Sabres fandom, geographical boundaries.

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

I mean Tuch grew up as a Sabres fan and he is from Syracuse

Really?  You don't say?  Now where might we have seen that before?

3 hours ago, Taro T said:

Heading east would say it swaps to majority Rags somewhere around Seneca Falls/ Auburn.

There's some Sabre fans in Syracuse (Alex Tuch being the most famous example) but would expect it more downstate in their favorite hockey team by the time you get there. 

Get a fair # of Pens fans in the southern Finger Lakes region.

Some old school Habs fans still down in Ithaca and a fair # of Bruins fans in Ra-cha-cha from the pre-79 ties but Ra-cha-cha is firmly Sabres territory.

Oh, right in this thread about 10 posts higher.

[Weave]

17 minutes ago, Richard Noggin said:

Traveling east on I-90 past Rochester, the Crunch and the Comets (in Syracuse, and Utica, respectively) are affiliated with the Lightning and the Devils, respectively. So that's not super helpful.

I know a couple of folks from Utica.  Solidly in the Devils camp.

Sabres fandom gets diluted just before Syracuse and really fades fast as you travel east.

17 minutes ago, Richard Noggin said:

Traveling east on I-90 past Rochester, the Crunch and the Comets (in Syracuse, and Utica, respectively) are affiliated with the Lightning and the Devils, respectively. So that's not super helpful.

I know a couple of folks from Utica.  Solidly in the Devils camp.

Sabres fandom gets diluted just before Syracuse and really fades fast as you travel east.

[RuffMuff]

Sabres fans are neither here nor there but everywhere.

[Porous Five Hole]

I could be mistaken, but I don’t think the Empire Sports Network was carried on basic cable in Syr.  But I know for a fact MSG & SportsChannel were. 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Porous Five Hole

[JoeSchmoe]

7 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Extreme southern Ontario / Niagra pretty much do everything possible to distance themselves as far as possible in every way from The Great Satan.

That's not right.

Leafs rule in Niagara. At best, Fort Erie / Niagara Falls / Welland might be 30% Sabres at best. Leafs are better than 50%... Though a lot of Leaf fans would put the Sabres as their 2nd team.

St Catharines is maybe 20% Sabres if you're lucky, but still there's a lot of people that have Buffalo as their 2nd team. 

Past St Catharines (i e. Lincoln, Grimsby where I now live, etc), it might be 10% Sabres- tops...  and probably 60-70% Leafs.

That's the boots on the ground observation from a guy that's spent most of his 47 years years living, working, and playing throughout the Niagara Region.

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmoe said:

That's not right.

Leafs rule in Niagara. At best, Fort Erie / Niagara Falls / Welland might be 30% Sabres at best. Leafs are better than 50%... Though a lot of Leaf fans would put the Sabres as their 2nd team.

St Catharines is maybe 20% Sabres if you're lucky, but still there's a lot of people that have Buffalo as their 2nd team. 

Past St Catharines (i e. Lincoln, Grimsby where I now live, etc), it might be 10% Sabres- tops...  and probably 60-70% Leafs.

That's the boots on the ground observation from a guy that's spent most of his 47 years years living, working, and playing throughout the Niagara Region.

 

They are actually Sabres fans. They just don’t admit it as they fear being shunned or worse by the militant Leaf’s Nation.   

[Sabres Fan in NS]

7 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

That's not right.

Leafs rule in Niagara. At best, Fort Erie / Niagara Falls / Welland might be 30% Sabres at best. Leafs are better than 50%... Though a lot of Leaf fans would put the Sabres as their 2nd team.

St Catharines is maybe 20% Sabres if you're lucky, but still there's a lot of people that have Buffalo as their 2nd team. 

Past St Catharines (i e. Lincoln, Grimsby where I now live, etc), it might be 10% Sabres- tops...  and probably 60-70% Leafs.

That's the boots on the ground observation from a guy that's spent most of his 47 years years living, working, and playing throughout the Niagara Region.

 

In my youth and early years of the Sabres my experience was the opposite from what I remember.  I am close to 60 so seems like the Sabres shine in the area probably went back to the Leaves when the Sabres run with The French Connection ended in the early 80s.

[LGR4GM]

I can say that from here to Seneca Lake was all Sabres fans, with a rare Devils fan mixed in. 

[matter2003]

10 hours ago, Weave said:

I know a couple of folks from Utica.  Solidly in the Devils camp.

Sabres fandom gets diluted just before Syracuse and really fades fast as you travel east.

I know a couple of folks from Utica.  Solidly in the Devils camp.

Sabres fandom gets diluted just before Syracuse and really fades fast as you travel east.

Utica is past Syracuse...have taken the train to NYC many times and I could probably give you a play by play of the stops in order 😂

Edited January 28, 2023 by matter2003

[OverPowerYou]

People here in Albany don’t pay attention to hockey. But if they do it’s 40% rangers, 40%  bruins and 20% islanders 

[Stoner]

13 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I think the Sabres counties are a slightly dark blue on the map.  The top of PA being Sabres country is interesting.

I think we feel connected to Buffalo. We're 2, 4 and 7 country. We knew Irv, Rick and Tom. We fly out of Buffalo and go to the Galleria and the accent is closer to Buffalo's than Pittsburgh's. A touch over an hour up the 219 and we're at Rich. An hour to the south is the PA Wilds. Deer. Bear. Pittsburgh is 4 hours away. This is solid, rock solid, Bills country with a lot of Steeler fans of course.

As for hockey it's more Sabres than Pens I'd guess, but the gap is narrowing with younger fans going Burgh for obvious reasons.

Oddity: we are in both the Sabres and Pens TV market.

Edited January 28, 2023 by PASabreFan

[JoeSchmoe]

1 hour ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

In my youth and early years of the Sabres my experience was the opposite from what I remember.  I am close to 60 so seems like the Sabres shine in the area probably went back to the Leaves when the Sabres run with The French Connection ended in the early 80s.

What part of Niagara did you live in. I grew up in St Catharines and didn't know too many Sabres fans, but I'm only 47. 

[Eleven]

17 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

I would say Erie, PA and that thingie that sticks up there to the lake is firmly Sabre country.

I don't think so.  I know a bunch of people from Erie and they're all Pens fans.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

7 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

What part of Niagara did you live in. I grew up in St Catharines and didn't know too many Sabres fans, but I'm only 47. 

I never lived in the area, but my cousin married a Canadian from Welland and lived there for years.  She was from Buffalo originally.  She was a big Sabre fan so maybe she found other Sabre fans in the area.  There were alot of them at least in the 70s to about 1982 ... it all seemed to go downhill after Bowman took the Sabres from a very nearly cup cusp in the 1980 playoff to a nothingberger in the early 80s to about 1990 something when they ran him outta town and brought in that Edmonton guy who tried his best to turn the Sabres into his Oiler image, but with all the old and washed up guys and not Mess or Gretz.

6 hours ago, Eleven said:

I don't think so.  I know a bunch of people from Erie and they're all Pens fans.

Paging @woods-racer to the @Eleven bashing on Erie, PA thread.

[Doohicksie]

20 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

Traveling east on I-90 past Rochester, the Crunch and the Comets (in Syracuse, and Utica, respectively) are affiliated with the Lightning and the Devils, respectively. So that's not super helpful.

Yeah, and before the Comets, the Devils AHL club was the Binghamton Devils and before that Albany Devils.  So that "leatherstocking" region probably has more allegiance to the Devils than the Sabres.  I think the Hudson Valley defaults to NYC sports teams; the further north you go, the more Boston influence there is (based on my experience going to college near Albany).