BarleyNY Posted July 19, 2016 Posted July 19, 2016 Last year the Bills were in the middle of the league for stadium attendance: http://www.statista.com/statistics/283897/national-football-league-teams-ranked-by-average-attendance-2013/ The Bills mafia is known as a very loyal fan base. Should we be given the product on the field over the past 16 years? I think it's hilarious that someone is complaining that things are out of whack when an 8-8 team finishes in the middle of the pack in attendance. It's like a manager complaining that employees are untrustworthy because they took 40% of their sick days on Mondays and Fridays.
Nihilarian Posted July 19, 2016 Posted July 19, 2016 (edited) Are we too accepting as fans? In a word, yes! I think that there a few different reasons as to why Buffalo Bills fans keep buying tickets to the titanic of the NFL. The Bills are 3-28 against Tom Brady who has won 25 of 28 since 2000...The Bills haven't won the division since 1993! First and foremost is fear, as in fear of losing the team to a different city because if the fans don't buy tickets the team will be forced to relocate. Like the Rams, Browns, Colts. With the previous owner so old the fan base didn't know what to expect should he suddenly pass on! Never underestimate the power of fear! Second, to accommodate all the losing the Bills have had the lowest priced seats in the league and this helps keep the tickets affordable to the blue collar fan base. Third is the blue collar fan base that loves to get to the Ralph early and party with friends on Sundays. Nothing in the world like drinking and partying with so many like-minded friends. Fourth, is the team has not bottomed out and has been good enough over the last 16 years to keep the fan base thinking that things could change with each new year and this new upcoming season could be the one the Bills finally get to the playoffs! Poor, deluded eternally optimistic Buffalo Bills fans. Fifth and final is the history of the 90's with all those super bowls and hall of fame players and all the children of those people who attended games those years are now buying tickets in hopes the team makes a return to playoffs. What amazes me throughout all the years of losing is that despite the fact that this team hasn't had a legit franchise QB since Jim Kelly who retired in 1996, is that Bills fans are so eternally optimistic that they just don't get that until the team finds that individual that they will probably not make the playoffs much less attain a world champion title. The same thing applies to the hiring of an elite head coach and GM. And before that happens the team needs to end this ridiculous philosophy of having the owner or nonfootball man in the FO involved in football decisions. What exactly qualifies the new owner or baseball / marketing man to make those top football decisions? Because he owns the team like the past owner or because of their vast experience in watching the games on the TV? Hasn't this franchise seen enough losing over the last 46 years? 13 years out of 46 the Bills made the playoffs and only three out of sixteen head coaches were able to do that. Knox, Levy and Phillips. (not counting the AFL) The one and only way to force management to make proper changes are by not attending games and that means not buying tickets. Because the fans have kept attendance up over the last 16 years...then nothing much changes. Ralph Wilson made the proper changes back in the late 70's when he hired Chuck Knox (an actual winning HC)and he did so because fans wouldn't attend the games. Shoot, the team couldn't even have home preseason games in Buffalo because the fans wouldn't show up. Season ticket attendance was abysmal at around 20k in a stadium that seated 80k. Wilson knew if he didn't make changes that he would be forced to sell all or part of his team. Same thing in the early 80's after back to back 2-14 seasons with so few fans going to the games and the fans that did show up wore bags on their heads. This is why Wilson, a notoriously frugal owner made QB Jim Kelly the highest paid QB in the league at that time and he just got lucky to find a GM like Polian. But, he was also smart enough to promote the man to GM after he saw how he managed to sign Bruce Smith. There is no reason in this world why this new owner should have kept the status quo FO in running an NFL team because it hadn't worked in 15 years he should have made sweeping changes to the football side of the team. Now we are in the 16th year with no end in sight. Even if Tom Brady retires and the Bills somehow manage to win one against Bill Belichick now and then, it really won't change much. The one and only way to force management to make proper change is by not attending games and that means not buying tickets Edited July 19, 2016 by Nihilarian
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