Bills To Play Bears in Toronto While Argos Play in Montreal

David Naylor of the Globe and Mail reports that the Buffalo Bills will play the Chicago Bears in Toronto on Nov 7/10. The Argos are playing in Montreal that same day. It therefore appears as though the Bills and/or Rogers Communications are now moving into a new marketing phase of making direct attempts to poach CFL fans.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/bears-to-play-bills-in-toronto/article1540701/]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/f ... le1540701/[/url]

great!! the Als usually play their games at 1PM and I assume the Bills game will be at 4. Should be a good football day!
My criticism is the fact that the CFL decides to go head to head with NFL on a sunday.

Well it's the CFL's fault for being rude to the NFL and being poor business men and working something out, so the NFL did what they did and scrapped the idea of having the game after the Grey Cup.

I dont think it's that big of a deal anyways because both league have their own fan bases and the CFL wont even be playing this year anyways lol (i'm going to just go ahead and assume that untill a deal is worked out)

Pretty sure CFL attendance has gone up every yr. that the NFL has tried to steal a piece of the Canadian market. The more Canadians see how average the bills are, they begin to realize the CFL has a pretty good product at less than half the price of an NFL ticket.
I say bring the Bills back to Hamilton so the ticats can give them another woopin like they did in the early 60's.
Go Cats Go!

Who cares, they can play this game on Grey Cup day for all I care.

Who cares is right, this is just a last ditch effort by Rogers to cut their loses. The Bills in Toronto is a failure and is just running its course ... so let it finish out and then say BYE BYE Bills !!!!!

What the heck, the Argos will be out of contention by then anyway, so nobody will be watching the game except Als fans. And as far as trying to sell the NFL in Trawna, what could be potentialy more boring than the Bills and Da Bears.

As i told everyone on the CFL thread , do not worry will not effect the ratings for the argo's game, the bills in toronto is like watching paint dry, and if the argos are competative they will be the number 1 focus that day , unless the leafs are playing too.

Time for Argo tailagte parties at Rogers Centre with TVs showing the Argo game.

I am a HARDCORE Chicago Bears fan...

I still would'nt pay to see them play in that overrated convertable to see the 4 time Super Bowl Chumps from Stinkalo...

I'd rather drive the 10 hours to watch them beat the tar out of the chumps at Soldier Field on real grass,anyway!!!

Oskee Wee Wee

and

Bear Down,Chicago Bears!!!!

Welder, I'm like that with the Vikings and the same for me if they played at the RC. Just a no go but Go Vikes Go, they are my NFL team.

Has anyone noticed how the NFL and their main broadcasters are staying as far away from this Frankenstein program Rogers and the Bills have built?. Its a black eye on their league. One of their franchise is in such dire need of money that they have to go and play in a little Canadian stadium and compete with the little old CFL.

How do you spin that in to a good thing to Americans ?

All in all while a major annoyance. I think in the long run it has been a good thing. NFL will have some serious doubts about awarding a franchise to anyone in Toronto. There is nothing that even remotely supports the argument. Well there is the BlueJays record crowds... huh wait. With the economic mood in southern Ontario (Detroit north) those losers will have to build the billion dollar stadium with private money. With the Canadian dollar high again, the bums will make another pitch and go away again...

Anywhere in Canada if a state-of-the-art NFL type stadium is built, a team will come here. But in this economy to get such a stadium built just isn't going to happen I don't think, huge risk and imagine the price of tickets and as we've seen in Toronto, the price of tickets is an issue, at least for sports outside of hockey and maybe even hockey isn't immune.

Also interesting is the absence of Phil Lind commenting in the papers lately about the Bills games. He was all over it when it was announced way back when and happy to be interviewed. Now it's like he's a ghost, I keep Googling him with the Bills games but very little. He seems to be distancing himself from his own hobby project. Strange, well, maybe not so strange I guess as it's turned out.

I feel sorry for the Bills exposing themselves as needing Canadian welfare type money to stay alive in Buffalo. It's too bad, Buffalo is a very nice city doesn't really deserve this tag. I hope the Bills survive there for many decades to come.

Yup, sometimes the best advertisement for the CFL is having to endure Bills football.

I don't really like to look at that way slo, I want to see the Bills successful, I've enjoyed going to games there in the past and the whole stadium and game atmosphere is a great experience for NFL football.

I go to CFL games to also enjoy the football of course but for a bit of a different experience and both are valued in my books. What's not valued is going to an NFL game in Canada, I neither need this nor want it unless it helped out the CFL in some direct way.

The Argos will be history anyway in a couple of seasons! How can you maintain attendance between 20 to 24,000 in one of the biggest metropolitan areas in North America?

That's why I keep saying the new Pan Am stadium should be in the Burlington/Aldershot area where you have access from 403/QEW/HYW2/GO STATION. One team in Southern Ontario where there is great access from West Toronto.
Bob Young has lost $30million plus - I'm sure one team in the area could easily attract 30,000 fans a game and allow him to finally make some money.
A team in Ottawa and we could maintain 8 healthy teams and great rivalry between Ottawa and the Southern Ontario Ticats, or the Metro Tiger Cats?

If Cynamon and Sokolowski could have got that stadium built at York I would disagree but that's history as they say and the Argos at the Rogers Centre will eventually lead to the end of the team I believe. Without the Argos, could a TigerCat team based out of a Rheem site survive? I don't know but I do believe in the CFL's best interests that a stadium located as you say jaybird would or could be an excellent location for southern Ontario's team. That being said, what is the future of the Blue Jays I wonder? Can they stay healthy at the Rogers Centre? What happens to the RC then?

So many questions, if only we had a crystal ball into the future. :?

Re: the Bills and the Bears at the Rogers Centre....

Yawn. :thdn:

I do agree with you – and I want to see the Bills successful in Buffalo. But at the same time, I think when Canadians are force-fed NFL football, they are better able to appreciate what we have already. When it’s right here in our own backyard, some are better able to see the hype for what it is…hype. And, so far, the games have been duds.

I’m not saying I’ve never seen an exciting NFL game. I most certainly have. But, I also know that people want what they don’t have. And when they do finally have it (Bills-in-Toronto being pretty close) they sometimes realize it’s not all it’s cracke up to be.

If the Argos could get their siht together and put up a half decent season – battling with us and juice up the rivalry – it would sure help sell CFL football to the skeptics within the GTA. Right now, I think people in Toronto find all sports options, including the Bills, equally unpalatable.

Since when are Canadians “Force-fed NFL football” ??? You use “force fed” and “unpalatble”??? You hungry or something?
Seems to me there is a lot of interest in the NFL in Canada a lot of Canadians watching it, huge rating for the super bowl and the NFL playoffs. You should be worried about the CFL in Toronto. If Toronto which is one of the largest markets in North America can only muster of 20,000 fans or so on a regular basis to a CFL game there is something wrong. I’m sure an NFL team would easily double that attendance if there was a franchise in Toronto.

I’ve seen a lot of exciting CFL games and I love it. But just as many exciting NFL games espeically over the last few years, I don’t know if its the rule changes in the NFL or just more passing and excitement.
We’ve seen the Argos with some great teams, with Damon Allen taking them to the Grey Cup in 2004 and Doug Flutie back in the 90s, the attendance just doesn’t go up even when they have a good year. Toronto just doesn’t care.
As someone said above - lets get a stable team in Ottawa and a stable team in Hamilton, let Toronto have their NFL team and lets enjoy both leagues - its all about football.