Wanna keep the Bills here? Buy season tickets!!!
I’m gonna do it.
Something I’ve never done since I showed up in Western New York in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl Years.
I’m gonna do my part to try to keep this team in town, because dammit I don’t know how else to do it. For me, the best way is to get me season tix for the Bills.
Yes, I can hear the naysayers now….”WHAT!!! Why are you lining Ralph’s pockets with your money after the way he trashed our city!!!” Brings me to my first point:
Buying Bills season tickets doesn’t line his pockets any more than say…Jerry Jones’ pockets. The NFL’s division of weekly ticket revenue is pooled 60/40 amongst all home and road teams in the league and not just the Bills and the visiting teams at the Ralph that season. You can thank Arizona’s Bill Bidwill for this, it was the NFL’s way of compensating him for losing his biggest draw(Dallas) when the NFL realigned its divisions for the ‘02 season.
Hence, a 50$ ticket is divvied 30$/20$ and then those numbers are split by the amount of games played that week. Hmmmm….Ralph gets less than 2$ of my ticket money out of that half a hundred? Suddenly I don’t feel as worked up as I probably should be.
The season ticket base is a way in which fan support can best be measured. While more than half the league’s teams sellout their games on season tickets/and/or leave a small float for public sale the Bills have always had a low season ticket base(yes….47k is low by league standards, even if good by ours). A Ralph sold out on season tix(and hopefully a waiting list) would send the strongest message that Joe Fan could possibly send to the NFL and those arrogant rich folk in Toronto that want to steal our team that F*CK NO..we don’t want this team to go anywhere!!!!
Think something like that hasn’t happened before? It has, and very recently as well.
Think 2005, think New Orleans. The overwhelming destruction of Hurricane Katrina had left the Superdome in shambles and the Saints to head to parts elsewhere to play the ‘05 season.
Of course, amidst the devastation and destruction one would have thought that owner Tom Benson would have rallied with the rest of the city in rebuilding New Orleans by adamantly stating that the Saints would stick around in the meantime.
No. In a move that would make Ralph look like Robin Hood, Benson thought that the immediate aftermath of the biggest natural disaster in American history would be the PERFECT time to bang the drum to yank the Saints right out of town to San Antonio(his hometown). Anywhere but the Bayou.
Of course, fans of the Gulf Coast went ballistic hammering on Benson in similar fashion that we are now with Ralph Wilson. They also did something else:
They sold out the Superdome for all home games prior to the season for the first time in the history of the franchise. Benson be damned! We want this team here!
Fans there could have easily thrown up their hands, told Benson to go to hell and swear that they’d never attend another Saints game. Lord knows those people had(and in some cases still have) FAR more important things to deal with at the time than finding cash to see their shitty NFL team play.
But that simply would have made Benson look right in attempting to bolt town. And staying away from the Ralph will do the same for Wilson and the Toronto cronies that look down their noses at us.
At best, we get our wish and the Bills stay around for years to come…at worst, we see the final years of Bills football in Buffalo and we go down in this struggle, but dammit…. we do not go down quietly and with nothing but our best efforts.
Football » Wanna keep the Bills here? Buy season tickets!!! Says:February 9th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
[…] Peter Farrell wrote a fantastic post today on “Wanna keep the Bills here? Buy season tickets!!!”Here’s ONLY a quick extractOf course, amidst the devastation and destruction one would have thought that owner Tom Benson would have rallied with the rest of the city in rebuilding New Orleans by adamantly stating that the Saints would stick around in th meantime … […]
Kate(bits) Says:February 10th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Thanks for writing this. I have been living in Buffalo for almost seven years now, and I finally got sucked into the Buffalo sports scene last spring because of the Sabres. I never ONCE considered buying season tickets to the Bills until a few days ago. I have absolute respect for the anger that longtime fans must be feeling right now, and I think canceling season tickets is a very legitimate and worthwhile form of protest. I wonder if this might be an opportunity for me, a new sports fan, and a relatively new WNYer to take some of the pressure off of my fellow Buffalonians who are weary after of years of abuse. I’ll buy a season ticket, so that some longtime suffering fan doesn’t have to.
I dunno. This is a tough one.
Peter Farrell Says:February 10th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
OK! There’s one….how ’bout some more!
Seriously, I can understand why season ticket holders wish to bail feeling abused by Ralph comments. Yet the abandonment of the team by fans of the Bills seems to be part of what the Toronto folk, and possibly some in Bills heirarchy may want in order to pry this team out of WNY.
F’em. I know one thing above all else, and that is that I’ve never been to a Bills game because I want to see Ralph Wilson. I could care less what he thinks about us or what he wishes to do with this team.
I do care that this team stays here after he is no longer the owner. And I know that not going to games at this critical time will NOT help that cause at all. We, as fans need to show the NFL that we are a viable market. And the best way to do that is to fill that house on a season ticket basis like many big market(NY) and small market(Green Bay) teams across the NFL do.
A longshot, considering it’s never been done here? Sure. But remember how just five years ago you could shoot a cannon through HSBC Arena on many a night?? How times have changed there….keep the faith.
Mark Says:February 10th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
sad to say i think the issue isnt so much guaranteeing sellouts but selling premium luxury suites. so…start up a big company w. nice profits and use some bills luxury suites to entertain clients and nowwww you’re making the bills bottom line look healthier.
but us peasants…our common folk seats mean nothing in the economic structure of the NFL.
Kate(bits) Says:February 10th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Okay, fine. I’ll start a successful company and then buy a luxury suite, so that some other long suffering rich business man doesn’t have to. I’m on it.
Peter Farrell Says:February 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Ya know Kate, it’s really hard to put together a Sabres post game report while reading that last comment laughing myself silly here. Darn you:)
@ Mark, you’re right. In the big picture the great unwashed have little or no power in this. The best the little folk can do is get to the box office and show that we are a viable NFL entity for the future as best we can and hope for the best.
twoeightnine Says:February 11th, 2008 at 1:42 am
You know Peter, you might have a second one. I’ve basically been out of the area since I was 18 so I could never buy them. After this season I was psyched for next year, thinking I just might do it. Then after the events of the past couple of weeks I didn’t want to give any money to Ralph. But you’re right, I’m supporting the Bills team, not Ralph.
Now if I can just come up with the money.
Ryan Says:February 11th, 2008 at 2:00 am
I’ve been considering season tickets for next year since that Lynch touchdown pass in the Cinci game. This would be the first year I could actually afford the tix, and I share your sentiment on a strong season ticket base.
It’s a decision that won’t be made for a month or two, but definitely let us know what you decide, guys.
Nfl » Wanna keep the Bills here? Buy season tickets!!! Says:February 12th, 2008 at 12:07 am
[…] Peter Farrell wrote an interesting post today on Wanna keep the Bills here? Buy season tickets!!!Here’s a quick excerptBuying Bills season tickets doesn’t line his pockets any more than say…Jerry Jones’ pockets. The NFL’s division of weekly ticket revenue is pooled 60/40 amongst all home and road teams in the league and not just the Bills and the … […]
The Ultimate Sports Road Trip » Blog Archive » Powe-ly Cow!!!!(Game 2) Says:June 9th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
[…] 1. Yuck Fou Toronto. 2. Nice to see that people picked up on my idea. Just sayin’. […]