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!

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

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

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!

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.

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*