Buffalo Boy's Blog

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I have to disagree with Bob DiCesare's column in Friday's Buffalo News.Not counting the Bisons, this is a two sport town here in Buffalo. Its not a "Football town" and its not a "Hockey Town".

The way I see it, fans in Buffalo are of three mindsets:

1. You are a die hard Bills fan and the Sabres come a distant second.

2. You are a die hard Sabres fan and the Bills come a distant second.

Or, most people in the area fit into this category:

3. You like both equally and you live and die with both.

I am of the second variety, always have, always will. I love hockey, I love baseball. I would say I like the Bisons more than I like the Bills. I have actually morphed into a Browns fan over the years so the Bills really don't fall on my radar other than they represent the area and I do root for them for that purpose, otherwise, Im looking for the Cleveland score during football season.

The Bills have had shitty team after shitty team the last 10 years or so and as fans why do you keep going back? Every year it seems they get sell out after sell out. Either fans are brainwashed or stupid for going back.

The Sabres, while they have had their problems are always there for us, they may not make the playoffs every year, but for all intensive purposes, they compete. What would we do here after December without the Sabres? We'd freeze our asses off and beg for spring for four months?

We need hockey more than we need a greedy NFL team here. I don't think its that Buffalo is too small a market for the Bills, I think its more that the NFL has outgrown Buffalo. They don't give a crap about ticket holders in the NFL. They don't need a fan in any seat to be successful because they have television money and get a hell of a lot more marketing money in revenue sharing than they can make in ticket sales.

Hockey starts in September and goes to at least April. We need that here, it keeps us busy and our minds off how shitty the weather is. Unlike the NFL, they are not too big for us, they need the ticket holders and ticket holders get treated as such. The Sabres and yes the NHL for all intensive purposes despite Gary Bettman's short comings have always had the fans in mind. Oh and by the way, the Sabres are also a well run, playoff contender, unlike the other franchise.