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00:00day sports radio 550 hump day hump day i got your hump day i'm uh i'm i this is mountain
00:12day
00:12for me i realized today i and i shouldn't lead the show with something you probably aren't going
00:19to care about but i'm i'm off it plays into what i want to talk about uh i'm off after
00:25today
00:26until two weeks from today which is like a it's like a honeymoon amount of time off it's like i'm
00:33having a baby time off it's it's go to spain i don't think i was off for that long when
00:37i went
00:37to spain two summers ago um but it just it just sort of happened that way i have the next
00:43two days
00:44off to end this week that was scheduled a long time ago because of a couple of concerts i'm attending
00:51tomorrow night and then friday night and i just thought you know it'll be nice to just have those
00:55days off and i'm usually off at the end of uh august like leading up into labor day that is
01:00i mean almost every year that i've been working with mike i've been off the the week leading up
01:07to labor day and then i roll back in here on the tuesday after and it's football season and we
01:12go
01:12uh that's just been how it's but the way it worked out this year my wife recently changed jobs couldn't
01:19get that week off she could get next week off so i ended up and thankfully the company was
01:26nice enough to allow me to tag on the week and then what happens after that week the 24th and
01:35the
01:3525th of august monday and tuesday after my vacation week is over well i tacked on a day because i'm
01:43playing in a saber alumni golf tournament i was invited by the nice folks from roswell park to
01:48take part in that again this year and i'm excited about it so i wanted to take the day off
01:52to do that
01:53and then as it turns out there's another golf outing here at work uh one of our managers decided it
02:01would
02:01be nice to get all of the shows together on tuesday the 25th is the date that they landed on
02:07so that turns out to me to be another day where we're not doing a show um someone will be
02:13in here
02:13doing the show but it will be neither mike nor myself uh because we you know we're gonna play golf
02:19uh so anyway that's how i end up with two straight weeks off and with that in mind i want
02:25to for me
02:26anyway i guess this might be a little selfish uh but i get the impression people are still in the
02:31mood
02:31mood to talk about the stadium so for me i might sort of look at it as my like last
02:39call for me
02:40anyway like if you want to talk to me about the stadium i don't know why you'd need specifically to
02:44talk to me but i'm you know one of the people that sits in these chairs and has access to
02:48the
02:48microphones and the airwaves so uh like i'm on the list um so i have a feeling that you know
02:54there's
02:54a preseason game on saturday and there will probably be stadium commentary following you know
03:01more people i don't know how many of them will be different than who you know the people that
03:06were in there on saturday night uh for the return of the red and blue or is it the blue
03:12and red
03:12whatever um the marketing is not that important to me but for the the practice on saturday night
03:18you know so you're gonna get maybe a full house on saturday for a preseason game although i don't
03:24know i shouldn't assume that there wasn't a full house for the practice i think it was 51 000
03:28and the place holds around 60 ish uh anyway um there's still be some stadium stuff but i just
03:34have a feeling by the time two weeks from today rolls around no one's really going to be talking
03:39about it it just maybe by then anyone who has a problem that needs to be officially addressed by
03:47the bills uh will have had that opportunity and you know i don't know maybe we'll be
03:54taking complaints uh from people who feel like they didn't get enough uh out of their complaining
04:01to the bills and whatever the bills offered if assuming they do anything uh for people who are
04:07feeling like they got i don't know misled or whatever it is uh they have seats with obstructed
04:13views uh that they you know will have an opportunity to take it up with the bills i know this
04:18because i
04:19well i can read and so i read a tim graham piece from earlier this week where pique welly says
04:26they have heard from this is early this is probably monday i think is when this got posted
04:32so far we've heard from less than one percent of our psl holders about anything sightline related
04:39said pique welly okay that was monday on a conference call with reporters so it's a couple days
04:49presented via the virtual venue is accurate to what people saw when they sat in their seats
04:53if anyone feels otherwise we're taking this on a case-by-case basis and we'll address any concerns
