The New Hockey Town - Buffalo, New York

Wide Right! Music City Miracle! No Goal! If you recognize any of these phrases then you know I'm talking about Buffalo. Buffalo, NY has been a city of sports controversy for many years. And what once hailed as a mighty football town where the likes of Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed were kings, now you hear more and more sports fans saying "Buffalo Bills What?"

More often than not, the success of sports teams in any league will rise and fall drastically over a long period of time; and while you will always see die hard fans that will never throw in the towel, Buffalo is a place that proves that changing the hearts of an entire city truly is possible. In their hay day, the Buffalo Bills won 5 AFC titles from 1988 to 1993 and starting in 1991 went to four straight super bowls. Even after their super bowl run, the Bills dominated the AFC throughout the rest of the mid 90's. So what happened?

When I was a little girl I remember my parents getting dressed in their Bills gear every single Sunday to head out to the Bills game. For years they held season's tickets just as countless other Buffalonians did. The stadium was packed every single week; tickets were always sold out. Now, 10 years later, the Bills organization struggles to fill the 80,000 seat stadium, and more often than not, the owners buy out the remaining seats just to get the games aired on television so that fans can view them from their homes. While any fan base can grow or shrink based on the success of a team, Bills fans are hopping off the bandwagon in droves. So if they're not rooting for the Bills, then who are they supporting?

With any instance of ebb and flow, as one team deteriorates, fans will find themselves rooting for someone else. The unique situation with the Bills however is that fans aren't switching teams so to say, they're switching sports; and while this is bad news for the Bills, its good news for Buffalo because Buffalo fans are remaining Buffalo fans. Cue the Buffalo Sabres.

Its super bowl time, but where are all the Buffalo fans? At the hockey game of course! The newest old fad in Buffalo is being a Sabres fan. In this town its all about old time hockey and the Sabres put on quite a show. While the Sabres have had their share of sports controversy (1999 no goal anyone?), where Buffalo is concerned, our hockey heroes have prevailed.

Buffalo Sabres franchise history is nothing but an impressive list of fantastic hockey players that have continually come together to give Buffalo something to cheer about. And while any avid hockey fan would ooh and aah over names like Pat LaFontaine, Matthew Barnaby, Stu Barnes, Dave Andyrechuk, Miroslav Satan, Dominik Hasek and Michael Peca, the greatest thing about Sabres hockey today is that Buffalo fans are experiencing history in the making!

When Buffalo fans talk about the Sabres, yes of course we cherish our pastime players, but its Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Maxim Afinogenov, Brian Campbell, Jason Pominville, Drew Stafford and the like that get us excited about hockey. As Rick Jeanarette put it so perfectly, "These guys are good, scary good!" So while the Sabres are arguably the best team in hockey to never win a Stanley Cup, for the past two years, Buffalo has been in a constant state of Cup Fever. HSBC Area sits 18,690 fans, yet trying to find a ticket to a game is next to impossible. (Fans even joke that the Bills and the Sabres should switch arenas!) In Buffalo, hockey tickets are like gold and season ticket holders reign supreme.

Whether you are a lucky season's ticket holder, or you've sacrificed a week's wages to buy tickets online, getting to a Sabres game seems to be on everyone's hot list. In a town known for not much else other than cold winters and questionable sports calls, the Sabres are finally giving Buffalo a reason to get loud! So while the NFL scratches its head over the loss of so many Bills fans, at least fans are still cheering for a Buffalo based team. Its not that Buffalo fans in general aren't loyal (just because we aren't going to Bills games doesn't mean we aren't watching them) but having a successful team in Buffalo is something that we haven't had in a long time; the Sabres give us hope.

On Friday October, 5^th 2007, as the banner was raised and the Presidents Trophy was awarded for the first time ever to the Buffalo Sabres, the announcer put it perfectly, "This is the new hockey town." So Buffalo fans wear your jerseys proudly and carry your Sabres pride with you wherever you go. Cup or no Cup, the Buffalo Sabres will continue to make waves in the NHL and we Buffalo fans are in it for the long haul. This is the new hockey town.