.

With so many minor league baseball teams migrating to big markets these days, it is still nice to see a team and a stadium and an experience which is a throwback to a by gone era. Dwyer Stadium fills that bill and does it nicely. But travel to the other end of the state and see for yourself the glitz and glamour and size of the Muckdogs’ peers at Keyspan Park in Brooklyn and the Ballpark at St. Georges in Staten Island. You’ll be scratching your head wondering home much longer these guys can compete with the big guys, in what is no longer the NY-Penn League of the Vince McNamara era.

For the third time in his career, Russell Branyan will make his way to Buffalo and the Bisons clubhouse. In 1999 and 2000, we were subjected to the “aloof” and “know it all” Russell, and in 2004, he returned a changed man and captivated the team with a new sense of humility and purpose. And he awed us with some mammoth and towering home runs, one which cleared the outfield tent party area and landed somewhere in the parking lot beyond centerfield.

Branyan has hit 76 home runs in a Bisons uniform. The Modern Era record is held by Jeff Manto with 79 dingers.

When Branyan got his call up in July of 2004, I predicted that he would return someday to claim the home run record in Buffalo as his own. I never realized it woud be this soon.

Can’t wait until tomorrow night’s game! The long homestand begins… let’s hope that the Bisons right the ship and fast.

The civic leaders of Wichita, Kansas have got be complete and utter morons.

First, they allow their AA baseball team, the Wichita Wranglers, to be shipped off to Springdale, Arkansas after the 2007 season. This despite the fact that they had a lease that ran for two more seasons, and that the lease also allowed the city the first right of refusal to buy the team for fair market value before allowing its relocation. The sat like deer caught in headlights and the franchise is now packing and moving.

Now comes news that the city has bought Rich Baseball’s remaining asset in Wichita, the National Baseball Congress, which is essentially an annual college baseball tournament that draws approximately 80,000 fans each season. The dirty little secret here is that most of the tickets are given away and crowds for this event have been declining in recent seasons.

And what did Wichita taxpayers shell out for this “asset”? A whopping $1-million! That’s right..not a team, not a franchise, a cool million for a tournament and a name.

Helloooooooooo idiots!!! If you suckers had not stepped up, do you really think that Rich Baseball would have kept a staff in place to operate this event? Basically the Wichita Wranglers front office was in charge of the tournament, and with the team packing, they would have had to set up a totally separate management team to keep the NBC in place.

Wichita, you had the upper hand in these negotiations, and you totally blew it. Perhaps this event was profitable in the past, but with the big million dollar bill you now need to amortize, you guys are now totally screwed.

Enjoy your last month of AA baseball in your city, you morons!

More on this from the Wichita Eagle.

The 2007-08 NBA schedule was posted yesterday, and in years past we would dissect it with glee as we plotted out USRT adventures. But not as much now.

Nonetheless, we slotted in an Orlando Magic game at TD Waterhouse Centre Amway Arena on Tuesday, March 25, since we’ll be down there anyways for an NCAA basketball subregional in Tampa and visits to a few spring training sites.

Next is the thought of returning to Madison Square Garden to see a Knicks game, but no firm date has been set.

But the most intriguing idea comes on Sunday, December 2. We’re out in California all that week to catch the Sabres as they swing through Anaheim and LA. As it turns out, the LA Clippers host the Indiana Pacers at 12:30 that day in the Staples Center. Later on, the LA Lakers take on the Orlando Magic, with a 6:30 tipoff time.

An NBA doubleheader on the same day in the same venue? That would be a USRT first!

Here is a link to the complete NBA schedule.