Two sports-related legal issues have been getting a serious amount of ink in recent weeks, both with legal implications.

First, newly elected Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has pledged to make keeping the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo a priority for his administration. Chuck Schumer also weighed in on the importance of the Bills, and collectively, millions of dollars in taxpayer money will likely be shoveled in the direction of One Bills Drive in an effort to woo the home team to stay home.

Next up is the dispute between Time Warner and the MSG Network that has left many Sabres fans unable to witness the nightly carnage on the ice that their beloved franchise is suffering through. (I have Fios, and trust me when I say you should count your blessings if you didn't see last week's 5-0 beating at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings.) Again, those in power are calling for intervention, mediation - something, anything - to get the Sabres back on the boob tube, and quickly.

First, to the Buffalo Bills. Am I the only one who says to send them packing? The taxpayers fund annual renovations, upgrades, etc., at the stadium and pay millions to keep the Bills in town for what used to be 10 days each year. That has now been reduced to eight. Eight days of revenue. OK, call it eight weekends, but the bottom line is: It is a limited window of cash coming in and millions going out on the backs of the taxpayers of Erie County.

We hear all the doom and gloom about how devastating it would be if the Bills pulled an Art Modell and backed up moving vans to the Ralph in the middle of the night and headed west. But how bad would it really be? I live within a few miles of the stadium and I find it hard to imagine that we would have a mass closure of hotels, restaurants and stores if the Bills went bye-bye. Frankly, if a business is surviving based on eight weekends a year, it's a shaky operation anyway, isn't it?

Furthermore, despite the presence of the Bills, in the four years I have lived near the stadium, we have seen a large hotel go under and multiple restaurants close. Bills or no Bills, the area would gain some businesses, lose some and life would go on. Sure, local stores that sell Bills gear might take a hit, but savvy ones would get creative, adjust and survive. The weak ones would fall by the wayside. We call it capitalism.

On the upside, productivity in offices across Western New York would likely spike on Mondays following what would have been a Bills game. DWIs would drop on Sunday afternoons, as would domestic violence (yes, national studies have found a link between an afternoon spent drinking in excess and cheering on the home team to a rise in incidents of domestic violence). Not to mention, John. Q. Taxpayer wouldn't have to fork over millions to subsidize a team owned by a man who doesn't even live in this state, much less this county.

If you are clinging to the argument that you'll miss rooting for a home team, consider these three points: The team is awful; if you have a child who is in the fifth grade, they weren't alive the last time your team was in the playoffs; and as poorly as they are playing, so many home games are getting blacked out, you won't be rooting much for them even if they stay.

Collectively, we need to stop swooning over the Bills and promising bushels of cash to keep them in town. Which brings me to the Time Warner/MSG dust-up.

Do we really want legislative intervention to resolve this stalemate? I don't know about you, but I want less big brother butting into my life, not more. To come full circle to this capitalism notion, the Sabres deadlock will resolve itself when one side decides it has lost enough money and is ready to dance. Until then, tune into the game on the radio, challenge your kids to a game of Candy Land or knock off a few of those home improvement projects you've been putting off. At this point, scraping paint, peeling wallpaper - almost anything - would be better than watching the Sabres struggle in every phase of the game.

I know there are those of you who are diehard sports fans and will disagree with me. I can understand the disappointment in potentially losing your football team and not being able to watch your hockey squad. But at the end of the day, unemployment is too high, taxes are out of control, foreclosures are staggering and people are struggling to keep their collective heads above water. I've got to think Polancarz, Schumer et al have more pressing issues than injecting themselves in the mess that has become Buffalo professional sports.

Besides, look on the bright side: It's less than three months until your Buffalo Bisons kick off the 2012 season at Coca Cola field. Until then, go Bandits!

mchandler@bizjournals.com