The Senator

Monica Seles was a screamer too, IIRC. (Wonder if she's still shackin' up with Tommy G ?)

I have no interest in Sunday's match, but will be watching closely as Maria Sharapova grunts her way to victory tomorrow...

All kidding aside, Darcy & Co. did a great job. Or, as our northern neighbours would say... "What a difference a day makes, eh?"

Even with a large fleet of shuttle buses to transport fans from [very] remote lots (which would never work, anyway), I still don't see how you piece these 3 sites together - Link-Nabisco Factory Link-NF Medical Ctr Link-Rainbow Centre and come up with anything even one third the size of this... Link-RWS Complex (yes, all 4 maps are to same scale) I can't believe that anyone actually thinks a Lucas Oil Stadium is even remotely appealing aesthetically - especially if shoe-horned' into a small, tight urban setting like The Cataract City. Likewise with that Minnesota monstrosity. (Which, of course, must be enclosed - since it's usually about 10-below there in the winter!) However, something in The BuffTown, right on Lake Erie, could be magical - right at the water's edge...like this...

They shoulda signed Richards. Regier sucks. T-Pegs should fire him and bring Ted Nolan up from Rochester.

Not sure your # is correct - not saying it isn't, just that I'm not sure. IIRC, they can go 10% over the cap in the summer, and then there's this... Buffalo will enter the fun and lunacy of the NHL signing period with $10.4 million in cap space. The league allows teams to go 10 percent over the $64.3 million cap during the summer, and the Sabres' total includes that $6.4 million. "Depending on what we do [Friday] it may affect our current lineup, but so far we still have room," Regier said. "There's a few roles up front that we'd like to address if we can." Any forwards interested in joining a Stanley Cup contender would have to consider the Sabres. Their moves have swung them toward that category. link (buffalo snooze) The way I read between Darcy's lines, if they have to go over the cap to sign Richards, someone on the current roster may have to be moved. But that's just the way I read it. I could be wrong... GO SABRES!!!! 98 and 0 baby!!!!! .

True enough,but if that's the argument for where to locate, you could start bulldozing Buffalo's East Side - beginning somewhere just past Eddie Brady's and working your way all the way to Kaisertown! No such problems with the Bethlehem site... link (It's the big brown spot right in the center, just below Union Ship Canal.) In fact, if you manipulate the map a bit, you can see the entire RWS complex about 2 inches down and 3 inches to the right - looks like you could fit 2 or 3 of them on the Bethlehem site! OTOH, I doubt there'd be a single objection - enviromental or otherwise - if someone wanted to build a large sports stadium complex to replace this... Former Bethlehem Steel Site You are describing three distinctly separate parcels when what would be required is multiple contiguous parcels, or one colossal parcel, of available land. I think you may be underestimating the amount of land required for a 70,000-80,000-seat stadium, along with associated ancillary field houses, practice fields, parking lots, executive offices, etc. Take another look - Ralph Wilson Stadium Complex It is larger then the entire ECC South campus directly behind. (The Rainbow Centre Mall and attached parking garage combined are still, I believe, smaller than the current Bills field house.)

Git 'er done!!!

Most of it belongs to a Luxembourg-based global steel conglomerate... ArcelorMittal They've been promising for over 5-years to begin rehabilitating the site (which I believe is now designated a 'brownfield' site) and parcel it out for development - but I don't see anything at all going on as I cruise past it several times a week. (Think NFTA holding on to 60 acres of prime lakefront real-estate for over 40 years, tossing out viable businesses like 'The Pier' restaurant as they come up with a new 'grand scheme' to every few years to 'totally transform' the site, but ultimately doing absolute nothing with it other than using it to store the ice boom in the summer!) If the will was there - along with a forward-thinking developer - I'm sure the land could be acquired, even if it meant taking it under 'eminent domain' laws. I gotta think that, when the economy finally does turn around (it always does), there could even be federal dollars for a 'first-in-the-nation, totally-green' stadium, which could be a model for all future stadia. (Tip O'Neil and Ted Kennedy got over a $$ billion $$ in federal funds - which, with delays and overruns, grew to over $$ 8 billion $$ in federal funds - for that whole 'Big Dig' fiasco!!!) But then, like I said, it all just makes too much sense to even happen in WNY!

Well, said. I agree. We should be grateful for their support. The least we could do is put a Beaver Tail concession at The Ralph.

Brad Richards has been a free agent for over 2 hours. WTF, Terry???

Depends where you're walking from, I guess. That old rail-yard is the entire Bethlehem site, and it's directly across the street from and certainly w/in walking distance of a large portion of Lackawanna and South Buffalo neighborhoods. Also, unlike urban baseball parks, most football stadia are, out of necessity, configured to accommodate large parking lots for the cars, RVs, and buses bringing 70,000+ fans to the site on game day. (Think Foxboro, Meadowlands, etc.) I'd be horrified to think how much of Niagara Falls would have to be obliterated to accommodate so many vehicles w/in 'walking distance' of any new stadium - maybe this aerial view of 'The Ralph' says it better than I can... RWS- Aerial (And even at those urban ballparks, folks are more than willing and eager to take a short hop on the trolleys and subways to get there.) Also, don't forget that this is Buffalo - not San Diego - i.e., it ain't exactly a perfect 68-degrees and sunny year-round here, so 'walking distance' in Nov/Dec/Jan is probably not as high on the priority list as having both public transit and adequate parking adjacent the stadium. Anyway, this is probably a better aerial of the site I'd propose - very close to downtown (you can see the Father Baker Bridge/Route 5 in the lower left) - probably actually close enough for many to walk, actually, IF there was a lakeside pedestrian plaza from downtown... Bethlehem Site

