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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A reader from Albany reacts to my Jennifer Gish piece, followed by my response.

A comment to my Jennifer Gish piece, followed by my response. I could not fit my response to the reader from Albany in the comments section, so I made the response its own post... Here is the link to my original post on this topic for the new readers http://themanifestoinsidethemindofanidiot.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-come-to-defense-of-city-of-buffalo.html



Phil said...
See, you're simply not understanding the point Gish was trying to make, which is that it's unreasonable for rabid fans to call up a newspaper frothing at the mouth about the lack of coverage for a team that is located more five hours away, especially when it's only the second game of the season. Were it Jets fans or Giants fans or Patriots fans calling, she probably wouldn't have even written an column about it.

Personally, I agree with her thesis. Only I see it from a different angle, which is the one you brought up: Hockey. I'm a Ranger fan just like the majority of people in Albany. Sure, we've got our pockets of Devils fans and Islanders fans; even some Red Wings fans. But there are only a handful of Sabres fans here, and for exactly the reason Gish states: Buffalo is more than five hours away. And that's from the heart of Albany. Yet every season, I'm graced with the goddamn low-definition feed of the Sabres for nearly half the season or about every other game. The reason is immensely complex(as explained by the NHL), and it basically boils down to corporate mergers from decades ago. Yet today, we people from the Capital Region need to deal with your Sabres, even though none of us here really like them.

Sure, it's different with the Bills. I know they've got some fans up here. But I wouldn't blame Gish for getting a bit testy when they all start complaining about the Bills not getting coverage here. I mean, just imagine a Cleveland Browns fan bitching to your local paper about the lack of coverage. Or the Detroit Lions. Both are closer to Buffalo than Albany. Kind of puts it in perspective when you think about it... 


Phil,
Thanks for reading and for your comment…  Actually, for writing a well thought out response that had some thought behind it instead of an attack like some of the people from my city might act. I am going to make a few rebuttals and or comments on some things that you mentioned. One thing I am getting from your response and from Gish's article, is that it in my opinion is coming off as regionalism. It's almost like the us versus them mentality. Why are are fellow New Yorkers attacking each others side of the state as if one side was the Confederate Army during the Civil War?

Let’s start out with your remark in regards to you picking up Sabres games on your cable network and the Standard Definition Broadcast for half of the season. The Standard definition broadcast for road games (Half of the season) was courtesy of the cheap nature of previous regime, but to my understanding will be remedied under our new current ownership. The home games were broadcast in High Definition, but road games were not… This was a highly frustrating issue for those of us here in the actual Buffalo market as well. As far as you receiving the games and not wanting them… I feel your pain. I feel the same way with the invasiveness of the Yankees and Mets on my cable provider. I despise these two teams to the core and yet here they are on my TV almost every night in the spring and summer. I want to use the same logic of your argument on proximity. I have two teams that are located seven hours away, even claim us as their market territory broadcasting their games on our cable providers when I have four MLB teams geographically closer (Tigers, Blue Jays, Indians & Pirates). This prevents me from being able to watch MLB games involving Pittsburgh and Cleveland, cities are which are only 3 hours away, when broadcast on ESPN and MLB Network unless they are playing either the Yankees or Mets. I drive to see these teams, and would like to watch them on TV when the opportunity allows it. Maybe this happens because the teams are located in New York State, just like Buffalo is (We will touch on this more later). Treat the Sabres like I do the Yankees and Mets games on TV here… If you do not like it, do not tune in. No one is forcing you to watch the Sabres games. Talk about frustrating… At least you get the broadcasts from the teams that you follow from the New York Metropolitan area. 

When it comes to your “puts it in perspective” portion and how it could be like Lions or Detroit fans wanting coverage in Buffalo. We deal with Toronto Maple Leaf fans here; they are right across the border so we know what it is like to deal with fans from another fan base, their fans invade our arena like a swarm of locusts when the Leafs are in town, and yes, it can get extremely annoying. Your idea of hearing from Browns and Lions fans here just does not make any sense. Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland are major metropolitan areas that have their own teams, with local media in these areas taking care of their platform of coverage… Without a team of your own in Albany, you are going to get requests for coverage of multiple teams. You also mention Detroit as a city that is closer to Buffalo than Albany is... FYI, Detroit is five hours from Buffalo IF you cut through Canada, which is the same distance as Buffalo to Albany. Bad example on your behalf to strengthen your argument.