04:59that they have so that's that's the the bill's official stance on it which which sounds to me like
05:06if you're upset um and have been you know posting pictures although i don't know how many people
05:12actually did that it's a lot of repetitive pictures but i do believe that you know less than
05:18one percent let's just work with that number because we've heard some people uh really it
05:24was monday yesterday mike and i we did not really talk about the stadium monday was all stadium all
05:30the time uh for us and today will be a lot of that um you know depending on on you
05:36out there 8030550
05:37is the number i'll get the calls here pretty quick just have a couple of things i want to lay
05:41out
05:41less than one percent of psl holders there are 60 000 roughly psl holders so that's not quite 600
05:50people but it's probably a few hundred people you know somebody on monday came with um and i've seen
05:58this you know it's just a couple of seats it's a couple of dozen seats it's no you know it's
06:05you extrapolate out like the those landing spots for the stairs with the railings and the plexiglass
06:12and all that are in every section of the 400 level so you go around multiply i don't know 20
06:20seats
06:21per section maybe are compromised maybe it's less than that but go around the stadium and i'm it's
06:28probably not all the same up at the corners are maybe better because you don't have to turn your
06:33head left or right like you would if you're sitting somewhere between say the 30s um or the 20s
06:40where you know you're looking at either end of the field and there might be an obstruction on the end
06:45you're just looking straight ahead and provided there's not something blocking that view which i'm
06:50not saying there isn't i don't know uh but maybe you're better off but anyway so a few hundred people
06:56at this point uh according to pico ellie have had enough of a problem that they've reached out to the
07:02you know aside from posting pictures on facebook and calling radio shows they've taken the step of
07:09contacting the bills uh so there is that um i thought while there wasn't a ton of information
07:18that i was able to gather from the appearance on our morning show by jonathan malley who's a managing
07:24partner with populus the architectural firm this guy was involved in designing the stadium and and
07:32having it built to specifications um i i guessed at this all i could do was guess at it on
07:40monday
07:40but it turned out to be like a good guess it absolutely made sense um you've heard a lot of
07:47i even
07:47heard someone this afternoon when i was on my way in call brad and tim and uh say like how
07:55could you
07:56design a stadium that has these problems like what a what a huge miss and i don't know how many
08:03people
08:04that are hearing my voice right now are still thinking that that like somehow the bills and this
08:12multinational design firm populace and everyone else legends everyone who contributed to building the
08:19stadiums they're in the stadium building business that they somehow miscalculated and that didn't know
08:25that these railings and these stairway landings were going to be in the way uh i'm sorry i'm chuckling
08:31on monday all i could do was guess like it's not a flaw it's not a it's not a it's
08:37not a miscalculation
08:39uh it it was planned like you have to make concessions you have to make uh accommodations
08:46if you want certain things present uh in the construction and in the final in the finished
08:53product and what jonathan malley basically explained was yes those stairways are where they are because
09:00we didn't want the decision was made that we wanted open concourses ability to see
09:08360 360 in all directions from the concourses in particular obviously the field of play
09:15and that you you can't accomplish that by having stairwells and other ways to get people up from
09:27that concourse to the upper deck the top deck which is the 400 level now in this stadium
09:31without congesting those concourses and we didn't want to have that so this is the alternative you get
09:40some number maybe numbering in the hundreds of seats that are going to be to varying degrees and if
09:49you're on the high end of obstruction maybe you've got a bigger beef uh and and are more upset
09:56if you didn't see it coming i i my sense is that maybe the majority of people who bought these
10:05psls for seats that would have the obstructed views their eyes were open going in they were told they
10:11were informed and they still went ahead with yeah it's fine at this price point i can i can work
10:18around that i can live with that um but the the idea that somehow the bills you know oh they
10:25can't
10:26get out of their own way they they built a stadium not knowing their of course they knew it was
10:33a choice
10:33you know i'm not gonna try to on some comedically amateurish level break down uh the engineering that
