acsgjjp@sunybcs.UUCP (Jim Poltrone) (01/18/85)
[How 'bout them Ills?]
With the events of the past few weeks, I feel that the reason the
Buffalo Bills will never get to the Super Bowl is the owner of the
team, Ralph Wilson.
First of all, he doesn't live in Buffalo, where his franchise is located.
He makes his home in (or around) Detroit, Michigan. (Most of the other
teams are owned by someone in the area; the Pittsburgh Steeler's Art Rooney
comes to mind.)
Second, he doesn't (or won't) pump any of his money (believe me, he's
loaded) into the local economy. I would love to see a dome put over
Rich Stadium (built with funds from Erie County and Rich Products, Inc.),
but to do so, seven thousand seats would have to be removed. Ralph would
rather keep the seating at 80,000 than reduce it to 72,000 just to have
a dome. With Birdair Structures (the ones who built the cover for the
Metrodome in Minneapolis) located in Cheektowaga -- 15 minutes away
from the stadium -- surely a dome would be feasible. And with our
weather, like all the northern cities, a dome is almost a necessity.
Third, he's cheap with the players and coaches. Why did Tom Cousineau
play for the Montreal Alouettes (in the CFL) and then the Cleveland Browns
when he was Buffalo's #1 draft pick in 1979? Why did Joe Cribbs pack up
and go to Birmingham in 1983? Why is Chuck Knox now coaching the
Seahawks? The bottom line: MONEY. Cousineau and Cribbs (after he got
greedy) felt they can play somewhere else for more money, so they left
Buffalo. And Knox didn't like the way Wilson was doing things. (He
was, in my opinion, too conservative of a coach -- he didn't take any
risks -- but we made the playoffs when he was coaching.) This is the
reason I believe Jim Kelly will stay in the USFL, and Doug Flutie will
not be wearing a Bills uniform -- ever.
Lastly, he's wishy-washy. We still don't know who he wants for the
first round pick. And it took him two weeks (or more) to decide that
he wants to retain Kay Stephenson as coach. RETAIN STEPHENSON???
(I'm still in shock.) Not only is he wishy-washy, he's INEPT!!
Here's what I would do if I were in charge of the team (I'd be the owner,
too, if I had $30 million to blow):
1) Find a new coach. Kay's nice, but I don't think he should
be the coach next year. Perhaps he can stay on as assistant
offensive coordinator.
2) Use either Joe Dufek or Matt Kofler as a starting
quarterback. Joe Feruguson should retire or be made a
second- or third-string quarterback. If we offer to
trade him, who would want him?
3) Try to do something about those penalties. Maybe chop the
hands off of Ken Jones and Fred Smerlas. :-) Either that
or tie their hands behind their back.
4) Get a dome for the stadium. The largest attendance we had this
year (not counting the Dallas game, which was -- believe it
or not -- a sellout) was around 50,000. More fans would
come if they didn't have to freeze while watching the game.
(More fans would come if they won more games. :-) )
I wouldn't pay to see a Bills game as long as Wilson (or substitute your
favorite expletive) owns the team. He's not concerned about improving
the team; all he cares about is that he gets his cut. But at least he's
keeping the team in Buffalo and not moving it.
If only we can trade away owners like players. *sigh*
--
The opinions expressed herein are my own; the opinion that the Bills stink
is the opinion of 99% of the people in the Buffalo area who used to be
Bills fans.
--
"Is there liver in reality?"
