Recruitment

Hello all 648 Bills fans,

For three months now, our membership number has been hovering just under the 650 mark. Every time we hit 650, our auto-delete feature kicks off bad email addresses, so we fall back to the mid-640’s. Matt and I want to get the number above 650 and never look back. We’d like you all to try and recruit one Bills fan in the Tri-State area to add to the list. Trust us when we say that with more members, our options increase.

In fact, member Larry Shea and McFadden’s are in talks about setting up a system to carry the local-Buffalo radio telecast of the games. That’s right, we’ll be able to hear John Murphy and Alex Van Pelt while we watch the Bills in McFadden’s! You asked for it, we’re working on getting it! More details to come…

Mayoral Poll
I’m sure we will all be celebrating the birth of our nation this weekend. I know I’m looking forward to beer and BBQ! Remember being able to simply drive 30 min to Canada for fireworks? Well, speaking of America, its going to be time to vote for a new mayor of Buffalo in the near future and the race is starting to heat up. Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, the man who got NYCBBB a discount to the Buffalo Philharmonic and has offered to drive out several kegs of Labatt Blue Light (and anything else Buffalo-ish that we can’t get here) to NYC for us this season, has sent me a poll that Artvoice (another great website!) is conducting. Please go vote for who you think should be the next mayor of Buffalo. www.artvoice.com
(also check out the articles on Mighty Taco and Jim’s Steakout)

Want to see the Bills on the Road?
Our be-loved friend Kenny “Pinto-Ron” sent us an email about the buzz for Bills games around the country. Thinking of seeing the Bills in Seattle (huge tailgate planned there) or Baltimore? Here is what Bills fans around the country are planning:

“The biggest Bills Backers road trip this year looks like it is going to be Seattle. The Portland Bills Backers (www.pdxbb.com) are hosting the activities. It looks like 2-3 hundred bills fans will be flying in from around the country. Among other things they are planning to have a Saturday night pub crawl through downtown Seattle and a tailgate (usually catered) the day of the game. Rose (the organizer) will probably have some other activities planned for Friday night and Saturday afternoon as well. They have set up a group rate of only 69$ a night at a couple of downtown Seattle hotels. If any of your members are looking for a good road trip to go on let them know!

Baltimore could look interesting also to Bills fans as will. There is a bar called “Sliders” a few blocks from the stadium where it is expected that a lot of Bills fans will be showing up the night before and morning of the game. You can find more information on anything developing on “Tailgating Central” of TSW.

My understanding is that Russ Salvatore (from Salivators Gardens www.salvatores.net) is running his party again this year before the Miami game. He rents a restaurant/bar in Ft. Lauderdale (“Shooters on the Waterfront”) and hosts an open bar party for 3 hours Saturday night before the game. It is free to Bills fans — you just have to get tickets ahead of time. I’m not sure how to get tickets, I have a connection that supplies a few to me. Last year he gave out around 500 tickets.

Of course you already know about the New York City Bills Backers tailgate. Word of mouth is spreading and I think you will be attracting more and more non-NYCBBB individuals as long as you do not change the location & post on all the major web sites.

I don’t have a feel for Oakland yet . More than likely anything Bills fans related for Oakland (if any) will be hosted by the San Francisco Bills Backers and be near Fisherman’s wharf, SF. The meet at a bar called the NorthStar a few blocks from the wharf. In the past when Buffalo is in town they have fans meet in the bar the night before. Since as far as I can see most of the out of towners are going to Seattle, I’m not expecting anything too big (if any)

No feel for Cincinnati. There is no organization I know of that will host any activities / meetings. I’ll just keep my ear to the ground and see if particular bar is single out as the place to go the night before.

San Francisco is a dud as far as any Bills Fans activities. The Saturday night before is Christmas. I’m probably the only Bills out of towner that will make the trip.

New England is a dud for Bills fans as well. There is a well organized Boston Bills Backers organization (www.bostonbillsbackers.com), but they do not host activities and gave up tailgating when it became nearly impossible to get affordable game tickets. They make the trip to Buffalo instead.”

— Matt “talkin proud and looking forward to celebrating America this weekend!” Kabel