57,000 seats left for final 3 home games

[BLeonard]

http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Bills-offer-ticket-deal-for-final-3-home-games-2258528.php#ixzz1d9X2Re6r



The Buffalo Bills are offering a package of discounted tickets in a bid to fill a combined 57,000 unsold seats available for their final three home games.

CEO Russ Brandon announced the offer Tuesday, saying the team is offering a 12.5 percent discount when fans buy tickets for all three games.


-Bill

[PTI]

Trying to discount the ticket packages now and get them sold in case the Bills pull a 2009 Edwards and lose the next 3 road games. They will walk up and buy the Tebow game, but if they crap the bed then the Titans and Phins games will not sell out.

[Skooby]

When the weather turns, it'll be a tougher ticket to sell.

[BuffaloBlitz83]

Sad this teams playing the best in years yet can't sell out those game right now. You'd think they'd be sold out already after the Pats win. Well i'm helping, I got tix to go to Titans game!

[WeAreArthurMoates]

Sad this teams playing the best in years yet can't sell out those game right now. You'd think they'd be sold out already after the Pats win. Well i'm helping, I got tix to go to Titans game!

The next two will be sold if were over .500. Your not gonna sell out the last 3 just cause we beat the pats game 3.

[BuffaloBlitz83]

The next two will be sold if were over .500. Your not gonna sell out the last 3 just cause we beat the pats game 3.

Why not. This is the most excited the fans have been in a decade?

[BillsFever21]

It's pretty bad considering the fast start that we had this year and there is still an average of 19,000 tickets left to the last 3 home games.

After the quick start we have only been an average team going 2-3 and easily could have been 1-4 if the Eagles didn't fumble the game away. The other win was against a Redskins team that couldn't beat anyone the past month.

Getting totally blown out by the Jets last week doesn't help. Between the past month and this last blowout has shown this team isn't ready for the playoffs yet. I know we will have the apologist saying we're still 5-3 with the Patriots and Jets but do any of you really think we will keep pace with them the rest of the season? We will have to beat out one of them teams to get the last WC spot most likely.

If we bomb out on this 3 game road trip we won't sell out the last 3 games in bad weather which could easily happen since a 3 game road trip is never easy let alone with playing the Cowboys, Jets and two of them divisional games. Can't count out the Dolphins who are playing better especially when divisional games are usually never a gimmie.

If we end up 6-5 we should sell out the Titans game. If we end up 5-6 the Titans game isn't even a guarantee. Then after playing them and the Chargers we could easily be a 6-7 or 7-6 at best. There will be a good chance the last two games won't sell out especially if we are 6-7 after that stretch which is very possible.

This team had a nice run early in the season but is proving to be an average team that can't sustain that pace. 5 out of our first 8 games were at home and only have 3 left the rest of the season with some tough games still in there. We will win about 8 games this year.

Face it we are still average and many players away from making a big push with the division we are in. The league is catching up with our offense. They are defending the short passing game and going to force Fitzpatrick to stretch the field more to clear up some space and he can't do that on a regular basis. Our defense is still bad and our CB's need totally revamped, our LB corps is still very weak and average at best and we're still not there on the DL either.

A big time WR wouldn't hurt either. We have a decent group of guys but no superstars. Stevie Johnson is good but he's not elite and would make a great #2 possession WR but he doesn't stretch the field much or make many plays after the catch. His YAC isn't very good at all.

[BertSquirtgum]

I'm glad I have xslive. When fitzy starts showing his real colors the games will never sell out.

[PromoTheRobot]

The next two will be sold if were over .500. Your not gonna sell out the last 3 just cause we beat the pats game 3.

Bills fans...the NFL's best. Stay home when their team is in 1st place because it's too cold and they might lose. Just move them to L.A. now and spare all the "fans" the need actually show up for their team. :doh:

PTR

[Night Train]

They will walk up and buy the Tebow game


HAHAHA ! Chistmas Eve ?