Jim Poltrone (a/k/a Poltr1, the Last of the Raster Blasters)
uucp: [decvax,watmath,rocksvax]!sunybcs!acsgjjp
ARPAnet, CSnet: acsgjjp%buffalo@CSNET-RELAY
BITNET: ACSGJJP@SUNYABVAwildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer) (01/19/85)
>With the events of the past few weeks, I feel that the reason the >Buffalo Bills will never get to the Super Bowl is the owner of the >team, Ralph Wilson. >First of all, he doesn't live in Buffalo, where his franchise is located. >He makes his home in (or around) Detroit, Michigan. (Most of the other >teams are owned by someone in the area; the Pittsburgh Steeler's Art Rooney >comes to mind.) So? Art Modell lives in (4-12) Cleveland. Ed deBartolo lives in Pittsburgh, not (17-1) San Francisco. >Second, he doesn't (or won't) pump any of his money (believe me, he's >loaded) into the local economy. I would love to see a dome put over >Rich Stadium (built with funds from Erie County and Rich Products, Inc.), >but to do so, seven thousand seats would have to be removed. Ralph would >rather keep the seating at 80,000 than reduce it to 72,000 just to have >a dome. With Birdair Structures (the ones who built the cover for the >Metrodome in Minneapolis) located in Cheektowaga -- 15 minutes away >from the stadium -- surely a dome would be feasible. And with our >weather, like all the northern cities, a dome is almost a necessity. That's funny... the Vikings never had any problems selling out Metropolitan Stadium when Bud Grant was producing NFC champions right and left; try to get a ticket in Green Bay sometime -- they haven't even made the playoffs in a fairly long time. >Third, he's cheap with the players and coaches. Why did Tom Cousineau >play for the Montreal Alouettes (in the CFL) and then the Cleveland Browns >when he was Buffalo's #1 draft pick in 1979? Why did Joe Cribbs pack up >and go to Birmingham in 1983? Why is Chuck Knox now coaching the >Seahawks? The bottom line: MONEY. Cousineau and Cribbs (after he got >greedy) felt they can play somewhere else for more money, so they left >Buffalo. And Knox didn't like the way Wilson was doing things. (He >was, in my opinion, too conservative of a coach -- he didn't take any >risks -- but we made the playoffs when he was coaching.) This is the >reason I believe Jim Kelly will stay in the USFL, and Doug Flutie will >not be wearing a Bills uniform -- ever. AHA! Now we're getting somewhere. There are a lot of owners of pro sports franchises who try to run them like ghetto apartments -- they buy 'em cheap, jack the rents, run 'em into the ground, and when they've gotten all the depreciation taken care of, sell 'em off to some other guy who turns right around and does the same thing over again. Meanwhile, they've made a few million and they're happy. You seem to be afflicted with one of those kinds of owners right now. The only good thing that can be said for them is that they usually don't last too long -- football players depreciate almost as fast as Detroit cars in Buffalo. >Lastly, he's wishy-washy. We still don't know who he wants for the >first round pick. And it took him two weeks (or more) to decide that >he wants to retain Kay Stephenson as coach. RETAIN STEPHENSON??? >(I'm still in shock.) Not only is he wishy-washy, he's INEPT!! Don't blame the owner exclusively for these. Who to pick in the first round should be determined by the general manager, if one exists, or else by the coaching staff. (New Orleans Saints owner) John Mecom would be making an absolutely insane decision if he told his draft crew to get Doug Flutie -- unless he was also planning on firing Bum Phillips and introducing a coach who knew something about the passing game. It also does you no good to select a first-round pick who signs a fat contract in the USFL, so you might as well wait and see who's available before opening your big fat mouth to the press, \\especially// when your first-round pick is the second guy to be taken, and if his agent has any brains at all, he will use this fact against you to nail you to the wall at contract-drafting time. The smart coach/GM/front office keeps their collective mouth shut these days. As for taking a couple of weeks to decide on the coach, maybe one of his office buildings burned down. The guy just might have a few other things besides football to worry about. > (More fans would come if they won more games. :-) ) >Jim Poltrone (a/k/a Poltr1, the Last of the Raster Blasters) Now you're at the crux of the matter. The "smiley face" is very much out of place here. You don't necessarily have to win games, but, like it or not, professional football is big-time Entertainment with a capital E, designed in order to give advertisers more time to sell more razor blades to 35 million males each week. If you want to get the fans out to the stadium, you must Entertain them. If you put on an entertaining show, people will come. If you don't they won't. It's no more complicated than that. So you don't like the way things are going? Well, just find about 100,000 people in the area willing to put up $500 each to change things. You now have an organization with $50,000,000 (perhaps more) in capital. Buy the franchise (now you do own it), use the leftover millions to do whatever else you need to do, and have fun! Bill Laubenheimer ----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science ...Killjoy went to SB XIX (go Niners!) ucbvax!wildbill