Good Bye Old Friend

[That Aud Smell]

How many others spent Stallions games playing soccer in the hallways with those mini-soccer balls they used to sell? The old radiators made really good "nets" ...

we were routinely dispatched to stallions game to get us the hell out of the house in the dead of winter. i don't recall what ticket prices were, but they must've been pretty affordable or otherwise easy to come by. i recall us as roving band of pre-/adolescent boys who made a fair amount of good-natured mischief. one of our favorite pastimes: launching lemonheads onto the playing surface in an effort to land them within the red dots that they used as re-start points in the old misl.

[nfreeman]

What a great thread. The Aud was just a great, great place to see a game. The new stadiums are more comfortable and more profitable (potentially, anyway), but the upper decks are miles away and they just aren't as intimate.

 

The memories come rushing up, don't they?

 

-The breakneck steepness of the oranges, and the hint of fear every time you went down those stairs.

 

- Walking up those long, sticky ramps.

 

- As has been mentioned, the blues under the overhang (where I sat with my dad for years), with those amazingly crappy TVs that showed only a closed-circuit picture of the scoreboard.

 

- The crappy scoreboard.

 

- The rickety golds behind the net (which were temporary seats that sat on a pretty shaky scaffold-like structure), where my dad was able to move us to towards the end -- 6th row, just a few seats over from the goal judge -- when the slapshots came whistling in, everyone ducked, and when the big bodychecks rocked those boards, the first-row patrons nearly got crushed.

 

- Perreault, Rico, Gare, Schoenfeld, Foligno, Housley, Edwards, Hajt, Ramsey, Ramsay, Luce, Sauve, Korab, Playfair (who never, EVER, lost a fight), Van Boxmeer, Barrasso, Andreychuk...

 

- The "Taro says" banners.

 

- Those cigarette filter things hanging from the ceiling.

 

- Holy mackarel was it a cold walk from the car to the arena.

 

- Listening to the postgame show and the 4th period in the car on the way home.

 

- A group of guys yelling "Hey Seymour! We want XXXX".

 

- Bruce Springsteen on the Born in the USA tour

 

- The Police on the Synchronicity tour

 

- Rush on the Signals tour ("Subdivisions")

 

- The Braves -- the first time I went to a Braves game, I saw a sign in the Aud that said "Basketball Players" with an arrow, and I thought it meant there was a separate playing area and seating bowl for basketball games.

 

- The Stallions, with those metrosexual refs.

 

It's good to know there are a bunch of us who remember.

 

Go Sabres. The new building is pretty nice too.

[Hawerchuk]

-The breakneck steepness of the oranges, and the hint of fear every time you went down those stairs.

- Walking up those long, sticky ramps.

- Those cigarette filter things hanging from the ceiling.

- Holy mackarel was it a cold walk from the car to the arena.

- Listening to the postgame show and the 4th period in the car on the way home.

- The Stallions, with those metrosexual refs.

 

These were some of the most memorable ones for me. The hanging cigarette filter things and the long cold walks back to the car. My dad used to park on Church St. for crying out loud!! Holy smokes was it cold.

[lewport71]

I never got to see the Sabres play at the Aud...

But did attend several 'rasslin matches. Ernie the Cat Ladd,

the Sheik, Bobo Brazil, Hans Schmidt..

And then there were all the concerts,,

Led Zeppelin (2X) , Jethro Tull, ELP.

 

and way back in the day the Western NY Hoops championships

were played in the Aud...starting with the small schools

and finishing up with the large schools.

LewPort played in 1969, but got beat by Olean if my memory serves right.

[Claude_Verret]

- The rickety golds behind the net (which were temporary seats that sat on a pretty shaky scaffold-like structure), where my dad was able to move us to towards the end -- 6th row, just a few seats over from the goal judge -- when the slapshots came whistling in, everyone ducked, and when the big bodychecks rocked those boards, the first-row patrons nearly got crushed.

 

Reading that just reminded me of how Ted Darling after a puck would sail into the crowd would say "...and that was caught by a young man from Hamburg, NY"

 

- Rush on the Signals tour ("Subdivisions")

 

My only two Aud concerts were Rush on the Roll The Bones and Counterparts tours.

 

The Stallions, with those metrosexual refs.

 

I used to go to a lot of Stallions games and the only names I'm recalling are Lubo Petrovic and Steve Zungul from the New York team.

[TM8-PL16]

Reading that just reminded me of how Ted Darling after a puck would sail into the crowd would say "...and that was caught by a young man from Hamburg, NY"

 

when we were little we thought he knew everyone because he said that... funny how stuff like that stays with you. We were always amazed and wondered if we knew them when he said "a person from Kenmore". Man to be that innocent and naive again.

[schoharie]

Two great Aud memories from the 70's:

The Stones played in the Aud and had a stage shaped like a big star. When they played their song about a groopie (Star F--ker) a door opened in the center and a 30 to 40 foot phalus baloon was inflated. Mick was swinging about on the baloon as he sang. Lots of great concerts at the AUD.

 

In the early 70's the Bflo Braves, a very entertaining NBA team, were in the playoffs against the Baltimore Bullets. The Braves would set up extra floor level seats behind the baskets to sell for playoff games. My friends from high school and I were first in line for ticket sales and got the first two rows. We came dressed as Indians with one guy (me ) dressed as a cardboard bullet, painted silver with DUD written on the side. Got to meet Oscar Robertson who was on the CBS broadcast team when we walked about the floor at halftime(the security guys thaught we were part of the show). The silver spray paint on my costume was still somewhat wet when we entered the AUD and I brushed against a buffalo cop who had silver paint all over the back of his uniform. Thank God it was congested and he did not see the damage at the time.

In those days we saw Sabres (hard to get tickets), Braves and Little Three college games with large and vocal crowds--- The golden era of Bflo winter sports.

[wjag]

I saw probably 20 concerts in the aud and only two hockey games...

[Taro T]

I saw probably 20 concerts in the aud and only two hockey games...

I saw a handful of concerts there:

 

Roger Waters - twice

Scorpions (Bon Jovi was the opening act)

Clapton

Page Plante

Eddie Murphy

Billy Joel, (I'm probably missing a couple)

 

2 basketball games (January 1, '77 in a horrible snowstorm against the Nets, and a Globetrotters game),

 

about 20 soccer games (Stallions and Lizard),

 

about 20 lax games,

 

about 20 roller hockey games,

 

and a ton of Sabres games but only a handful in the '70's.

[Stoner]

My first time at the Aud was actually a Braves games in 76 I think. Braves played Portland I think? Who did Bill Walton, the big dude with the headband play for? Forgive me, but I spent the whole time fantasizing that I was at a Sabres game.

 

As country bumpkins, my dad and I always got lost heading to our seats! Then we'd zip back down the 219. We were too intimidated to do any traveling around the city.

 

We went in a side entrance once by mistake. There was a table there with a security guard. He tossed our butts back out the door.

 

I once saw Uncle Miltie Ellis and never said hi. I wish I had. I also was hot on Rick Jeanneret's ass after a game, but he disappeared into some office.

 

Good times. Good times.