10:43goes into building this gigantic football stadium but i don't think you can you can't do everything
10:50you know if you wanted the wide concourses and wanted to make them wider to accommodate room for
10:58stairs and ways to get people up and down then you probably are pushing the seats further away from the
11:04stadium because the structure of the facility itself needs to support the the seats and the seats need to
11:10support the concourse it's like it it's all married right so you can't just widen everything you can't
11:16just you know infinitely just press out without pushing the seats away so you want the seats closer
11:23anyway we landed where we landed and i i know for me i said this a couple of times on
11:31monday i'll say it
11:32again now because i i do want to uh you know get into this with all of you at 8030550
11:38um that when i first saw the pictures i i learned a lot in the 48 hours or 36 hours
11:46that followed
11:46the practice because when i first heard about obstructed view seats i thought it's 2026 what
11:53are we doing why does this have to be this way why do you choose to design a stadium this
11:59way
12:00and what i've come to learn and jonathan malley from populace made this point clear there's i think he
12:05said 14 you know newer newish stadiums in the nfl that have very similar i don't want to say exactly
12:16the same because maybe every building is subtly different in certain ways design wise but very
12:20similar issues uh with sight lines with with an open concourse that is below the the 400 level and is
12:30accessed by stairs etc and so right away when i started seeing pictures and reading about this
12:38being the case in other stadiums that that's what leads me to guessing yeah no it's not nobody made a
12:45mistake and i never really thought that they did i just sort of blew my mind that that's the case
12:49but
12:50it is and so it's not like the bills and populace in this construction project have the market cornered on
12:58that it's just it's a trade-off and i know like you can easy for me to say well i
13:06i want the wider
13:07concourses so let's sacrifice uh you know a few hundred seats and make them obstructed view because
13:13this is it's better for everyone like it is literally like if there's you know however many
13:20thousands of people are going to be sitting in the upper deck that don't have obstructed views
13:25they're going to have an unimpeded view of the field and a beautiful wide comfortable concourse
13:31to go do whatever needs to be done food beverage bathroom or even just hang out like that's available
13:39to everyone and i think that is for the greater good but in the end the people that have to
13:46put up
13:47with the obstructed view maybe feel a little bit less like oh yeah i love the big wide concourse it's
13:54great maybe they would say i'd rather be able to see the whole field from my seat and have more
14:01of a
14:02old style old ralph wilson stadium you know closed in concourse um but whatever the decision's been made
14:10and the psls have been purchased and again the bills are talking like i don't think they're going
14:16to be holding news conferences about this subject or anything like i don't expect updates i would
14:21expect them to quietly deal with people who have legitimate complaints feel like they have images from
14:30their virtual tour whether they were in person or online and it doesn't exactly match what the reality
14:38is and you know i'm not in a position to tell you what exactly the bills are prepared to do
14:44about or for
14:45these people um but i think they will have their they will have an opportunity i think to present
14:54to the bills like this is what i was shown this is what i was told and this is what
15:00i got end result
15:02and you know this ain't so great doesn't really jive uh but again my my senses from sort of dipping
15:10in
15:10and out listening and reading over the last three four days since this has become you know almost an
15:16endless story is that i think more people than not uh i think sort of got what they expected got
15:25what
15:25they signed up for like i knew this was going to be a thing and it's not ideal but i'm
15:31gonna i'm gonna
15:33i'm gonna make it work i decided to make it work and i will um so you know easy for
15:39me to guess at that
15:41without knowing every case and how could i um but i just wanted to like clear up that that part
15:47of it
15:48it's not a couple of seats it's not a couple of squeaky wheels if it's anywhere near one percent of
15:54their
15:54psl sold it's it's hundreds of people that are upset or complaining um so there's that although
16:02peak well he did say less than one percent that's why i'm not saying it's 600 people but i would
16:06imagine
16:07it's a few hundred um people and so there's that and the other part which again probably by now is
