People die on highways in blinding rainstorms. They die on highways when the roads are bone dry. Stop asking the NFL to be its fans' mother. If they're stupid enough to try to drive to Buffalo in that kind of weather, well ... Darwin, anyone?
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Another Blizzard/NFL Playoff
- Thread starter tbolt909
- Start date
Have you seen the conditions at the Bills stadium location? Don't be absurd. No way they could be they playing the game right now.
I agree with you that people are ignorant. Some disregard travel bans and then get stuck. Of course, they call 911 putting other people in jeopardy. If the game hadn't been postponed, it would have been chaos on impassable roads...
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I'm not arguing the point. Those of us who actually live here know very well how abruptly these storms can shift and how unreliable early forecasting can turn out to be.
Poloncarz, Hochul and Goodell made what turned out to be the right call. And seeing what the forecast looked like as of Saturday, I would have done the same thing.
I am truly stunned at the amount of people I'm seeing on social media who think holding a game with 70,000 people in attendance, not even including all the support staff in and around the stadium, is a good idea.
As it is, the Bill's game on Monday will have snow and wind and near-zero windchill at kickoff. Just not the far more problematic lake-effect. Big difference.
Meanwhile, in Detroit it is currently 8 degrees. The Lions play the Rams there tonight in the cozy climate controlled Ford Field Dome...
Do you believe in miracles?!
I waited for this thread to play out before putting my 27 cents in the kitty. The game was wisely postponed. Playing the game as scheduled at 1 p.m. Sunday would have been a logistical nightmare and would in fact be life threatening. I say this as a season ticket holder who has walked to and from the stadium in sunshine, rain and snow, and as a person who lives near the stadium ... as it happens, in the cross hairs of the lake effect snow band. It's serious shizzle, not to be taken lightly.
Abbott Road, Big Tree Road and Southwestern Boulevard can be a challenge in good weather. Snow, wind, booze, cannabis + emotion and hubris combine to make driving to the game and walking to the stadium a greater challenge. As I write this at 12:05 a.m. Monday, the snow band remains over Orchard Park and the south towns. The wind has subsided substantially, but there remains a modest breeze. The temp at game time will be a balmy 20° with an expected wind chill around 5°.
As it relates to the media and radio, for the sake of keeping within the parameters of this board, the meteorologists (some retired) who post on social media have been my first and primary go-to over the past 18 hours. Don Paul (Ch 4) has been outstanding. Andy Parker (Ch 2), as well. Tom Niziol and Dave Sage, retired meteorologists who worked at the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service also have added their expertise on social media. Science triumphed over nonsense. Radio didn't get much TSL in my daily non-Nielsen diary. My, how times have changed. Twenty years ago, WBEN, WBFO and WGR ... as well as some of the localized music formats ... would have scored massive cume and TSL.
Abbott Road, Big Tree Road and Southwestern Boulevard can be a challenge in good weather. Snow, wind, booze, cannabis + emotion and hubris combine to make driving to the game and walking to the stadium a greater challenge. As I write this at 12:05 a.m. Monday, the snow band remains over Orchard Park and the south towns. The wind has subsided substantially, but there remains a modest breeze. The temp at game time will be a balmy 20° with an expected wind chill around 5°.
As it relates to the media and radio, for the sake of keeping within the parameters of this board, the meteorologists (some retired) who post on social media have been my first and primary go-to over the past 18 hours. Don Paul (Ch 4) has been outstanding. Andy Parker (Ch 2), as well. Tom Niziol and Dave Sage, retired meteorologists who worked at the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service also have added their expertise on social media. Science triumphed over nonsense. Radio didn't get much TSL in my daily non-Nielsen diary. My, how times have changed. Twenty years ago, WBEN, WBFO and WGR ... as well as some of the localized music formats ... would have scored massive cume and TSL.
I agree. Bring on the global warming! I'm beginning to feel like I'm back in the "Ice Age" of the 1970's! 🤣
Indeed. I read about how, back in 2014. A 5 year contract was terminated after only one year. That is how pathetic the situation was.
Sad, but true and unfortunate. Maybe things have changed in 10 years, but I doubt it.
Well, an NFL game was played at Highmark Stadium Monday afternoon, and all went well! It’s a testament to the Bills staff, stadium snow shovelers, public works crews and law enforcement traffic officers that this game was able to be played without incident. Seeing various photos and videos of the snow covered seats hours before the game, I was wondering how fans would find their seats, much less plow their way through to get to them. But when the CBS camera panned the crowd at the opening of the telecast, all the fans were there. My jaw dropped! It looked like every other Bills game! I truly wonder if any other team in the league could do what the Bills did to get their stadium ready less than 24 hours after three to four feet of snow fell. There was even a photo on social media of Bills radio producer Greg Harvey shoveling in front of the broadcast booth so Chris Brown and Eric Wood would have an unimpeded view of the action! The word “soft” has been thrown around a lot in recent days. Well, color me soft! I enjoyed the game in my man cave with the gas fireplace running. So kudos to all the fans, including a particular poster on this board (who has a few years on me) for braving the cold and snow-filled stands to root on the Bills to victory. That overhead view of the stadium yesterday sure looked great before a national TV audience!