I get where your issue as well as Gish’s, but have a bit of an issue grasping it. Contrary to what you or Ms. Gish think Albany is not a part of the New York Metropolitan area, which leaves your city with no major professional teams. You technically have no “Hometown” teams to cover in the NHL or NFL. Many fans draw their allegiance lines within state borders and Buffalo is as much a part of New York as the Giants, Jets, Rangers, Islanders and Devils (Which are New Jersey’s problem)… 3 hours or 5 hours away, either is not that big of a difference and are both located in New York State. Each city is easily drivable for a fan to make it to a Sunday game from Albany. Some people from your area might also be turned off to the “Big City” attitude that the New York City teams and or fans might exude. This leads me to believe that the fan base is up for grabs there. These simple facts yield the right for the people of Albany to put a rooting interest in any of the New York based teams, and yes that could include Bills, if they so choose. It is a melting pot of fans there…

Why not cover all 3 New York based NFL teams? With no local team based in Albany, there is nothing tying the media to strictly New York Metropolitan based teams. Here is a concept that Gish and her team at the Times Union may not have thought of… More coverage helps sell more papers. The Bills fans in Albany, no matter how few they are, want some coverage; give them a few columns a week… what could it hurt? The News Paper industry is not exactly busting at the seams with new customers with the convenience of the internet. Giving some coverage to the “Red Headed step-child” team of New York State could help sell a few more copies of the paper. Any positive growth in sales is good growth in my book. Listen to the people of your area, they are consumers… in this case, the consumer was asking for something. They want a reason to buy the papers and were telling you what that reason is. Do you know what businesses would give to here exactly what it would take to gain new business? 

One thing that you do not get is what it is like to be from here. It is a constant barrage of insults thrown at the city, sports teams, and the area in general. People are quick to get excited when something positive happens no matter how small, and are equally as quick to be put on the defensive. Unless you are from here, you may never understand or comprehend it. I also think that your portion of the state needs realize that you are not a part of NYC, have no legitimate allegiance to any team and that there are also Bills fans in Albany like it or not. Your area that has the ability and luxury to cover multiple teams with no team permanently housed there. Do not be so closed minded as a fan or city and think it is just about the teams located in NYC. As a sports fan you should be ecstatic that you can get so much coverage from so many teams. Just enjoy all the sports coverage man… PS: How do you not think that Gish stating that Buffalo was practically a part of Canada is not insulting to this area? Maybe it was you who just does not understand the point that I or other Buffalonians were trying to make...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or the fact that the Bills are the only team that actually plays in NY...

M. said...

That's irrelevant to me, there is minimal real estate in Manhattan to build.

Phil said...

(Part I)

There's an irony here that manifested itself in a long post I wrote that was unceremoniously eaten in the ether of cyberspace. I simply didn't have the effort to rewrite it yesterday, something that turned out to be sort of a blessing in hindsight.

See, my point about the bizarre cut-up of New York among ill-fitting markets was hammered home last night while I was tucking in for a couple of cold PBRs and a recorded high-definition broadcast of the New York Rangers' opening game in Stockholm, Sweden. I wryly recorded both the MSG and Versus broadcasts, after noticing the Sabres were also playing in Europe at the same time. The guide suggested the MSG feed was in high-definition from Helsinki, suggesting it was the Sabres game. Versus was airing some sort of hockey game from Sweden, which I assumed to be the Rangers.

Pan to 9 p.m. Friday evening, as I'm easing into my drink and playing what I thought to be the Ranger game. For eight hours, I ignored the internet and threatened co-workers about tipping off the score so I could watch the game in its full suspense. What I ended up watching was some bull-shit deer hunting show that Versus through on when whatever bogus contract the NHL has with Time Warner Cable kicked in.

No problem, I said; I can stomach Rick Jeanerett for two hours and hell, the Sabres have a good team anyway. I boot up the Sabres 'high-def' broadcast only to find it's in fact a about as low definition as they come. Basically, the only way to get a worse video feed of the game would have been to watch it on the goddamn radio. Rage took over and suddenly I found myself kicking my recliner and cursing everything Buffalo. Yes, I did ultimately tune it out. But in the process, I missed the opener I was waiting to watch since hockey ended last spring. Had I known the game was going to be blacked out, I could have taken alternate measures to watch it live; there are plenty of live broadcasts illegally pumped on the internet and plenty of bars that subscribe to the NHL's over-priced network. Alas, this was not the case.

Phil said...

(Part II)

Of course, this has little to do with the Gish column other than to point out how superfluous it is to broadcast Buffalo teams in the Capital Region, while blacking out others that are largely considered 'local' so to speak. There's no mystery about it: the Albany area more closely identifies with the New York City region. This is in part because the area's largest workforce --New York State employees --migrate between government offices in Manhattan and the capital. But also because 'the city' as we call it is only a relatively short train ride or jaunt down the Thruway away.

