Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

[SABuffalo786]

Now onto more of your email:
ON THE BILLS IN TORONTO. "You mentioned that you watched the Bill-Redskins game. Just curious as to your thoughts about the Toronto series. It just entered its fourth year, with next year the final year of the agreement. As a life-long Bills fan it pains me to see our games go north of the border -- though I do understand the economics of it. Still, it's clear that the series is not without its problems -- lack of sellouts, loss of home-field advantage, etc. Also, marketing seems to have shifted from building a Bills base in Ontario to getting Bills fans to venture to Canada to watch their team. Looking ahead, where is all this going to go? Is the league office happy with the arrangement?''
-- John, of Buffalo

When I've talked to owners and league officials about the Buffalo-Toronto thing, I sense there are three ways of thinking. One: When the team is owned by someone other than Ralph Wilson, the bottom-line people hope the team is moved to where it'll make more money. Two: Traditionalists hope the team can always have a footing in Buffalo, perhaps in the 5-3 split between Buffalo games and Toronto games. Three: Some owners would love to see an NFL franchise in Toronto. So my real sense is that the league has a lot of mixed feelings about what to do in Buffalo long-term.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1ceAS0iQG



I just don't understand why these people can't grasp the concept of just expanding to Toronto and keeping the Bills where they are.

Or how they don't understand that people here will NOT be OK with sharing the team with Toronto. That there will be MANY fans who completely abandon the team and the NFL altogether.

[OpIv37]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

The Bills are a regional franchise and Southern Ontario is part of the region.

There is no way the region can support teams in both Toronto and Buffalo. One of the two will inevitably fail.

[ddaryl]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

The Toronto series is going to be the nail in the Bills coffin...


BUT if Erie County NYS is going to put renovations in at the Ralph and sign a new lease I would hope that lease stipulates all Bills home games are in Buffalo

[trapezeus]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

i think it would be the toronto team that fails. football isn't in its blood. the CFL is more of a canadian identity and toronto people aren't stupid. they aren't going to pay 4x the average ticket price for a new team than go for much less for their favorite team. the remaining people aren't that interested in football.

The bills are profitable as they are. this is just pathetic greed on the NFL's side. these are the decisions that do you in when you f with your longest and more loyal customers. if they just want more LA's, jags and other empty stadiums, then this is the move for them. if they want to continue to have die hard support and incredible ratings, they better take care of all 32 teams.

[SABuffalo786]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

The Bills are a regional franchise and Southern Ontario is part of the region.

There is no way the region can support teams in both Toronto and Buffalo. One of the two will inevitably fail.

I have to disagree. For as large and as flush with cash as TO is, I'd have to imagine supporting an NFL team financially wouldn't be an issue at all.

The Bills make money - lots of money. I don't get what the disconnect is....it's not like we have a ton of Canadian corporate sponsorship outside of beer or anything that we'd be competing with a Toronto team over.

3 games in TO and I'm done with this league.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

Anymore than 1 game in Toronto spells the end of my following of this team.

[SABuffalo786]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

The Toronto series is going to be the nail in the Bills coffin...


BUT if Erie County NYS is going to put renovations in at the Ralph and sign a new lease I would hope that lease stipulates all Bills home games are in Buffalo

Put ALL preseason games in Toronto.........just don't touch the 8 regulars and possible playoffs.

[trapezeus]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

people were able to generate an overthrow of egyptian leadership through twitter. if the bills announce a 5/3 split, i will try to start an abandon the bills, they've abandoned us twitter campaign.

[OpIv37]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

I have to disagree. For as large and as flush with cash as TO is, I'd have to imagine supporting an NFL team financially wouldn't be an issue at all.

The Bills make money - lots of money. I don't get what the disconnect is....it's not like we have a ton of Canadian corporate sponsorship outside of beer or anything.

3 games in TO and I'm done with this league.

But Southern Ontario- even Toronto- is part of that money that the Bills are making, and some or all of that money would go to Toronto. This, in and of itself, probably wouldn't be a death sentence. However, the Bills are one of the receivers in the NFL's revenue-sharing, and a loss of revenue due to a team in Toronto would mean the Bills would require even more support from the other owners. And they're just not willing to deal with it.

