November 23, 2007
UPDATE: The Bills will be playing a regular season game in Toronto in 2008. Click here for more details
Are the Buffalo Bills heading to Toronto? CFL commissioner Mark Cohon seems to think that the Bills will be moving north in the near future. Speaking at his state of the league news conference, he was quoted as saying,
“All of the tea leaves are indicating that it’s shifting. You have guys like Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum and Phil Lind, very powerful Canadians who are interested; you have an owner in Ralph Wilson in Buffalo who has said, ‘When I die, my estate will sell the franchise’; you have the Bills interested in marking Toronto as part of their territory, which I believe is indication that, ‘Hey, this our territory, we don’t want another NFL team coming here.’
So I think there’s all these things lining up as an indication that it could happen. So I’m not sticking my head in the sand. That would be the worst thing for the CFL commissioner to do. So I think there’s a real potential.”
Cohon was also quoted as saying that he hoped that any NFL team looking to move up north would do so in conjunction with the CFL, who has a CFL franchise in Toronto.
Commissioner Goodell and others who are looking to expand the league are probably excited about a potential move up north. The other Canadian franchise in an American sport, the Toronto Raptors, have a great following, in part because they basically have the entire country of Canada backing one team. If the Bills were to move, there would probably be a similar effect.
Those who want to keep American sports isolated in America? I can hear you question already…How are you going to let Toronto get an NFL franchise before Los Angeles?
Like it or not, sports are going global.
ESPN: CFL commish sees NFL team in Toronto’s future
Related:
Sports Business Digest: Sports are going global
Sports Business Digest: Super Bowl in London…revisited
Sports Business Digest: 6 reasons the Super Bowl should not be played in London
9 comments
Keep the Bills where they belong: Buffalo, NY.
It certainly would make more sense to just move the team outright to Toronto rather than “slowly bleed” to death in Buffalo with the occasional regular season game or games being played in Toronto each season. I certainly have less of a problem having an NFL team in Canada than Cologne or Frankfurt or London or any other location halfway across the world. I guess I don’t consider Canada “global” since there are already hockey teams in the “NATIONAL” Hockey League. Let’s make a deal with the Commish he can relocate any existing teams into Canada but no other countries and I’ll even throw in an occasional Super Bowl allowed to be played in Canada if he feels so inclined. But for heaven’s sake, please build the border walls elsewhere and stop this insanity of thinking the NFL belongs in Europe and Asia, etc.
If the Bills move to T.O. which i highly doubt will ever happen (unless they sell the team and turn it into a CFL team or something)…NFL aka American Football as you know it would be ruined. yea i’m all for the Bills bringing a game to T.O. to show some support for the fan base, but moving…naw would not work; hell i can only picture the up roar in the states if that was to happen
Hell, I’ll even help them load up the moving vans. Western New York can barely afford it’s bloated Government workforce and welfare recipients let alone giving millions of dollars to Ralph Wilson. For the eight times a year they play you might as well take a two hour bus ride to Toronto and see what a real city looks like.
Don’t believe the NFL’s campaign of lies! Say no to Toronto!
http://www.SayNoToToronto.com
I’m a Winnipeg Blue Bomber fan (CFL), and a huge one. IF the Bills did move to Toronto the CFL would cease operations within a few years. There would be no more TV sponsors and all the merchandise sales would go to the Toronto franchise. But I’m not to worried. For the Bills to move to Toronto there would have to be some major changes in Toronto. The Rogers Centre only holds around 55,000 or some thing really close, with a stadium that small even if they sold out they wouldn’t be able to break even. A new stadium would have to be built and it would at least have to be a 70,000 – 75,000 seater, the Canadian Government is not going to help pay for that they rather put money towards the CFL getting new stadiums for their teams. So some one would have to do it them selves at the same time as buying the franchise. Some one with that much money isn’t going to move the Bills to Toronto, not worth it. The Bills just want that territory for more merchandise sales, that’s about it.
The Buffalo Bills are the only true N.Y. team. If they moved that would leave N.Y. state without a NFL team. The NY Jets & NY Giants have been playing in New Jersey for so long it’s time for them to become the Jersey Jets & New Jersey Giants … If they have to move for financial reasons they shoud at stay in the good Ol’ U.S.A.
WoW! I never knew that the Giants and the Jets played in New Jersey LOL!!!! that’s some stupid shit
If the Bills move to Toronto, would their cash flows be received in New York in in Canadian dollars, … or the Amero?!
No seriously, … moving to another country (even if Canada is close enough to be the 51st state) brings a host of international financial management issues to Park Avenue at a time when volatility is at an all-time high in currency markets. Rogers Centre can only hold 54,000 fans and doesn’t meet the NFL’s minimum luxury box requirements. The overwhelming majority of Canadian citizens and public officials are against such a move and the mayor of Toronto is on record as saying that no public funding will be appropriated to facilitate a Bills move to Toronto. The only major player in Toronto with the will and the Canadian bucks to buy the team off Wilson died last December.
It’s just not going to happen. This does pique my interest on a what-if level but the improbability of it all assures me that my Saints are safe too, … for the time being.
Trackbacks