There should be a moratorium on further development close to the actual cataract, and the nation's first State Park should return to it's original condition - once a masterpiece of Frederick Law Olmsted landscape architecture. Can anyone imagine some thinking, "Hey, this 'Old Faithful' geyser is a great location for a new ballpark!", or taking advantage of the magnificent view of Half Dome to site a new stadium in Yosemite? Personally, I'd like to see less development and tourist attractions on the US side of The Falls, rather than more. (Let the Canucks cheapen and destroy Mother Nature's majestic grandeur with their casinos, convention centers, tacky Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museums, and other low-brow tourist crap.) The best location for any new stadium in WNY is the old Bethlehem site, right at the Buffalo/Lackawanna line. Build a totally green facility - totally self-sustaining and powered by geothermal, wind (there's already a small wind farm on the site), and solar energy. Something beautiful, green, and totally unique - like this... Link - Ireland's Aviva Stadium Someplace within a spit of downtown BuffTown - like here... Link - View of Downtown, Erie Basin, and Ft. Erie Rail service from downtown is easy to accomplish - the tracks are already lain - and it's on a colossally large tract of otherwise useless land, directly on a major thoroughfare, less than a mile from the NYS Thruway. In fact - it make so much sense that it could never possibly happen, but any new Bills stadium should be built right here...

I like the blue ones.

...and this

So this guy is a sort of NFL 'Mr. Blackwell'???

Our northern neighbors are far more fanatical about Will & Kate than football... Link - Where are they at this very moment? Where are they going next??? Enjoy your Royals - the Bills will be in Buffalo long after Rogers Centre lies in crumbled ruins. Happy Canada Day, eh? GO BILLSSS!!!! 19 and 0 baby!!!!!

This season's COTY Chan Gailey will be laughing when our Bills shock the football world ... 19 and 0 baby!!! "With the truth so dull and depressing, the only working alternative is wild bursts of madness and filigree." - Hunter S. Thompson

98 and 0 baby!!!

19 and 0 baby!!!

Ah, then you will probably like this story about 'Airborne Eddy' and the interview as well... Showing faith by returning to the ’hood Interview - A Paderewski Save Strusienski is Lottie Pikuzinski's (the lady making the pierogi) maiden name - her family owned the tavern. She became a Pikuzinski when she married Ronnie, the brother of local soccer legend Rudolf Pikuzinski - father of former Buffalo Blizzard star and Buffalo Sports HOF member Rudy Pikuzinski. Small world, they say - in fact, there's probably only a few 'degrees of separation' between us. I was baptized at St. Adalbert's, but my grandfather lived right near St. Stan's - Detroit & Peckham. The house is gone now, along with most of the block, and most of the surrounding blocks. Of the few decrepit homes remaining on each block, most are boarded-up and slated for demolition - stripped by neighborhood junkies and crack addicts of the metal siding, copper plumbing, and anything else of scrap-value. About half the ones that haven't been torn down or condemned, along with the vacant lots surrounding them, can be purchased for $1 under the city's Urban Homestead Program - if you're willing to rehabilitate them and live there for at least 5 years. (I've often thought about going down to City Hall with a double sawbuck and buying an entire block! ) That's why I think it's so great that Ed and Marty are so committed to that section of Buffalo. .

Well of course the State of NY has been trying for decades to tap this source of revenue, and has always backed down under the pressure of Native American protest or been frustrated by the courts... "In (New York's) haste to move forward with an enforcement plan, it skipped several important steps," Seneca President Robert Odawi Porter said...When the state tried to collect the tax in 1997, protesters lit tire fires and shut down a 30-mile stretch of the New York state Thruway that bisects Seneca land near the Pennsylvania line." link Now anticipating that NY may finally prevail, the Seneca Nation is moving to sell mainly Indian-manufactured brands, which apparently will remain tax-exempt, and moving manufacturing facilities onto reservation land.

So you can see why it's reasonable to think that 5-year veteran NY Giants (and former Cornellian) RG/RT Kevin Boothe might be a good addition... Reverse the Curse!!!!

Ironically, hopes for revitalization of WNY's economy now lie in not in the hands giant 'smokestack' industrial manufacturing operations, but rather in the hands of countless small businesses such as Sovereign Tobacco cigarette factory

I also highly recommend taking any one of their tours if you have the chance... Link - Forgotten Buffalo: Past Tours What I like about Marty and his business partner 'Airborne Eddy' Dobosiewicz (aka 'Maxwell Truth') is not only their passion for the City of Buffalo (they are prime advocates for the revival of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood, Central Terminal, and the tremendous growth and now nationwide recognition of Buffalo's Dyngus Day celebration), but that they also 'put their money where their mouth is' - Eddie bought a run-down, boarded-up former tavern (Strusienski's) on Paderewski Drive with plans to renovate, Marty's wife is the great-granddaughter of Mary Bayliss Olshei (Buffalo's Olshei Foundation) and is currently championing the preservation of Polonia's 'Bork cottages' and together they bought the old Union Stockyards Bank Building (most recently BofA) at the corner of Broadway & Fillmore as HQ for their recently-formed Dispensata Corp., a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of Buffalo's 'Polonia' neighborhood and community. Both are great guys and both serve as guides for the Forgotten Buffalo tours. Marty's a bit more reserved (used to be with WNED-TV) while Eddie's more of a comic, often seen bopping around the Broadway Market when not drinking pivo and eating pierogi at the Pikuzinski's R&L Lounge or engaged in his Offbeat Cinema project, FB tours, or other endeavors... Na Zdrowie!!!!! "Good people drink good beer." - Hunter S. Thompson