[OpIv37]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

i think it would be the toronto team that fails. football isn't in its blood. the CFL is more of a canadian identity and toronto people aren't stupid. they aren't going to pay 4x the average ticket price for a new team than go for much less for their favorite team. the remaining people aren't that interested in football.

The bills are profitable as they are. this is just pathetic greed on the NFL's side. these are the decisions that do you in when you f with your longest and more loyal customers. if they just want more LA's, jags and other empty stadiums, then this is the move for them. if they want to continue to have die hard support and incredible ratings, they better take care of all 32 teams.

I think people in Toronto would be a lot more enthusiastic about their own team than about renting ours for 1/16 of a season.

[ddaryl]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

if this is what they want then the NFL should pony up $1.5 Billion and build that state of the art Niagara Falls stadium with the glass encased endzone giving full view of Niagara falls.

Then the WNY/Erie County and NYS AND Ontario can pony up and fix all the roads bridges leading to the new stadium for easier access

[trapezeus]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

OP, lets just say that we didn't have a baseball team. And our local baseball fans were all about going to toronto for cheaper tickets for 10-40 years. Now they give buffalo a team but because in this wacky reality i'm creating, bufffalo tickets cost more.

Do people really abandon their bonds to teams because of convenience? I mean people have been more mobile in the last 20 years and most of us still root for our childhood team. I just don't see the die hard bills fans of toronto giving up for a new franchise.

The only way it really works is to move the bills up there full time. but i really hope buffalonians just walk from that deal. The NFL owners and big thinkeres forget that football doesn't need to be the most watched sport on tv. you anger the die hard areas where football is the thing to do for the entire town, your ratings will suffer. and those ratings dip will come in the form of lower tv deals. it'll take time, but it'll be just like the NBA. They went from best to who cares in about 10 years.

[Beebe's Kid]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

Are there any good citizens of Canada that would like to weigh in here?

After the home opener, we were talking with a bunch of guys from Canada for good hour before we left, and they said that they wanted the Toronto series to end. They said that it was a much better experience to come to the Ralph. They told us that they lived closer to Toronto than to Buffalo, and that Customs and the drive were non-factors when it came to attending games.

I asked them what they would do if Toronto had its own team, and they said that would be fine, but they were Bills fans, and always had been. They would not switch teams. They were also pretty dismissive of that being a possibility.

I think that there would still be a large amount of the fans that would hold on, but I would be torn...likely jumping ship. That would be like sharing your girlfriend with some other guy, while she was away at school. Although that unknowingly happens quite often, it is not a situation the jilted party is comfortable with once the cards are on the table.

This is why we have to hope that the next owner(s) are loyal to the area.

I know it is somewhat of a long shot for many here, but the possibility of Kelly being able to head an ownership group may be the best hope. It would be a little difficult for the other owners to deny a HOF owner, and hopefully equally difficult for them to force him into a Toronto compromise. I am, by no means, saying they wouldn't try to do either, or both, but it would at least be more difficult than if some random schmuck with deep pockets wants to get into the NFL.

[SABuffalo786]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

But Southern Ontario- even Toronto- is part of that money that the Bills are making, and some or all of that money would go to Toronto. This, in and of itself, probably wouldn't be a death sentence. However, the Bills are one of the receivers in the NFL's revenue-sharing, and a loss of revenue due to a team in Toronto would mean the Bills would require even more support from the other owners. And they're just not willing to deal with it.

You're making reference to the 10-15% of the Ralph that comes down from So. Ontario........Bills fans are Bills fans, I really don't think a guy from Hamilton who has been going to the Ralph for years would drop everything the moment a TO club is announced.

There's about the same % of Canadian Sabre fans at Sabre home games and they haven't left in droves to support the Leafs.

[WeAreArthurMoates]

Re: Peter King: High Level NFL Officials Wish for a 5/3 BFLO/Toronto Split

Luckily this isn't Goodell saying it. It's the money rich owners and team officals from Dallas, New York, Boston who are spearheading this.