The Bisons compete with no other sports team. They own the summer. They also run about a million promotional events with their games to sell tickets. I don't like baseball at all and I've been to a game here and there because of the event not the baseball. The Bandits play something like 9 home games and all of them are on the weekends. They are also the only pro lacrosse team in a area that loves lacrosse. The fix are relatively cheap. They also have games that attract fans because they are events with music blaring an MC, etc.
Neither of these teams situations has any relevance to whether or not a junior team would work here.
I'm basing it on understanding the local sports scene and the economics of this area.
For example, who is going to support this team financially? Or another way to put it, where are the season ticket holders coming from? You do realize season tickets in the OHL run from the mid 400s to almost 800 per ticket. Who is going to spend roughly 900 -1600 dollars on two season tickets? I can't imagine there is a large group of fans in Buffalo that love OHL so much that they've been waiting to put down that kind of coin for tickets. Certainly not enough to support the idea of 5k fans at every game. Not to mention hockey fans like that in Buffalo are highly likely invested in Sabres tickets in sue form or another (fully season/splitting season or a 10pack, etc)
That also brings up the fact that these teams play weeknights. Something thats been an issue at times for the Sabres. That and the opponent. So much so that variable pricing was born. So who is going to go on a Tuesday to watch a junior game with a crappy visiting opponent? A game where the single game tickets run from 20-35 dollars? thats a 40-70 dollar night.
I fail to see this area forking over that kind of money to support a local OHL team. Maybe you thought the prices were cheaper?
The local community will spend money on the Bills and Sabres. The will spend money on major sports events we host. But I fail to see the financial capability or desire to support a junior team. Given that the interest level isn't likely to be high to begin with and that most of the types of fans that might be interested probably have money tied up in the Sabres in some way.
Also last year there were only 3 teams in the OHL that averaged 5k or more fans and the league average was 4,041.
http://www.hockeyattendance.com/league/ohl/2013/?sort=avg_att Twelve of the 20 teams had averaged less than 3800 fans and seven averaged 3000 or less.
I find it hard to believe we would have an interest level that outstrips its home base.