Bills new defensive end Mario Williams does not a trademark sack dance with a name. If he did however, his new team might want to label it the 'Mario bump.' The free agent defensive end's impact at the Bills' ticket window, fan following and team merchandise has provided an eye-opening boost for the franchise.
The first, and perhaps most noteworthy area, is in ticket sales. The Bills were faring well with their offseason sales prior to the signing, but since Williams signed with Buffalo there has been a spike in season ticket customers.
"We've been pacing very well going into the offseason with our season ticket renewals," said Bills CEO Russ Brandon. "We were up about 15 percent year over year, but over the last 48 hours after the signing we did about 14-hundred new season tickets and renewed about four-thousand season tickets. I think the marker there is we're about two weeks away from our first deposit on season tickets. So it's certainly picked up."
The demand for season tickets (purchase online) increased to a point where the Bills held extended hours for ticket sales last Saturday with a steady stream of ticket buyers at One Bills Drive.
With respect to jersey sales Mario Williams has also provided a lift there and he's yet to be designated with a specific number. He and Chris Kelsay will discuss which of them will be wearing number 90 come the 2012 season.
"We've had over 6,000 sign-ups on the new Mario Williams Nike jersey when that comes out," Brandon said. "Nike is also coming out with their new product this year so we're having people sign up on Buffalobills.com. When the Nike jerseys come out and Mario and Chris work out the number we'll get those out fast and furious."
Brandon estimates that Nike will release their league jerseys for all 32 teams in the next month or so.
The Bills fan base also flocked to the team's social media platforms with the news of last week's signing with. Buffalobills.com registered almost three million page views last Thursday and Friday. Over 27-thousand participated in a live chat during Thursday's press conference on the team website, five times more than any previous chat on Buffalobills.com.
The Bills Mobile App had its most traffic ever since launching last September. More than 3,700 fans have signed up for a contest to win an autographed Mario Williams football, and between Facebook and Twitter the Bills now have more than 450-thousand followers with 7,200 new followers combined since last week.
"We're excited that people in the community are so fired up about this and hopefully we'll keep adding to our team with the draft," said Brandon. "The recent increase in new season ticket sales and ticket renewals along with the traffic numbers on our social media platforms continues to highlight the passion of our fan base."