I'll bet the actual gate count is less than 45,000 for that game.

[better days]

Bills fans...the NFL's best. Stay home when their team is in 1st place because it's too cold and they might lose. Just move them to L.A. now and spare all the "fans" the need actually show up for their team. :doh:

PTR

Give me a break. The Bills have not made the playoffs in more than a decade & sell out much more than the San Diego Chargers who have had a very good team for the last decade & play in the best weather in the Country.

When LA gets a team (if it ever does) after 5 years the stadium will be half empty like San Diego & Miami.

[Michael82]

I'm betting that most of those tickets are for the Broncos game on Christmas Eve. The NFL are fools for scheduling a Bills home game on Christmas Eve. A lot of people will be out of town or with their families.

[Johnny Bugmenot]

I'm betting that most of those tickets are for the Broncos game on Christmas Eve. The NFL are fools for scheduling a Bills home game on Christmas Eve. A lot of people will be out of town or with their families.
Which would theoretically be a boost to WNY, which has a large diaspora and a lot of people would be coming back to the area.

[better days]

Which would theoretically be a boost to WNY, which has a large diaspora and a lot of people would be coming back to the area.

It is true many people go back to Buffalo at Christmas time, but I think most want to spend Christmas Eve with their family at home. If the game were 2-3 days before Christmas or after, it would have had a better chance to sell out. There are not enough Bills fans that are atheists to sell out the stadium & many Christians have other plans on Christmas Eve.

[TacklingDummy]

Bills fans...the NFL's best. Stay home when their team is in 1st place because it's too cold and they might lose. Just move them to L.A. now and spare all the "fans" the need actually show up for their team. :doh:

PTR
Most people hate the cold. Most people don't want to spend 4 to 5 hours out in the cold.

A new retractable Dome stadium should be considered over remodeling the old one.

[PromoTheRobot]

Give me a break. The Bills have not made the playoffs in more than a decade & sell out much more than the San Diego Chargers who have had a very good team for the last decade & play in the best weather in the Country.

When LA gets a team (if it ever does) after 5 years the stadium will be half empty like San Diego & Miami.
What was the excuse during the Super Bowl run? We couldn't sell out some playoff games. We can't sell late games no matter if we are good or bad. And we are full of excuses why. But we still pat ourselves on the back for being such good fans. What a joke.

PTR

[Jan Reimers]

I'm betting that most of those tickets are for the Broncos game on Christmas Eve. The NFL are fools for scheduling a Bills home game on Christmas Eve. A lot of people will be out of town or with their families.
Yeah, there are roughly 16,000 each for the Fins and Titans, and 25,000 for the Tebows, er Broncos.

[BLeonard]

I'm betting that most of those tickets are for the Broncos game on Christmas Eve. The NFL are fools for scheduling a Bills home game on Christmas Eve. A lot of people will be out of town or with their families.

To be fair, I really can't blame the NFL on this one... With Christmas falling on a Sunday, they basically had two choices: Play the games on Saturday (which most of the NFL is doing... 13 of the 16 games are on Saturday (Christmas Eve)) or, play them on Christmas Day.

One thing the NFL can't control is what days the holidays fall on.

-Bill

[Tiburon1724]

The main problem is the lack of season ticket holders this year. If I remember correctly, they only sold about half the tickets they sold last year because of their poor performance and low expectations for this season. If the season ticket numbers held, they'd all be sold out already.

[mrbojanglezs]

Buffalo needs a dome

[Jan Reimers]

Buffalo needs a dome
Buffalo needs an exciting, competitive team. Nothing more.

[stuckincincy]

Buffalo needs a dome

WNY needs an improving economy far before they need to prop up an unusual private enterprise. Johnny Bugmenot above speaks about the large diaspora. He's right. Folks have voted with their feet for years.

