Are Buffalo Sabres fans boorish or just misunderstood? That's a topic we first picked up on Saturday night and then re-examined on Sunday with the help of readers Josh Crockett and Michael Turner. Today, long-time Off Wing reader Christopher Klejdys, a Buffalo native now living in the Washington area, offers up his explanation for what's going on with the fan base in Buffalo:
[I]t's great to see our fanbase has become excited about the Sabres. This can best be exemplified by our 7.1 share rating during the boring NHL All-Star game - by FAR the highest in the league. Dallas, for example, had .5 rating. It's true - normal Buffaloians are hooked on hockey and they LOVE their Sabres. As a DC resident with immediate family still up in the Buffalo area (who are seasonticket holders, mind you), I can speak with some authority on both the E. Conference Finals last year (games 1 and 7 in CAR) and the Caps/Sabres game this year in DC (as I attended all three). Our fans can be boorish, no doubt - there are bad apples in every barrel - and for good or bad, we are like Pittsburgh's little brother in some respects (except for the glaring lack of titles). I think this probably makes our fanbase a bit more defensive than most. That being said, the passion is being felt this year. The playoffs last year were a wake up call to the community of Buffalo that we really had something special going on (recall last year we only sold out our last 15 games or so) - so it took some time for the city to get reacquainted with the new ownership group. With the commitment and hard work shown by Golisano and Regier - the city has fallen in love again - more so than even in the late 90s with Hasek (if only because everyone knew the guy was batsh*t crazy).This team has come to represent this town - especially after the 5+ years of digging out from the Donahoe rubble with the Bills - who haven't sniffed the playoff since the halcyon Wade Phillips days of '99-00.
SO, with that pre-history in mind (see Kevin's posts at Bfloblog for further background), you have a football town going all the way with its men on the ice. This results in behavior that may be okay in a football stadium (tailgating, etc.) but is not really at home or welcome in an ice rink. Sabres fans in Carolina numbered about 1500 to 2000 from my estimates in game 1 (there were tickets still available the day before the game) - with a little less by the time game 7 rolled around.What astonishes most Buffalo fans are that other fanbases aren't as passionate as we are - but that's to be expected. Hockey has been in the weeds of Buffalo since 1971. DC, CAR and CLB have their own reasons why the passion of their fanbases doesn't run as deep.
Furthermore, Sabres fans are well aware of what happens when boorish outsiders arrive at an arena and stir things up. Leafs fans in Southern Ontario aren't the most genial of jokers. Years of owning them at HSBC hasn't detracted from their passion and general douchebaggery. Therefore, you learn from those around you - and we may have learned well.By Thankgiving of this year, our season ticket base, by my count, only allowed 2500 Leaf fans in for the game. That's astonishing, compared to games last year where it just about 1:1. We're not the only asshats in the league who do this, apparently.
All of this doesn't change the fact that some of our fans, after driving down from Buffalo (or living around the area) acted like Aholes at the game at the C-bus game OR the DC Caps game. That beind said, that's just some of them. After a few beers, I know I was yelling at Ovechkin's hit on Briere like a dang fool.But I'll be damned if the same fans don't make the experience fun for the whole arena. That Caps game in DC was the most emotional I've seen Caps fans since the 2003 series against TB when the team folded up like cardboard. In Columbus on Friday night, the announcers constantly referred to the "playoff" atmosphere and "how things will be like this come playoff time' in Columbus if they ever make it (and I hope they do - they are a loyal fanbase for all stuff they've gone through).
So, let's not lose site of what's important here - we have a lot of dedicated fans, showing up at road arenas 5-6 hours away, and we are looking for incident reports? Come on. It's a hockey game - you drink, you cheer - you offer the occasional insult, you walk away. If it gets more serious than that (and no doubt it might've), you get security. (I see the Apr. 2nd game's start of 1pm to maybe cut down on this - recall the 8pm start against the Caps here in December). That's my choice.
OR, some bloggers can do nothing - then whine on your blog about it, get some free press for it, look like a wuss and make sweeping generalizations about an entire fanbase. Either or.
Thanks to Chris for a note that provides some interesting background.
