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RF365: Buffalo/Toronto should be two-team rivalry, not one-team dispute
http://www.realfootball365.com/index.php/articles/bills/11837
Buffalo/Toronto should be two-team rivalry, not one-team dispute
Tuesday, July 01, 2008 | Posted by Anthony Bialy
Bills fans are always skeptical regarding positive opinions about the team remaining in Buffalo, but the one man who offers, and just offered, more than wild speculation is the NFL kingpin. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s speech in Chautauqua, N.Y., last week where he reiterated the company line, namely that he sees the Bills staying put with the Toronto series helping ensure that goal, should placate fans for now, even if the ultimate solution of dueling franchises is still distant.
Ultimately, the Canada games are just a way to get the neighbors involved in the same interests. There’s been much made of the fact that the Bills northern contests will be the first time an NFL team has played regularly out of the United States. But that has more to do with Buffalo resting on the border than anything: The closest huge city is bound to be in a foreign country when residents can take a wrong turn and end up at the Prime Minister’s Igloo, childhood home of John Labatt, or the Mountie Fortress.
By comparison, Green Bay is about 120 miles from Milwaukee, farther than the trip from Buffalo to Toronto, and nobody fretted about the Packers moving for all the decades that the team played multiple games in Wisconsin’s most prominent city. While Green Bay’s oddball ownership situation keeps them from being shifted on a whim by an indifferent billionaire, the truth is that those away home games served the same purpose, namely attracting fans who live farther than a long walk away from the regular stadium...............
~The Answer
Buffalo/Toronto should be two-team rivalry, not one-team dispute
Tuesday, July 01, 2008 | Posted by Anthony Bialy
Bills fans are always skeptical regarding positive opinions about the team remaining in Buffalo, but the one man who offers, and just offered, more than wild speculation is the NFL kingpin. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s speech in Chautauqua, N.Y., last week where he reiterated the company line, namely that he sees the Bills staying put with the Toronto series helping ensure that goal, should placate fans for now, even if the ultimate solution of dueling franchises is still distant.
Ultimately, the Canada games are just a way to get the neighbors involved in the same interests. There’s been much made of the fact that the Bills northern contests will be the first time an NFL team has played regularly out of the United States. But that has more to do with Buffalo resting on the border than anything: The closest huge city is bound to be in a foreign country when residents can take a wrong turn and end up at the Prime Minister’s Igloo, childhood home of John Labatt, or the Mountie Fortress.
By comparison, Green Bay is about 120 miles from Milwaukee, farther than the trip from Buffalo to Toronto, and nobody fretted about the Packers moving for all the decades that the team played multiple games in Wisconsin’s most prominent city. While Green Bay’s oddball ownership situation keeps them from being shifted on a whim by an indifferent billionaire, the truth is that those away home games served the same purpose, namely attracting fans who live farther than a long walk away from the regular stadium...............
~The Answer
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