[Jan Reimers]

The main problem is the lack of season ticket holders this year. If I remember correctly, they only sold about half the tickets they sold last year
Actually, season ticket sales this year were down to about 37,500 from last year's 44,000, so they would still be about 37,000 tickets short for the last three games.

They are down substantially from 3-4 years ago, however, when season ticket sales were well over 50,000.

[better days]

WNY needs an improving economy far before they need to prop up an unusual private enterprise. Johnny Bugmenot above speaks about the large diaspora. He's right. Folks have voted with their feet for years.

It is not a vote if there are no other options. People did not leave Western New York out of choice for the most part, they left out of necessity.

An NFL team is MUCH MORE than a private enterprise, it is an ASSET to any community that has one & something that affects the quility of life in that community.

[better days]

To be fair, I really can't blame the NFL on this one... With Christmas falling on a Sunday, they basically had two choices: Play the games on Saturday (which most of the NFL is doing... 13 of the 16 games are on Saturday (Christmas Eve)) or, play them on Christmas Day.

One thing the NFL can't control is what days the holidays fall on.

-Bill

The NFL has a game EVERY Thursday from now until the end of the Season for the NFL Network to show. They could have played games on Thursday & Monday.

[better days]

What was the excuse during the Super Bowl run? We couldn't sell out some playoff games. We can't sell late games no matter if we are good our bad. And we are full of excuses why. But we still pat ourselves on the back for being such good fans. What a joke.

PTR

The games that were not sold out were also around Christmas time if I remember right. There are many teams with better records than Buffalo has had for the last decade, playing in better weather that have a harder time selling out.

[stuckincincy]

It is not a vote if there are no other options. People did not leave Western New York out of choice for the most part, they left out of necessity.

An NFL team is MUCH MORE than a private enterprise, it is an ASSET to any community that has one & something that affects the quility of life in that community.

I am holding my tongue on this matter.

[mrbojanglezs]

Buffalo needs an exciting, competitive team. Nothing more.

The current team is plenty exciting to attend games

[Jan Reimers]

The current team is plenty exciting to attend games
It is this year, but it hasn't been at all exciting or successful in the past decade, and many fans have become disgusted, disinterested or disengaged. It's hard to get them all back in the course of 8 games.

[BLeonard]

The NFL has a game EVERY Thursday from now until the end of the Season for the NFL Network to show. They could have played games on Thursday & Monday.

They have one game on Thursday night. You really gonna suggest that they schedule 13 more games on a Thursday or Monday night?

You can't put them on during the day on Monday or Thursday... Nobody's gonna be showing up to a 1PM game on a Thursday afternoon.

They aren't exactly setting a precedent here... They did basically the exact same thing in 2005, when Christmas fell on a Sunday. 13 of the 16 games were played on Saturday (Christmas Eve) that year as well.

My guess is, if tickets were so hard to move during Christmas week, the NFL would have noticed that and adjusted their schedule accordingly.

-Bill

[PromoTheRobot]

The games that were not sold out were also around Christmas time if I remember right. There are many teams with better records than Buffalo has had for the last decade, playing in better weather that have a harder time selling out.

John Wawrow over at TwoBillsDrive has some research that shows the Bills had a harder time selling out late season games when they were winning in the 90's. I also have vivid memories of unsold tickets for home playoff games. The bottom line: for all the badass talk about playing in snow, Bills fans are big wusses.

PTR

[better days]

I am holding my tongue on this matter.

Well, if you were thinking of disputing the facts I claimed, holding your tongue is a wise choice.

[stuckincincy]

Well, if you were thinking of disputing the facts I claimed, holding your tongue is a wise choice.

Enjoy the birdies. I'm in a mood of kindness - otherwise... :birds:

[better days]

Right...enjoy the birdies... :birds:

Well, I do enjoy being right........ it is much better than being wrong.

[stuckincincy]

Well, I do enjoy being right........ it is much better than being wrong.

Do please expound about where you are right. I'm just not understanding, I guess.