If someone doesn't associate with Manhattan and thereabouts, then they probably relate to the Boston Metropolitan area, since our close proximity to the Massachusetts and Connecticut borders brings us a number of New Englanders. You take a straw poll of fans from any major professional sport, and you'll find that most people around here like either the downstate team or the one from beantown. That's because both cities are in much closer proximity than Buffalo, which I still won't call another country as Gish sarcastically wrote; rather, it's like a different state to us here in the Albany area. Buffalo might as well be Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Philadelphia, even though it is still in New York.

Yet because it IS still in New York, there's this wrongful assumption that the people in Buffalo want to see all of the teams that are produced out of the state's other major metropolitan area and vice versa.

Contrary to your assertion, I believe sports team allegiances have more to do with region and less to do with some border that's drawn on a map: Fans typically like the team they're able to see live, not one that's hundreds or even thousands of miles away. For instance, I have a very close friend who was diehard Blackhawks throughout his youth and early adulthood. But that all changed when he moved to Providence, home of the AHL's Providence Bruins. After about three years, he became a Bruins fan. Sure, he still likes the Hawks. But you're more apt to see him wearing the black-and-yellow these days.

Phil said...

(Part III)

Now about coverage in the local media, to argue that there's not enough on the Bills is pretty much senseless from a newspaper prospective. Since we don't have a major team(as you correctly point out), we don't have beat writers that follow professional sport. There's no sense in having the AP coverage in print, seeing as though most fans of professional sports around here don't bother picking up the paper to find the score; they use their smart phone or visit the web site of newspapers who DO cover those teams. I can't remember a time in the last decade where I logged onto the Times Union's web site to find out a Ranger score; I won't even bother telling you the last time I relied on a printed paper for such information. Instead, you'll find coverage of the Union College Dutchman or the UAlbany Great Danes; the AHL's Albany Devils and Adirondack Phantoms. And more importantly, the local high school sports, which are another part of the real coverage here. Putting the Bills anywhere on the front page would be a waste of print unless something incredible happened(i.e. them going to the Super Bowl; or completing an undefeated season; breaking a record of some sort; et cetera).

Still, you have some fans that take offense to it, as the elderly woman did in the Gish column. These people are often the most vocal too. I'm sure she's fielded more than one caustic call from a fan rabid over the apparent lack of Bills coverage. In closing, I realize there's a degree of tenderness when it comes to people ribbing the Buffalo area, and rightly so. But also realize that when this tenderness manifests into the obnoxious hatefest that befell Gish, it really doesn't paint a flattering picture of the team's fans. Instead, it fuels this stereotypical notion that she promoted in her column. Thanks again for taking the time to read all this and right a response.

M. said...

Phil,
Again, thank you for the well written and thought out response. Please excuse this response as it will be quick. I wanted you acknowledge that I did read your comments. I have my son for the entire holiday weekend, so writing a detailed response would be difficult.

I could not agree more with the following statement that you wrote:"In closing, I realize there's a degree of tenderness when it comes to people ribbing the Buffalo area, and rightly so. But also realize that when this tenderness manifests into the obnoxious hatefest that befell Gish, it really doesn't paint a flattering picture of the team's fans. Instead, it fuels this stereotypical notion that she promoted in her column." I agree that the response that was directed towards Gish was disgusting and leaves a bad impression on our city. That is a part of the reason I wrote the original blog. I wanted there to be a response to her comments that was not written in the same light as the animals that had responded with such crudeness.

A quick note on your Sabres/Versus issue. I am not sure why your feed was not is HD. I slipped out to a local establishment on an extended lunch to catch a majority of the Sabres game, and the feed being shown was in HD. I am also confused/fed up with blackout rules and regulations in my area. There is no rhyme or reason to them. I can watch the Blue Jay baseball games which are 90 miles away, yet Pittsburgh and Cleveland (which are approximately 180 miles away) games are blacked out.

Quickly on your second part... Maybe I view things differently as far as forming allegiances with teams because I do have professional sports teams here. I also view Albany as a central portion of the state unlike NYC area which I view as Downstate. I also do see your point in how you view Buffalo as a different state. It is much different here than the other end of the state. I do appreciate you stating "That's because both cities are in much closer proximity than Buffalo, which I still won't call another country as Gish sarcastically wrote." That shows a degree of class while still getting your point across. You accept the fact that we are different and do not essentially swear the city off as not even being a part of the same country.

Again, I apologize for the lack of depth to this response. If you even want to discuss further in detail, I am open to it because I respect your delivery on the topics... Mkriegbaumjr@gmail.com

M. said...

Phil,
One more thing... I also have Time Warner Cable, and to get the Sabres HD feed, you have to watch a separate Sabres Channel... Here it is HD 700. I am not sure if you have that available to you in Albany. Good luck trying to get your Ranger Games.