Post by shavonfan on Dec 22, 2005 20:20:21 GMT -5
I live in Erie, PA. which is situated in the middle of a triangle of major sports cities, Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Buffalo (New York) is the closest at about a 75 minute drive on I-90 East. Cleveland (Ohio) is next closest at around a 90 minute drive on I- 90 West. Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is the farthest at close to a 150 minute drive on I-79 South. Erie is mostly either a Pittsburgh Steeler or a Cleveland Browns city, with most of its residents a fan of either one of those teams. There are very few fans of the Buffalo Bills in Erie. But, NFL rules are that geographically we are in the Buffalo market, which means that all Bills games must be televised when the Bills are on the road. Whenever this happens, angry fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns call the local CBS TV station to complain. But there is nothing the station can do. They are under a contractual obligation to play the Bills when they are on the road. Many fans in Erie flood into bars that have an NFL Ticket package that will show the Pittsburgh and/or Cleveland games. These games are "blacked out" in our area, and so the bars are not allowed to do this without paying a fine. They do it anyway, some places paying the fine in advance, because it brings in so much more business to do so that it profits them. Anyway, this weekend the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing the Cleveland Browns in a very important game for the Steelers. To make the playoffs, they MUST win, and to do so they will have to beat their bitter and fierce arch-rival Cleveland Browns. You can only imagine what it is like in Erie when this matchup takes place, with so many fans for both teams residing here! This year is huge because the Browns fans would just love to see their team keep the hated Steelers out of the playoffs. Got all that? Well, get this....Saturday the Bills-Bengals game (meaningless in that the Bills are eliminated from the playoffs and the Bengals are already Division Champs) must be shown in Erie! WSEE, the local CBS station here took a poll, and of the 2,500 people that voted, 2,000 said that they would like Erie to be a Steeler market, 350 or so said the Browns, and the rest chose between the Bills or were undecided. WSEE then took the request to the NFL to ask for a "one game exception" to the rule so that they could televise the Steelers- Browns game. After a week of waiting, word just came out that the NFL declined and the Bills game would be shown. So, now I either have to go waste $50.00 or more at a bar/restaraunt to watch the game or else listen to it on the radio! That stinks! What is even worse is that the Steelers call their home stadium "Heinz Field." And guess who is paying for that? Yes, Pennsylvanians! You would think that if you were funding the means for a team's stadium, you would certainly be considered in their market!
