Buffalo Wild Wings Shades Astros Over Cheating Scandal, and Their Fans Are Threatening to Boycott

Buffalo Wild Wings routinely releases commercials boasting about being the go-to destination for sports fans. The situation may now be changing after the chain restaurant took a shot at the Houston Astros and the sign-stealing controversy. Sports fans are now threatening to boycott Buffalo Wild Wings.

The uproar began when the BWW Twitter account retweeted news about Manchester City being banned from the Champions League for two seasons due to cheating and wrote: “THAT’S how you punish a team that cheats.” This was in reference to the way MLB handled the Astros cheating scandal.

In response to this post on social media, several fans wrote about how they would be boycotting BWW in favor of other popular chicken chain restaurants. Some would be heading to Hooters for live sporting events while others were examining different options. A few fans even posted videos of them cutting up gift cards to BWW.

“Just ordered @BigCityWings for the first time because @BWWings thought they’d be cute talking s–t on the Astros lol,” one Astros fan wrote. Many of these fans made it very clear that they would rather test out new restaurants than support one that joked about their favorite team.

The majority of the comments took place in mid-February, but the uproar has continued into March. One fan even made a proclamation on Monday, writing that: “If you are an Astros fan and go to Buffalo Wild Wings… you aren’t an Astros fan!”

The chain restaurant did ultimately respond to the uproar on social media. BWW sent out a tweet in the aftermath of the potential boycott and apologized for their decision.

“So last night was the roast of Buffalo Wild Wings, courtesy of the city of Houston. And honestly, we deserved it. Well done H-Town for coming to your team’s defense, and we’re sorry about what we posted,” the restaurant tweeted.

Some fans saw this apology and felt that it was too little, too late. They believed that BWW had alienated a large portion of their client base, including the entire city of Houston. That was the risk the restaurant ran by tweeting about the cheating scandal.

This was not a universal opinion, however, as some critics of the Astros decided to show support for BWW. They tweeted about how the restaurant should have never apologized. There were also some jokes about Astros fans eating and running away to avoid paying the bill.

(Photo Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Buffalo Wild Wings)