Buffalo Bills Prove They Value Fan Loyalty By Sticking in Orchard Park

With other NFL teams leaving their former towns to go to cities that have more revenue promise, the Buffalo Bills are sticking with their fans.

The Buffalo Bills haven’t made the playoffs since 1999, making their franchise much less successful than the St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers who both were in the playoffs in the 2000s. Yet, both of those teams have now exited their former city, and now reside (or will soon reside, in the case of the now Los Angeles Chargers) in Los Angeles, California.

The move to Los Angeles makes sense from a business standpoint. More and more, the shift is moving less from culture of the fan base to “how many people can we get to come to the games, and how much can we jack up ticket prices because of location?”

Of course, the next two years don’t really go in-line with that for the Chargers, who will now play in a stadium that holds just 30,000 people, but long-term, that’s the goal.

I can promise you that you won’t find cheap tickets for a football game in any of the major cities pro football teams. Nosebleeds in Philadelphia, New York (or, Jersey, rather), Chicago, they all have a lot of people around, and are expensive cities, thus justifying the more expensive tickets.

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Owners of these teams — the Rams and Chargers — are selling out. By making the move to Los Angeles, even if it is just a mere 2 hour drive down the coast for current Chargers fans, the teams are telling fans that their loyalty isn’t necessarily important to them, but location is.

Just look at the rebranding that came along with the Chargers recently announced move south. The team switched from a minimalist lightning bolt logo that had no indication of San Diego on it to a logo that was prominently “LA,” proudly announcing one important thing to the team — location.

Where do the Bills fit in all of this? They go against the grain. The Bills, by all standards of what high revenue football teams should be, are uncharacteristic. Sitting in Western New York, in an area that has just two professional sports teams, the Bills don’t seem like they should be a success.

In fact, if the Bills weren’t already in Buffalo, in today’s world, there’s no way a team would move there, and almost no way a team would pop up there as an expansion. The NBA has been talking about expanding for years, and not once has Buffalo even been uttered as a possibility, despite having a perfectly usable facility in downtown Buffalo.

So, why are the Bills still in Orchard Park, especially amidst all of the losing seasons fans have had to go through?

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Fan loyalty, that’s why. The Bills have been one of the most intensely followed fanbases with some of the most loyal fans for a very long time now, and without that, there’s no reason to be in Buffalo. But the drive to be at every game, the passion from the Bills Mafia, and the continued hope that playoffs are right around the corner keeps fans coming back, and therefore keeps the Bills in Buffalo.

Although we could give all credit to the fans for the Bills staying in Buffalo, ownership does deserve credit as well. Terry and Kim Pegula were sought out as owners that were going to do the best thing for the sports teams, and one of the best things they did was end any rumors about the Bills moving.

There were rumors about the team moving to downtown Buffalo, and also rumors of the team moving out of the country altogether, to Toronto, Canada, where they have played a few games over the last several seasons.

The Pegulas want to keep the Bills in Orchard Park, though, as a testament to the loyalty of the fans, and the strong culture that has been built up over the years.

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It might not be what other owners in the NFL are doing, but it’s what the Bills have decided works best. Football is more than just a money maker to the organization — it’s a lifestyle in Western New York.