All great, but just wondering...that $20/hr that was paid out to fans for helping out with snow clearing...where is the money coming from? Are they raising the price of game tickets to pay for all this or...?
Is this a serious question? NFL franchises aren't exactly hard up for cash. The better question is why can't the Bills hire a stadium crew to do the job. Better yet - Build a Dome. Buffalo has been the butt of weather jokes for a long time. These Apocalyptic weather events don't help that image.
Lake Effect snow events have gotten more severe in the last couple years there. Maybe their Canadian neighbours can kick in some cash to build them a dome. Toronto has Skydome (Rogers Centre)...
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The reality regarding "the dome" ... it was never going to happen. As in NEV-er. Pegula Sports could have assumed the nearly billion additional expense of the dome, but declined. That's on the Pegula entity.
The fact is, the New York State Legislature would not have approved funding for a dome. It was a non-starter. Dead. The downstate contingent in the state senate and assembly had to be convinced to approve the bill that provided funding for the new Bills stadium.
Yammer all you want about Buffalo weather and a need for a dome. It wasn't going to happen. What's more, the new stadium will be down-sized to accommodate 60 thousand (from the present 70 thousand, and one time 80 thousand), with a few thousand more in select standing areas. The Bills say they want to put the squeeze on the re-sale market, but it's just as likely that they want to put the squeeze on fans. The ol' supply and demand thing.
Back to the dome: Last Sunday's Wild Card Game against the Steelers was sold out. More than likely, the same will be said for this Sunday's game against the Chiefs. So yes, Bills fans will sit in the cold and stand on packed snow for hours to watch and cheer for their team. Go ahead, call the fans whatever you want, sheep, brain-washed, whatever. The fact is, the Bills own this community, they call they tune, and the fans will happily dance to it. It's reality.
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Fan enthusiasm can wane when the team is not winning. The Bills actually had playoff games blacked out on local TV. The famous comeback game against Houston in the 90s was not sold out and wasn't televised there.
San Diego told the NFL to get lost. The stadium deal was rejected by voters. People in Buffalo weren't allowed to vote on their stadium deal. The tax payers will get hosed big time there. Slavish unrequited love of an NFL team is hardly admirable...
San Diego told the NFL to get lost. The stadium deal was rejected by voters. People in Buffalo weren't allowed to vote on their stadium deal. The tax payers will get hosed big time there. Slavish unrequited love of an NFL team is hardly admirable...
I have a really hard time equating Buffalo with San Diego for anything from fast food preferences to pro sports comparisons.
San Diego is over a third Hispanic, and that group likes real “football”. And the remaining two million don’t have a legacy team or, very importantly, an overall sense of massive community pride; everyone it seems is from somewhere else.
In some communities, an NFL team with tradition can truly be integral to the backbone of the market. In markets where “nobody was born here” it’s very different. We can see that in LA, San Francisco and San Diego where popularity grows or drops radically based on the current and last season results. No Chicago Cubs syndrome in Los Angeles!
I'll remind you, the stadium had 80 thousand seats at the time. It was, in fact, the largest capacity stadium (although the LA Coliseum is said to have seated more at one time ... albeit for Market #2) in the NFL for what was arguably the third smallest market in the NFL. The market now ranks as second smallest or smallest, depending on the metric used for Green Bay (Green Bay-Milwaukee.)
Of course, that's not counting the Canadian fans. Add in the "Golden Horseshoe" and you've got a much larger market.
Last week's problem was the travel ban not allowing shovelers to get to the stadium, not the method of clearing snow. Let's see how the stadium is this week.
A dome isn't as much of an issue as the location of the stadium. Putting it in an area that regularly gets hit by lake effect snow was short-sighted initially. Doing it again seems foolhardy, but it was the least expensive choice. Downtown isn't the answer because of the proximity to the lake and its winds along with eating up a chunk of what could be valuable real estate for a limited use facility and lack of room for tailgating. The only reasonable solution was to move the stadium north of the city, but that was ruled out because of the cost of land and new infrastructure. So, they designed a stadium that should provide a much better experience for both players and fans as long as they can get there. And, we were able to get the money from the state for it.
Buffalo already has its challenges with national image. The Bills are a demonstration that we're on the rise and that we can adapt and overcome, both on the field and off. A snowstorm simply doesn't do the kind of damage that a hurricane, earthquake, wildfire, or tornado does. We have a robust infrastructure. The ability to work from home, at least part-time, affordable real estate, the availability of power, the water resources, and the fact you don't have to worry about ocean rise keeps moving Buffalo up the list of good places to relocate. The Bills add a positive to that picture.
Go Bills. Go Buffalo. We've beaten the naysayers time after time.