[better days]

Do please expound about where you are right. I'm just not understanding, I guess.

I am right that people left Buffalo out of necessity, they did not vote to leave by choice.

I am also right that an NFL team is an asset to any community that has one & contributes to the quality of life in that community.

I think I made myself clear in my 1st post on the subject.

[stuckincincy]

I am right that people left Buffalo out of necessity, they did not vote to leave by choice.

I am also right that an NFL team is an asset to any community that has one & contributes to the quality of life in that community.

I think I made myself clear in my 1st post on the subject.

Tell me more - I'm thick.

Aren't you detecting something yet?

[better days]

Tell me more - I'm thick.

Yeah if you don't understand that with no further explanation there is no question, you are "Thick As A Brick"- Jethro Tull.

What do you need more of an explanation of? That MANY people left the Buffalo area to find jobs that were plentiful at the time further south when few were available in Buffalo, or the fact that an NFL team is an asset to a City that has a team?

[theanswer74]

The comeback playoff game wasn't even sold out.

There needs to be a dome, or we need a smaller stadium with raised ticket prices, you choose.

[BillsFever21]

I'm betting that most of those tickets are for the Broncos game on Christmas Eve. The NFL are fools for scheduling a Bills home game on Christmas Eve. A lot of people will be out of town or with their families.

Couldn't you say the same thing for most of the other teams in the league except for maybe the big market teams like Giants/Jets, Cowboys, etc? Somebody has to play on that day. I guess they should just cancel the games for that weekend?

It's more then just Christmas Eve. The majority of the time we don't sell out late November/December games. Especially if we are having a bad season, not in the playoff hunt at the time or have been playing bad leading up to them games. Everyone scoops up the early season games and takes a wait and see approach for the late season games to see if it's worth spending the money to sit in the cold and watch a meaningless game.

I believe that is why we have been having more home games early in the season and not as many the last 5 or 6 games the past couple years. The NFL knows this and if we can sell out more games by having them earlier in the year it's better for the NFL. It started the most several years ago when we couldn't sell them games out and then you had last year when we couldn't sell any games out after the 3rd home game except for one of them because we started off so bad.

Face it most people in the Buffalo area/region isn't going to fork over $50+ dollars a ticket along with fuel, parking, food, etc to watch a meaningless game in the cold. If we go 3-1 in the next 4 games and are sitting there at 8-4 then we shouldn't have a problem selling out the last couple home games. At least I would hope we wouldn't.

[better days]

Couldn't you say the same thing for most of the other teams in the league except for maybe the big market teams like Giants/Jets, Cowboys, etc? Somebody has to play on that day. I guess they should just cancel the games for that weekend?

It's more then just Christmas Eve. The majority of the time we don't sell out late November/December games. Especially if we are having a bad season, not in the playoff hunt at the time or have been playing bad leading up to them games. Everyone scoops up the early season games and takes a wait and see approach for the late season games to see if it's worth spending the money to sit in the cold and watch a meaningless game.

I believe that is why we have been having more home games early in the season and not as many the last 5 or 6 games the past couple years. The NFL knows this and if we can sell out more games by having them earlier in the year it's better for the NFL. It started the most several years ago when we couldn't sell them games out and then you had last year when we couldn't sell any games out after the 3rd home game except for one of them because we started off so bad.

Face it most people in the Buffalo area/region isn't going to fork over $50+ dollars a ticket along with fuel, parking, food, etc to watch a meaningless game in the cold. If we go 3-1 in the next 4 games and are sitting there at 8-4 then we shouldn't have a problem selling out the last couple home games. At least I would hope we wouldn't.

You are wrong. The Bills have as many games at home at the end of the season as any other team. You can look it up.

[BillsFever21]

You are wrong. The Bills have as many games at home at the end of the season as any other team. You can look it up.
Yeah we have a couple games in December. We can't play all 8 home games in the first half of the year. The point I was making is in the past we would have more late November/December games then we have recently.