16:15obvious like no mistakes were made in the in the construction they didn't like they didn't get done
16:22it's like me putting molding around my floorboards and like yeah oh i cut the angle wrong shoot all
16:31right well i'm out of mold can i live with this said whatever it's the attic no one's gonna notice
16:38but
16:38me i'll deal with it that did not happen on a two billion dollar stadium construction project okay
16:45they did not get done and go like oh the stairs wow what were we thinking it was a plan
16:52it was a
16:53concession um and so you know you can be mad about that um or accept it uh but it was
17:01not an accident
17:02it was not it was not i measured wrong you know okay like it just was i'm just i'm chuckling
17:08um you know
17:10i think there is still some of that out there um so you can alleviate that right the the decision
17:16basically came down to some obstructed view seats so that we can have the concourses free
17:23of ways to get people up and down from the 300 level to the 400 level or really for the
17:29400 level people
17:30to access their seats at all because i believe they are accessing it through those stairwells on the
17:34300 level concourse so they are sharing a concourse so 300 level in the 400 level and so to to
17:40make
17:40make room for the stairs and keep the concourses clear that's what you got 803 0550 i i do think
17:47all
17:47that makes sense uh it doesn't mean you have to be accepting of it or even like it um but
17:54i'm just
17:55telling you like that's that's basically uh the deal 803 0550 is the number michael is first up this
18:03segment hi michael thank you for calling you're on wg hey chris thanks for taking my call you're
18:09welcome i just wanted to touch on um all the the non-local negativity that i see online i have
18:19one
18:19kid who's a social media guy i don't follow him but he comes across my feet saying that this is
18:25the
18:25worst mistake the bills have ever made in their entire franchise this guy doesn't even live in western
18:30new york or southern ontario or is a really even a real bill today he's more like looking for clickbait
18:35right sure and especially on the seats with with the plexiglass what do people expect do you want
18:43some inebriated idiot falling down those rails and eventually hurting somebody or hurting himself
18:49okay yes it's not the best but it's not the end of the world and if you're a season ticket
18:55holder
18:55or a psl buyer who was actually misled i want to hear from you because you dealt with the company
19:01that the bills hired to to buy your ticket but again it's like you know we got this beautiful thing
19:07and we're all focused or not all of us but a lot of people are focused on the negative but
19:11i'm just
19:11sick of it like i want to move on to games let's see what it's like when there's an actual
19:15well that's
19:16also part of it michael that's why thank you that that's a part of the problem i think we're enduring
19:22right now you know if if it indeed is is a problem like you you feel like you've heard enough
19:27of it
19:27and you're sick of it um you want to get on to talking about the games well guess what
19:32there aren't any there this is and so we're we're in we're in this soft spot still like i know
19:39they're they're practicing it's training camp although they didn't practice today they had this
19:44practice there'll be a game on saturday but it's a it's a fake game it's not it's not a real
19:49game
19:49we're not going to be like pouring over the game it just it's not it's not what we do there
19:55are
19:56outlets that will do that um but it's not like we don't spend all day monday talking about their third
20:04and seven play call in a preseason game it just doesn't happen right so we're in a spot right now
20:11where we are i think as a as a fan base as uh as consumers of media and of football
20:20we're just in
20:20a soft spot where we're susceptible to getting swallowed up by something like this yes i totally
20:27believe that people who have no interest in the bills are farming and populating social media websites
20:39with stories and photos and horror stories about the construction and the the the the difficulty
20:46in seeing and all of it um this is how it works i heard i heard graham i love that
20:53brad and tim are
20:54in here uh for two hours a day um i mean tim's not here every day but still it's great
20:59to have them
20:59on the team and i i i heard tim uh i think yesterday he he was at practice and he
21:05called in
21:06in the two o'clock hour and said something to the effect of like how he you know saturday he
21:13went
21:13to the practice and walked around the stadium he was mostly like field level hundred level um and he
21:23talked to fans and he shot video and it was all very positive about the stadium like here's here's the
21:30first opportunity fans have to gain access to the stadium and here's this little video piece uh kind
