Bills favor NFL's international approach

[The_Philster]

The thought of the Buffalo Bills (http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q=%22Buffalo%20Bills%22&t=buffalo) playing a game in Germany or Britain as a way to bring international exposure to the franchise is appealing to the team hierarchy.
National Football League (http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q=%22National%20Football%20League%22&t=buffalo) owners voted Oct. 23 to begin staging games outside the United States on a regular basis as soon as 2007. In addition to Britain and Germany, regular season games will be played in Canada and Mexico. ...more (http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2006/10/23/daily40.html?jst=b_ln_hl)

[PECKERWOOD]

I just posted that we should do this; I got flamed hardcore. Ralph understands that playing a couple games in another country would help this team out significantly. Especially, Toronto. There practically our next door neighbors. Whether the Bills do this or not, can ultimately determine this teams survival.....

[The_Philster]

1...I saw the thread you're talking about...and you weren't getting flamed...it was a reasonable debate for the most part that you weren't going to win, IMO. Sunday afternoons at the Ralph is a big deal to a lot of us.
2...I really don't understand how losing games to Toronto would help the franchise. For one, the Ralph seats more and sells out. For another, the Bills make money on parking, concessions, and other things. Odds are, they'd have to give up at least some of that at Skydome...and the tailgating up there is severely lacking, IMO.

[PECKERWOOD]

1...I saw the thread you're talking about...and you weren't getting flamed...it was a reasonable debate for the most part that you weren't going to win, IMO. Sunday afternoons at the Ralph is a big deal to a lot of us.
2...I really don't understand how losing games to Toronto would help the franchise. For one, the Ralph seats more and sells out. For another, the Bills make money on parking, concessions, and other things. Odds are, they'd have to give up at least some of that at Skydome...and the tailgating up there is severely lacking, IMO.
Yeah, I guess flamed wasnt the right word. Nobody bashed me or anything. People were strongly against the notion though. I didnt think about the folks losing cash on parking and concessions, that truly sucks.. However, we would gain alot more fans and we would have a much bigger market to sell to.

[The_Philster]

We're already selling out games...a lot of people already come down to the games from Toronto...as well as from Erie, the Southern Tier, Rochester, Syracuse...you might gain a few more fans up in the Toronto area, but you'd lose some from the areas that are big on supporting the team already.

[PECKERWOOD]

We're already selling out games...a lot of people already come down to the games from Toronto...as well as from Erie, the Southern Tier, Rochester, Syracuse...you might gain a few more fans up in the Toronto area, but you'd lose some from the areas that are big on supporting the team already.
Thats where I currently live now. I make a couple road games each year. I guess the difference is, around here its like 60% buffalo fans, 40% NYG fans. If we were to play a couple games in Canada. We wouldnt have to compete with other franchises for popularity. Once again though, stadium sales are important, however, it still wouldnt be a problem to fill the stadium up even with the loss of those fans coming to the game. I think its more about airtime, and paraphernalia sales.

[PECKERWOOD]

With that said, Im not in favor of moving to Canada. Just a game there once a season couldnt hurt.

[Dozerdog]

After further reflection- I wouldn't mind a late season game in Toronto

as long as it's only 1 time every 5-6 years

[Cntrygal]

I'm against going to Europe 100%. What are the networks going to do? Show it tape delayed?

[G. Host]

I'm against going to Europe 100%. What are the networks going to do? Show it tape delayed?
They hold games in the Central US at noon; holding a game at 7 PM in Germany would solve most of the problems - it would be 1 PM on East Coast and normal times elsewhere.

World Clock Planner:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?month=10&day=26&year=2006&p1=37&p2=136&p3=179&p4=137

[chernobylwraiths]

From what I understood, it would be one or two games a year total. So the Bills would lose at most one home game every 8 years. Plus, it could be played in Europe. I think playing in Toronto would be a bad idea as it would bring back the old crap about us moving there. Besides missing out on going to another home game though, think of the implications to all the bars, restaurants, hotels that would lose out who make a lot of money on Bills games.

[OpIv37]

From what I understood, it would be one or two games a year total. So the Bills would lose at most one home game every 8 years.


It could be more or less because this assumes an even distribution amongst teams, which probably won't happen. The NFL will most likely want to showcase their best teams (think SNF this year and MNF in previous years), or in the cases of Mexico and Canada, the closest teams that may already have a bit of a following in the area.

My guess is that one of the first games will be a Bills game in Toronto because they already have the fan base.

[chernobylwraiths]

It could be more or less because this assumes an even distribution amongst teams, which probably won't happen. The NFL will most likely want to showcase their best teams (think SNF this year and MNF in previous years), or in the cases of Mexico and Canada, the closest teams that may already have a bit of a following in the area.

My guess is that one of the first games will be a Bills game in Toronto because they already have the fan base.

If it is the NFL's intention to spread its popularity, it doesn't make sense to use this approach. If they already have a fan base, then they should send them to places where they DON'T have a fan base. They want to make new fans, that's why they are taking games away from places that already have their fans.

[OpIv37]

If it is the NFL's intention to spread its popularity, it doesn't make sense to use this approach. If they already have a fan base, then they should send them to places where they DON'T have a fan base. They want to make new fans, that's why they are taking games away from places that already have their fans.

in time. For the first few, they'll want guaranteed success. Also, it increases ticket and merch sales in those areas if they think the NFL actually cares enough about them to play a game there.

Also, they'll want to win fans in markets that are close enough to go to domestic NFL games too.

[Lee-83]

If it's an away game **** yeah!

[Tinboy]

I wouldn't mind one game in Germany. It's a lot cheaper to travel to Munich than to Buffalo from Sweden :D

[kernowboy]

I think the only concern Buffalo fans should have is that it could be a precursor to the team being moved to Toronto because

1) The Ralph Wilson Lease is a year to year affair now I believe
2) At some point there will be a new owner and they will want to consider a rebuilt of the stadium or a shiny new one.
3) If Toronto bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics their bid will be enhanced by the so called 'legacy' factor, if you build a stadium of 80,000 what are you doing with it afterwards? If its already in place and they can say they have a tenant like a NFL franchise then the IOC will mark them up for this.

A new owner will see National and State money being spend on a new state of the art stadium, in an area that will have a strong Bills fan base. The Canadian government will find it easier to justify the bid. When Manchester held the Commonwealth Games in 2002 they built a new stadium, then a soccer team moved in afterwards, and then the government recouped their costs through a proportion of the ticket sales revenue, but in all cases the team won as did the government if only because they didn't have a white elephant.

The temptation might be overwhelming.

They will have a strong chance as they had the best technical bid of 2008 which went to Beijing for political reasons. It is North America's turn to hold the Olympics in 2016 as it will be 20years since Atlanta. However I am afraid the George Bush/Iraq factor ways heavily on America's reputation and will colour the opinion of the IOC when voting.

When the Oilers moved to Tennesse they played at the Vanderbilt stadium for a couple of seasons. I see the risk for the Bills in that in such regard the Skydome - Rogers Centre at 10,000 more (51,000) will be considered acceptable for 2/3 seasons.

I have read that the Jaguars are now up for a sale and it does seem that the smaller city teams are struggling. Is there a knight in shinning armour who can come and keep the Bills in Buffalo or in 5 years time are the Bills going to be in Los Angeles if they aren't kept 'local'?