Interesting detailed article in yesterday's Buffalo News...
What’s wrong with the Ralph? By NFL standards, plenty
....In the $9 billion business known as the modern National Football League, which shares 80 percent of its revenue among its 32 teams, Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park is a loser.
Even after $130 million in renovations this year, the Ralph is not – and probably never can be – the moneymaking machine that the NFL now favors.
It’s poorly located for a team in the league’s second-smallest market, which must rely on fans from Canada and Rochester and points east in order to thrive. That’s why, sources said, several NFL team owners argue that a new stadium, preferably in downtown Buffalo, is essential to securing the team’s long-term future in the region.
What’s more, the Ralph is old – and teams can charge higher ticket prices in newer facilities. So Bills fans, who enjoyed the league’s second-lowest ticket prices last year, likely will see their bargain come to an end in a new stadium......
.....Sources who are familiar with the thinking within the NFL said some team owners believe the Bills’ new home should be closer to Toronto and Rochester to cash in on those markets.
The reason, they say, is that while Buffalo may be bouncing back now, it remains the league’s second-smallest market, ahead of only the Green Bay Packers.
It didn’t always used to be that way. When the Bills joined the new eight-team American Football League in 1960, the NFL had 13 teams and Buffalo was, according to the Census Bureau, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the country.
Five decades of economic decline later, metro Buffalo ranks 50th, with a population of 1.13 million that’s actually smaller than it was when the Bills were formed.
That fact already plays a key role in the marketing of the Bills, who say they now get nearly 20 percent of their home-field crowds from Canada and who hold their training camp near Rochester.....
What’s wrong with the Ralph? By NFL standards, plenty
....In the $9 billion business known as the modern National Football League, which shares 80 percent of its revenue among its 32 teams, Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park is a loser.
Even after $130 million in renovations this year, the Ralph is not – and probably never can be – the moneymaking machine that the NFL now favors.
It’s poorly located for a team in the league’s second-smallest market, which must rely on fans from Canada and Rochester and points east in order to thrive. That’s why, sources said, several NFL team owners argue that a new stadium, preferably in downtown Buffalo, is essential to securing the team’s long-term future in the region.
What’s more, the Ralph is old – and teams can charge higher ticket prices in newer facilities. So Bills fans, who enjoyed the league’s second-lowest ticket prices last year, likely will see their bargain come to an end in a new stadium......
.....Sources who are familiar with the thinking within the NFL said some team owners believe the Bills’ new home should be closer to Toronto and Rochester to cash in on those markets.
The reason, they say, is that while Buffalo may be bouncing back now, it remains the league’s second-smallest market, ahead of only the Green Bay Packers.
It didn’t always used to be that way. When the Bills joined the new eight-team American Football League in 1960, the NFL had 13 teams and Buffalo was, according to the Census Bureau, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the country.
Five decades of economic decline later, metro Buffalo ranks 50th, with a population of 1.13 million that’s actually smaller than it was when the Bills were formed.
That fact already plays a key role in the marketing of the Bills, who say they now get nearly 20 percent of their home-field crowds from Canada and who hold their training camp near Rochester.....
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