Editorial

Another lonely Sunday

Officials say Bills 3 last home games are in danger of blackout

If Buffalonians didn't think we already had enough problems with the Bills, recent blackouts spell more troubles for the team that can't seem to catch a break on or off the field.

The NFL developed the blackout policy in 1973 in an attempt to monitor and stabilize fan attendance throughout the course of a season. When a stadium does not sell enough tickets for a game, the game is not shown on television. This is done to encourage more people to come to the stadium, but the original intention of this policy has grown to be outdated, and by not accounting for the change of times we stand to lose what little popularity is left for our Buffalo Bills.

The NFL we see today exists in an entirely different world than in the early '70s: A world of digital and satellite television, inflated ticket prices and significantly larger facilities. And to think that a 30-year-old, un-amended policy can go unchanged forever is a blind mistake by the NFL.

The policy grossly overlooks the individual cases of each team and their facilities. The league average stadium capacity is sub-70,000, with most domed stadiums a significantly lower than that (with an average indoor of 64,000). Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park holds nearly 75,000 and that's after a recent strip-down that took away nearly 5,000 seats.

With statistics spinning around the subject, the bottom-line is the Bills could have 7,000 tickets unsold for a particular game, but still easily have an attendance turnout that is greater than a full sell-out at other stadiums around the league. Ralph Wilson Stadium is relatively big, and fans should not be hurt on account of that.

Challengers of the policy won't go any farther than complaining softly from a distance due to the fear of losing a team franchise if the league was made upset; but the simple fact is that if certain policies are left unchecked for too long we might as well kiss our beloved team goodbye anyways.

Winning or losing, less publicity is never a good thing for a team, and for a losing team like the Buffalo Bills, the ramifications could cause irreparable damages. Taking a deep, realistic look at this team - a team that has shown little promise in recent years - blackouts will not encourage people to fork over the great deal of money for a ticket, but rather will cause people to just forget about the team altogether.

Off-campus not always the solution

University and community need to take a good look at housing conditions

With on-campus housing demands at an all time high and the student overcapacity problem seeming to grow stronger with every school year, the American Campus Communities, a housing company, has observed this trend and is in pursuit to capitalize on such a demand.

The same company that manages the University Village at Sweethome is now building on Chestnut Ridge Road, but what may be seen as the simple business strategy of supply and demand has repercussions that have yet to be adequately addressed.

The 552-bed complex would be right across the street from a quiet Amherst neighborhood, and the invasion of rowdy parties and inconsiderate night owls would forever change the residential community. Just because it is off-campus does not mean that the same on-campus dorm behavior will not follow.

Like the Sweethome Apartments, there will be no residential advisors and no internal security force, which will make for more crime and more disturbances that will affect the neighborhood, as well as unacceptably draw resources from Amherst Police. Student overcapacity should be the university's problem, not Amherst's, and unfortunately at this present planning stage this is not the case.

There is definitely a demand that University Residence Halls & Apartments have not satisfied, but rushing the construction of off-campus facilities is not the way to go about resolving this issue.

One solution is the university administration could cooperate more with off-campus bidders, perhaps providing valuable insight and support or possibly even a chunk of abundant North Campus land. Yet without some better planning and cooperation, the second solution would be to figure out how to turn 550 ordinary college students into good, respectable neighbors.

For some reason the first solution sounds a lot easier.