Despite Wayne Huizenga’s feelings on the issue, not all NFL teams are having a hard time selling their tickets for the 2008 season.
The Buffalo Bills announced today that they’ve sold out individual game tickets to six of their seven home dates this season. They’ve also sold more than 53,000 season tickets to the 73,967 capacity Ralph Wilson Stadium. That doesn’t do much to lend credence to Huizenga’s belief that it is the economy and not his team that’s causing people to rethink tickets to Dolphin games this year.
The only game that hasn’t sold out, oddly, is the December 28th tilt with the Patriots. According to the Buffalo News tickets are still available to that contest but a trip to the Bills website finds one unable to purchase seats for the game. Curious about whether or not that was to try and stop Patriot fans from gobbling up all the tickets, I placed a call to the ticket office. You can only buy 15 or more tickets to the game at this time with no guarantee that they’ll sell lesser numbers at any point. Telling him I was from Massachusetts didn’t seem to preclude me from ordering the seats, however, so perhaps its just the thought of being outdoors in Buffalo on that date that’s holding people back.
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:30 am
That ticketing policy for the Pats game seems a little off doesn’t it?
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:35 am
The same people who bought those seats are the ones who sat out in the Hockey game on New Year’s Day.
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Makes sense to me. Why would anyone waste money on a ticket to a game against a team led by a pathological cheater like Belichick?
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:42 am
This is also due to Bills fans fearing that their team will leave for Canada. Whenever the Bills were televised the past few years, it looked like there were 27 people in the stands.
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June 24th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Individual game tickets for Steelers home games sold out in less than 1 minute…don’t see any issues there either Wayne.
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June 24th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
As a loyal Bills season ticket holder, my guess as to why the Patriots game hasn’t sold out has less to do with the weather and more to do with the fact that Bills haven’t come close to beating the Pats at home since opening day 2003. After four straight years of seeing your team get clobbered at home by Brady & Co., it’s just not that appealing.
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June 24th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Okay, is this a joke? PFT has been hot on the trail of the Buffalo Bills ticket office news for a few months now. Why? Doesn’t every real NFL team already sell out their home games? What does this have to do with rumor mill? Why is this news? So many questions…
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June 24th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Wayne, it’s not the economy that is hurting your ticket sales. It’s the fact that your football team sucks and is located in Miami, where folks would rather hang out on the beach than watch their football team get blown out every week.
j.
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June 24th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
In fairness to the Dolphins, a lot of season tickets to the Bills games were sold to Toronto residents this year in hopes that if the Bills make a permanent move to Toronto that they will get better season tickets.
As for the Pats’ game, many may feel that the Pats may rest their starters with nothing to play for already locking up their playoff spot already. It may be too much of a gamble to buy tickets now to have Brady, Moss, and other starters make a cameo appearance in a game that is 0 degrees outside.
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June 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Packer games have long been sold out. No problem in the North Woods!
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June 24th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
The Bills individual tickets have yet to go on sale. They usually do sometime around mid July if Im not mistaken. At this point you can either buy season’s tickets or group tickets (as you mentioned in quantities of 15 or more).
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June 24th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I agree with ballhead and I just don’t get the fascination with the Bill’s progress in selling tickets or the positive tone of the post. Isn’t a bigger story that they are not already sold out?
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June 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
The ‘economy’ could help bills tickets sales. If they are selling to the canadian audience the depreciation of the united states dollar has caused the price of the NFL ticket to become relatively cheaper to Canadians in comparison to this time last year as they have more buying power. For example, if a ticket cost 50 u.s. dollars last year but it cost 1.5 candian dollars to buy a U.S. dollar the ticket would cost $75 to a candian a year ago and today it costs 1 canadian dollar to buy 1 american dollar. The price to go to a game has effectively been reduced by 33%.
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June 24th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Yeah, people in Miami go to the beach in Nov and Dec. Thats the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
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June 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
What part of Dec 28 in Buffalo don’t you understand?
Secondly…..as far as the competitive aspect….a lower level sideline seat costs $77 or $66 in Buffalo. A lower level sideline seat Foxboro costs $169. The other seats in the stadiums also show a similar discrepancy.
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June 24th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
i don’t think one person here asked how many minutes the steelers games sold out in so go take a lap
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June 24th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
BS!
To today the Bills game in Toronto has NOT sold out!
Note: NFL Game in London, England last year sold out in less than an hour.
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June 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Not cheaper in Canada as Bills attempt to rip-off fans
I supposedly was one who won lottery for tickets. When I was able to purchase them , you had 2 choices. All 8 games or just 3. The 3 game package was the exhibition game this year, the miami/buffalo game this year and the regular season game next season. all 3 paid upfront. i could buy up to 8 tickets. the best seats in the upper level on the sidelines looked about 10 yards into the endzone and the cost for the 3 game package - if order 1 seat was $715. PLUS TAX. Now even figuring I’d go sell the exhibition game ticket for $50-$60 this means I would be paying about $325 a seat to sit in the upper deck in the endzone to watch the 2 worst teams in the AFC east. This is a total ripoff. I never did buy and the Bills still are trying to sell them.
In London, England WITHOUT first offering the tickets in huge amounts to season ticket holders of 2 teams, the game sold out in an hour. I guess the people in Toronto are smart enough to see the money grabbing scam of Ralph Wilson - the ticket scalper of today. Seats still are available TODAY and TOMORROW, etc. and that tells you the whole story.
Unless fans in England know NFL football better than fans in Toronto do?
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June 24th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
RobJH - Put down the crack pipe……when was the last time you saw a Bills game that wasn’t packed and loud?? Did you see the Monday Night game last year - get a clue
FYI - I am not sure why this is news either, but these season ticket numbers aren’t that far off what they sold last year - the Bills have one of the best fanbases in the league
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June 24th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Kingzook,
I realize that you’re just upset that you’re second rate team will be in Toronto within 10 years, get over it. If the Bills fans are so great then why does ownership have to go outside the country to create buzz for their team?
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June 24th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
A few things…
Bob S. - Ralph Wilson isn’t actually in charge of the ticket prices for the Toronto Series. That price was set by the Canadian investors. So, yeah the prices are ridiculous, and your right to be mad about it, but just place the blame where the blame is due.
Secondly, to all wondering why this may be news…
Buffalo is a very economically depressed area. Countless people (myself included) have lost thier jobs in the past year, and work is not too easy to find around here. The fact that gas prices, food prices etc are going up, and the people here are still buying season tickets, as well as selling out games before individual tickets even go on sale is something out of the ordinary. Thats about it.
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June 24th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
im a season ticket holder and the bills games are always packed i don’t know what you guys are smoking and inv game tickets cant be bought yet so yes this is incredible numbers sorry the team you know nothing about is making some of you jealous we have one of the best fan bases in the nfl
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
RobJH= jealous this news is not about his team and by your logic then why did the fish play the giants last year in London? to create buzz for the nfl jackass!
way to have no clue the nfl is trying to expand the bills are not going anywhere and buffalo was top ten in attendance last year so they def don’t need a buzz to sell out games
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Wait…let me get this straight. “Pink Hat Nation” is made up of fair-weather, bandwagoning football fans?
Shocker.
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June 24th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
ericpburt re: “That price was set by the Canadian investors.”
Not so.
Ticket sales on that supposed lottery site go right through the Bills own website.
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