21:39of highlighting that with some man on the street reaction whatever and then like eventually i think
21:46by sunday morning he becomes aware of what just like a lot of us did uh that there there was
21:54this
21:54this uh growing concern outrage even about sight lines and obstructed seats and i was misled and
22:05all this sort of stuff and you know tim works in addition to doing a two-hour radio show here
22:10on
22:11weekdays he's you know full-time reporter with the athletic which is a division of the new york times
22:17and what do they call tim graham and tell tim we need stories about this we need we need we
22:24need more
22:24we need we need bill's brass we need more people more fans whatever i mean that it's a story right
22:32and
22:32it get and just like anything in in this media environment it is people want this we need to feed
22:42it
22:42to them we need to be the people that are we need to be the outlet that is feeding this
22:49story to the pop the
22:51populace we we need we need i shouldn't say populace when we're talking about a company that designed the
22:56stadium the popular the general public and so if the new york times and the athletic are doing that
23:02like of course like smaller independent click bait type aggregators and whatever are gonna come
23:11piling in flying in off the top rope with the people's elbow on this story it's just it's just
23:18the world we live in so you know you have to make a choice about how much of that you
23:24want to consume
23:25um you know i mean you don't have to click on every story and read everything i mean facebook is
23:31especially egregious in this area long before stadium construction stories and sight lines like a lot
23:38of the sports content that shows up on facebook is just absolute utter horse crap i mean it's made up
23:45garbage um so you know you got you got to be discerning um about some things i think in that
23:52way
23:52um but there's no there's no there should be no surprise i mean you you're you're to me willfully
23:59being naive if you don't understand why why people outside are grabbing this story because you know
24:07you've got an opportunity to try to you know get views and get advertisers and like that's the way
24:15the machine works and it's never been a scuzzier in that in the streets of that world than it is
24:20now
24:20so of course that's happening um that that doesn't mean to me though that there aren't people that have
24:30like a legitimate beef and deserve to be heard so i i'm offering that i've heard brad do this same
24:37thing like if you are not someone who's from outside the market if you're someone who sat in a seat
24:45and went man this is not what i was shown and i'd love to hear from you uh and we
24:51could talk about it
24:52um if you're someone who like actually has the obstructed view and went through the virtual tour
25:00and was shown what you would be dealing with and it's pretty much exactly what you signed up for
25:06i'd love to hear from you too because i i believe that those people far outnumber the people who've
25:13been aggrieved but a lot of that's just a guess uh because you know there's a finite number of people
25:18we can talk to on a given day and um you know there's no way that i can know um
25:23how many people
25:25legitimately are upset um or how many people are just sort of play acting you know and there was a
25:32lot of play acting about the psl practice versus the other practice like i i i don't believe people
25:39with psls like in in the hundreds or thousands of people were mad that fans who didn't buy psls were
25:45going to get to go to a free practice but enough people purported to be that and made enough noise
25:54that you know it ended up getting talked about i don't think this is quite that um but i think
26:00maybe
26:01there are similarities um you know you might have people that are aggrieved just by the by the fact
26:07that the stadium priced them out of it and so now they're taking the opportunity to dunk on
26:13the stadium uh like that could be a part of it too but i i do think there is at
26:18least in the
26:18bills acknowledging that they're they're they're talking to people who have a who have a problem
26:23with their sight lines that that you know they're going to address it it's not something they're just
26:28blowing off saying oh well too bad we got your money you signed up or anything i mean that would
26:33just be ridiculous they're they're not doing that um anyway 8030550 is the number would love to hear
26:40from as many as we can here uh during the next half an hour or so at four o'clock
26:45we'll shift gears and
26:47talk with our old friend ian hardich he's now with rotowire fantasy yes it's a fantasy segment mike's not
26:53here i someone hold my hand i don't know how i'll do it
26:55you
26:55you
26:55you
26:55you
26:55you
26:55you
26:55you
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