Franchise Notes

The Bills have sold 47,246 season tickets, the most since the team’s last Super Bowl season in ’93, and the first four games of the regular season are almost sold out, despite a 5-11 record last season and the “off-season overhaul of the front office and coaching staffs” (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 7/18).

SABRE TEETH: Within two days of its launch, more than 5,000 people signed a petition on Buffalo-based Web designer Drew Celestino’s www.fixthelogo.com protesting the Sabres’ potential new logo, which was recently leaked and has been compared to a “slug, a creamsicle or even Donald Trump’s hairpiece.” No team rep has confirmed that the new logo will be placed on the Sabres’ uniform this season (NIAGARA GAZETTE, 7/15).

SOUL MAN: AFL Soul co-Owner Jon Bon Jovi, in a Q&A with the N.Y. POST’s Dan Aquilante, said, “When I bought the team I thought I was going to be like [Yankees Owner George] Steinbrenner. I was going [to] be the guy sitting in the box smoking footlong cigars. I didn’t understand the work until I had to do it.” Bon Jovi noted ten of the 19 AFL teams “are owned by NFL organizations, and whatever they need is there for them. When I bought the team, we didn’t even own helmets or shoulder pads. We had nothing –- I actually went to Modell’s to buy that kind of stuff” (N.Y. POST, 7/18).