Maybe they held the line on ticket prices because they foresee no change in their current budget, or as a concession to the staggering economy. Maybe they retained the status quo because they sense that the backlash over head coach Dick Jauron left them no other choice. The reason is immaterial. What matters is that a ticket to a Buffalo Bills home game — at least the ones played in Orchard Park — remains one of the premier values in major pro sports.
The NFL has it all over its competition when it comes to bang for the buck. As a result, the Bills, with one of the lowest average ticket prices in the league, rank as one of the best buys in the country, nine straight non-playoff seasons notwithstanding.
It’s the length of schedule that sets the NFL apart, the per-game importance. If the Bills lose their opener, there’s ground to make up and only 15 more games to do it. Not so in the NHL, the NBA, and certainly not Major League Baseball, where the 162- game journey sinks into mind-numbing tedium.
There are no Dog Days in pro football. Absent are the stretches of four games in six nights that undermine the quality of the product, as is the case in the NHL and the NBA. Unlike baseball, you won’t go to an NFL game and learn that the star player you’ve come to see has decided to sit this one out for no other reason than to rest up.
The highest-priced tickets for a Bills game in the “regular seating bowl” go for $77 walk-up, $70 as part of a season ticket package. For that you sit between the goal lines. And at the end of the day you have a pretty good idea how the result may impact the remainder of the season.