My brother and I have had season tickets going back to the Erhardt era. Each of us maintaining them on our own in the years one of us lived and worked outside the region. I've seen the dark days as well and I think you may be discounting something that is different than when previous dynasties fell, there's a salary cap now. The worst of the bad old days were largely driven by broke/incompetent ownership pre cap. We might see a 3-13 season or two but if Jonathon Kraft has learned anything from his father we are unlikely to see a string like we saw under the drag end of the Sullivan ownership thru the Kiam 'error.' That observation isn't made to discount your core question about what it will look like at the stadium when this unprecedented run ends. I firmly believe the golden era we have been witnessing has forever changed the way New England fans view both the team and the league. Before this run the NFL was a very distant 4th in the fans hearts and minds but we've had an entire sports generation that has now had it blended into their DNA, it's part of who they are. Something like that doesn't just go away. Given the cost and traffic/time hassle of attending games in Foxborough even a brief period of struggle at current prices will see an exodus of the sit on their hands club seating pink hats but their loss will be real fans gain when the price drops and the noise dead zone they create will be become a cacophony of raucousness. Gillette isn't Fenway or the Garden, it's a PITA all day commitment getting in and out of there and the Krafts are good enough businessmen to know the product needs to be worth the fans investment of time and money. Thanks to the cost certainty of the cap we will not see anything like the hopelessness of the Kiam years under their watch, at some point the team will have a down cycle but I doubt we will ever see a down and out one again.
