Bills favor NFL's international approach

[The_Philster]

The thought of the Buffalo Bills playing a game in Germany or Britain as a way to bring international exposure to the franchise is appealing to the team hierarchy.
National Football League owners voted Oct. 23 to begin staging games outside the United States on a regular basis as soon as 2007. In addition to Britain and Germany, regular season games will be played in Canada and Mexico. ...more

[PECKERWOOD]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

I just posted that we should do this; I got flamed hardcore. Ralph understands that playing a couple games in another country would help this team out significantly. Especially, Toronto. There practically our next door neighbors. Whether the Bills do this or not, can ultimately determine this teams survival.....

[The_Philster]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

1...I saw the thread you're talking about...and you weren't getting flamed...it was a reasonable debate for the most part that you weren't going to win, IMO. Sunday afternoons at the Ralph is a big deal to a lot of us.
2...I really don't understand how losing games to Toronto would help the franchise. For one, the Ralph seats more and sells out. For another, the Bills make money on parking, concessions, and other things. Odds are, they'd have to give up at least some of that at Skydome...and the tailgating up there is severely lacking, IMO.

[PECKERWOOD]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

1...I saw the thread you're talking about...and you weren't getting flamed...it was a reasonable debate for the most part that you weren't going to win, IMO. Sunday afternoons at the Ralph is a big deal to a lot of us.
2...I really don't understand how losing games to Toronto would help the franchise. For one, the Ralph seats more and sells out. For another, the Bills make money on parking, concessions, and other things. Odds are, they'd have to give up at least some of that at Skydome...and the tailgating up there is severely lacking, IMO.

Yeah, I guess flamed wasnt the right word. Nobody bashed me or anything. People were strongly against the notion though. I didnt think about the folks losing cash on parking and concessions, that truly sucks.. However, we would gain alot more fans and we would have a much bigger market to sell to.

[The_Philster]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

We're already selling out games...a lot of people already come down to the games from Toronto...as well as from Erie, the Southern Tier, Rochester, Syracuse...you might gain a few more fans up in the Toronto area, but you'd lose some from the areas that are big on supporting the team already.

[PECKERWOOD]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

We're already selling out games...a lot of people already come down to the games from Toronto...as well as from Erie, the Southern Tier, Rochester, Syracuse...you might gain a few more fans up in the Toronto area, but you'd lose some from the areas that are big on supporting the team already.

Thats where I currently live now. I make a couple road games each year. I guess the difference is, around here its like 60% buffalo fans, 40% NYG fans. If we were to play a couple games in Canada. We wouldnt have to compete with other franchises for popularity. Once again though, stadium sales are important, however, it still wouldnt be a problem to fill the stadium up even with the loss of those fans coming to the game. I think its more about airtime, and paraphernalia sales.

[PECKERWOOD]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

With that said, Im not in favor of moving to Canada. Just a game there once a season couldnt hurt.

[Dozerdog]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

After further reflection- I wouldn't mind a late season game in Toronto

as long as it's only 1 time every 5-6 years

[Cntrygal]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

I'm against going to Europe 100%. What are the networks going to do? Show it tape delayed?

[G. Host]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

I'm against going to Europe 100%. What are the networks going to do? Show it tape delayed?

They hold games in the Central US at noon; holding a game at 7 PM in Germany would solve most of the problems - it would be 1 PM on East Coast and normal times elsewhere.

World Clock Planner:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?month=10&day=26&year=2006&p1=37&p2=136&p3=179&p4=137

[chernobylwraiths]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

From what I understood, it would be one or two games a year total. So the Bills would lose at most one home game every 8 years. Plus, it could be played in Europe. I think playing in Toronto would be a bad idea as it would bring back the old crap about us moving there. Besides missing out on going to another home game though, think of the implications to all the bars, restaurants, hotels that would lose out who make a lot of money on Bills games.

[OpIv37]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

From what I understood, it would be one or two games a year total. So the Bills would lose at most one home game every 8 years.

It could be more or less because this assumes an even distribution amongst teams, which probably won't happen. The NFL will most likely want to showcase their best teams (think SNF this year and MNF in previous years), or in the cases of Mexico and Canada, the closest teams that may already have a bit of a following in the area.

My guess is that one of the first games will be a Bills game in Toronto because they already have the fan base.

[chernobylwraiths]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

It could be more or less because this assumes an even distribution amongst teams, which probably won't happen. The NFL will most likely want to showcase their best teams (think SNF this year and MNF in previous years), or in the cases of Mexico and Canada, the closest teams that may already have a bit of a following in the area.

My guess is that one of the first games will be a Bills game in Toronto because they already have the fan base.

If it is the NFL's intention to spread its popularity, it doesn't make sense to use this approach. If they already have a fan base, then they should send them to places where they DON'T have a fan base. They want to make new fans, that's why they are taking games away from places that already have their fans.

[OpIv37]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

If it is the NFL's intention to spread its popularity, it doesn't make sense to use this approach. If they already have a fan base, then they should send them to places where they DON'T have a fan base. They want to make new fans, that's why they are taking games away from places that already have their fans.

in time. For the first few, they'll want guaranteed success. Also, it increases ticket and merch sales in those areas if they think the NFL actually cares enough about them to play a game there.

Also, they'll want to win fans in markets that are close enough to go to domestic NFL games too.

[Lee-83]

Re: Bills favor NFL's international approach

If it's an away game **** yeah!