As a non-American, I have never even been in Buffalo, but I have read about it. How much of a handicap does Buffalo have as an area/city/location, when it comes to attracting high-end UFA:s?
If a player has no ties to the immediate area, that is.
I'm thinking about next season and what possibilities we have to get a valuble UFA to sign with Buffalo.
I know that places like Tampa, Florida, Vegas etc. probably has an easier road when it comes to these signings.
I was born and raised in buffalo. Graduated from SUNY-Buffalo. I have lived elsewhere since then but still travel back frequently with family and friends there.
In the past few years in rust belt cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh gave bern reborn. Buffalo is now going through something similar with big development in the city of buffalo.
Fir a long tine buffalo downtown was all business where prop,e come in to work then leave at night. Downtown had nothing. Many who work live in suburbs and buffalo was a high minority’s, high immigrant city.
My dad career was as a high school teacher in a non magnet school. All the really smart students in his area went to a magnet do he was left with African amerucans. Later in his career it became more Hispanic where many kids spoke Spanish between classes.
The city and metro area became racially divided.
When my dad grew up north buffalo was Italian, east buffalo was polish, south buffalo was Irish. Next to Chicago, buffalo had the highest polish population. In the 60sfamikies moved out to the suburbs.
Buffalo didn’t have a big industry like being high tech or something else.
In my area there wasn’t jobs which is why I moved out.
The perspective of buffalo is a sniwbrlt inside the artic circle and is a small town.
When peop,e move to buffalo what they find out.....
1 muliethinucity in the area so there is food variety
2 outside of the city there is a stretch no agriculture market so yiu can get fresh grown foods.
3 it doesn’t get super hot and humid so you can grow stuff easily on your own
4 good education system
5 real estate prices are much cheaper. Yiu can buy a home fir $200,000 that woukd cist 3-5 tunes more in larger cities. It’s better for raising families.
6. With Canadians they realize they can buy things cheaper on the USA side
7. The city is close enough to large metro areas that it’s easy travel to go and see stuff that buffalo might not have.
8. Peop,e in the area tend to be more friendlier than what people experience living elsewhere.
9. There are tons of options fir those interested in hunting, fishing, boating, camping, etc.
You don’t have the issue of attracting players who were from southern Ontario.