Recently the MAJORITY of our games have been scheduled early in the season while the weather is still nice and while me might still be in the hunt. We have had 5 of the last 7 games at home. That is quite a stretch of home games and we only went 4-3 during that span which really hurts us down the stretch.

Now that the middle of November is here and the 2nd half of the season we play 3 straight games and 4 out of 5 on the road and only have 3 more home games. That's going to be a tough stretch.

We finish the year with 2 of or last 3 at home but like I said we can't play every game early on but they have been scheduling the majority of them earlier in the season while the weather is nice. That's because we usually sell out the September/October games easily and maybe early November games but we haven't done very well selling out the later games.

With the way our schedule is this year we only have 2 games to worry about in late December at the end of the year when they are the hardest to sell out anyway. We also have one in early December which is a 50/50 shot.

We had a good stretch of home games early in the season and didn't capitalize on it like we should have especially after a 3-0 start. Now we play 4 out of the next 5 on the road which isn't going to be easy.

If we are lucky at best we will go 3-2 through that span which would put us 8-5 for the final three games. Assuming we won't sweep the Patriots and we lose to the Pats on the road this time that would give us 6 losses right there.

That means we MUST go at least 3-2 through this stretch and also win the Dolphins/Broncos game at home at the end of the year to get to 10 wins. That probably won't even cut it and will probably take 11 wins to make the playoffs.

If we finish any worse then3-2 over this long stretch of road games then any chances of the playoffs are dead. I see us going 2-3 over this stretch which would put us 7-6. If the wheels fall off over the next couple weeks 1-4 isn't totally out of the realm of possibility.

We MUST beat the Jets this second time or any chance of the playoffs will probably be out the window. If we are fighting with them for the last WC spot if we got swept by them then we would lose the tiebreaker to them.

[BLeonard]

Gotta love this quote from Russ Brandon in the article...



Our whole focus as an organization is to fill the building and provide the home-field advantage that we've enjoyed throughout the first four games of the year.


Yeah... Because home-field advantage is oh-so-important in the NFL... Unless, of course, another city offers you $78 million to play games at their place. Then, it's not as big of a deal. Right, Russ?

-Bill

[PromoTheRobot]

Gotta love this quote from Russ Brandon in the article...



Yeah... Because home-field advantage is oh-so-important in the NFL... Unless, of course, another city offers you $78 million to play games at their place. Then, it's not as big of a deal. Right, Russ?

-Bill

If I were Russ I'd give Toronto the next 3 home games. Why force Buffalo fans to buy tickets?

PTR

[BLeonard]

If I were Russ I'd give Toronto the next 3 home games. Why force Buffalo fans to buy tickets?

PTR

They don't buy them in Toronto, either... Chances are, they've already sold more tickets for the games in Buffalo than they could even seat in Toronto.

The highest attendance the Bills Toronto Series has gotten was 52,134... That was the first regular season game played there. It's also almost 21,000 less than the capacity at RWS.

I've said it before, when the new lease is worked out, Erie County should put a provision in it that states all home games will be played at RWS. If Erie County is shelling out over $100 million for the project, they should get the benefit of having all of the home games played in the stadium in return.

-Bill

[PromoTheRobot]

They don't buy them in Toronto, either... Chances are, they've already sold more tickets for the games in Buffalo than they could even seat in Toronto.

The highest attendance the Bills Toronto Series has gotten was 52,134... That was the first regular season game played there. It's also almost 21,000 less than the capacity at RWS.

I've said it before, when the new lease is worked out, Erie County should put a provision in it that states all home games will be played at RWS. If Erie County is shelling out over $100 million for the project, they should get the benefit of having all of the home games played in the stadium in return.

-Bill

Who cares if they don't sell out? At least Bills fans won't be saddled with the burden. Obviously it's too much to ask for 7 sellouts.

Seriously, part of the RWS renovation should include a dome.

PTR