Dissapointing Attendance in T.O.

The Bills threat never amounted to much??? are you serious.
It’s the only team that will fill the Rogers Centre. Over 50,000 fans will pay an average of $150 this year, plus the huge corporate advertising and the private suites etc. The Bills generate more in revenue from one game than the Argos will generate in 9 home games!!
It’s just a matter of time before the Bills or another NFL team are playing there full time.

Matter of time, hmmm, yup, time is counting down since it was first mentioned back in around 1989 think it was when the RC, then known as the Skydome, was opened. Back then it was "immiment", now it's a "matter of time". I wonder what it'll be in another 10 years, "just around the corner". :lol:

can someone put this ignorant fool out of his misery?

NEARLY filled the rogers centre will giveaways and marching bands, perhaps.

yea, the bills did so well in toronto, that rogers lost a fortune on the deal, cancelled a game they already purchased and are possibly not renewing the deal.
oh, so well. :roll:

ted rogers could rise from the dead and tell you to your face, that, the bills series in toronto was a huge money loser, and you will STILL say otherwise.

It’s good to know some things never change: sun comes up in the east, ducks quack, mikem insisting the NFL is coming to Toronto.

An NFL team in Toronto would at first become a novelty and the hip new event in town. But after a few straight losing seasons people would start losing interest fast. Just like with the Jay, Argos, Raptors and anything else that isn’t the Leafs. Eventually the NFL would be looking to relocate the franchise somewhere down South.

mike, speaking of "imminent", looks like the Bills will be stadying in Buffalo for at least 8-10 years unless someone wants to spend lots of money over the price of the Bills (I don't think Rogers would really want to do that :wink: ) to break the lease during this time.

Farina goes viral on the Buffalo Bills

The Niagara Falls Reporter’s senior editor, Tony Farina, discovered through his sources that the Buffalo Bills, Erie County and New York State had come to a preliminary “meeting of the minds? and what should follow soon is an 8 – 10 year lease to “keep? the Bills in Western New York, at least for the immediate future. The Bills current lease expires July 31.

[url=http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Stories/2012/Nov6/FarinaGoesViral.html]http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Sto ... Viral.html[/url]

As I posted earlier I think that an NFL team in Toronto would just be fad that would wane really quickly. But the biggest problem is that it might also disrupt the momentum the CFL has gained in the last few years. Gone are the days when the Cats were only pulling in 14000 a game. Out West the attendance and interest is very high and expansion to Ottawa and possibly other Eastern cities is on the horizon. I don’t know if the CFL would have to fold but they’re would probably be a loss of at least a couple of teams. I think the Toronto-centric NFL lobbyists don’t give a rat’s arse how they would also be affecting CFL happy provinces like Saskatchewan and Manitoba if the league folded. It’s not really fair to those places since they would never get an NFL team to replace their beloved Riders or Bombers. The NFL experiment would likely fail but not before it would damage the CFL.

I think the NFL was looking at TO as a gimme, they were so sure of the fans would fall over themselves for Bills tix. However, based on the perfunctory coverage the Bills-in-TO game gets in the media (except for the FAN590), it's looking like anything but a sure thing now. The NFL might even go overseas before they put a team here.

The other side of the coin is that I finally sense a renewed grassroots interest in the Argos, especially the younger crowd. I haven't been able to say that for many, many years. Partly, it's attributable to the NHL lockout and the rest of the city's teams being so pathetic but I think that if the Argos can even get to the GC game, next season could be a real turning point for the franchise.

An Argo-Cat fan

I think a lot of NFL fans in Toronto will be kind of relieved, if it’s true that the Bills stay in Buffalo - it will mean that Toronto will probably get another NFL team or an expansion team. It would be a great rivalry between Buffalo and Toronto.

Unlike others on here I don’t see the NFL as a threat. It’s two different audiences, and by the time the NFL starts up the CFL season is half over. The people that are flocking to the Rogers Centre to watch the Bills games will NEVER go to an Argos game. And it seems from the reaction to CFL fans that they wouldn’t go to the Rogers Centre to watch the Bills.
Let Torontonians have their NFL team, they have MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA it seems that it’s logical that why would get the other “Big League”

As for going overseas, that’s not going to happen. Can you imagine the disadvantage that a team in London would have long long road trips, time changes and an audience that hasn’t grown up with the game the way that North Americans have.
It is a bit of a fad and the “in thing” in London to go to a yearly “gridiron game”.
I just can’t see the problem. Eventually it will happen for Toronto. It may take 8 to 10 years, I thought that the CFL in Ottawa would back sooner but it will be 10 years from the date that the Gades folded.

Earl - you missed the later story in the Niagara Falls paper - “save the Bills is on hold” it’s not going to happen now especially after the Sandy problem for NY

[url=http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Stories/2012/Nov13/BillsLose.html]http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Sto ... sLose.html[/url]

LMAO !

The "Bills in Toronto" deal is all about protecting their regional rights & maximizing franchise value. It maintains justifiable activity within what they have determined as their geographic/regional territory/footprint. This is very much like the Toronto Maple Leafs and any discussion about an expansion franchise or an existing franchise coming into their market. Anyone coming in has to pay MLSE to compensate. Ralph Wilson & The Bills are doing the same thing with games at Rogers Centre. If someone convinces the NFL to grant them an expansion franchise in Southern Ontario/Toronto, Ralph Wilson or any future owner of the Bills will get compensated. Also, market value assessment which includes the southern Ontario marketplace, will be included in determining the franchise value of the Bills in any future discussions.

In Regard to folks being disappointed at the attendance for the ESF , lets put this all in prospective , two years ago the Cats played host to the Argos (the hated Argos) in the ESF , the attendance was 27000 and change on a rainy day . Pretty good in my mind, but not a sell out as it should have been --oh well, still adequate though and we all accepted it .----------so this year the Argos play host to a westen team which is not a big draw at best of times , on a beautiful day with the dome closed , they still drew 2000 less fans then we drew for a hated rival two years prior..............??? Now I am aware of the population differences but the fact of the matter is the semi finals in the CFL are a difficult draw at the best of times , that is just the way it is and has been for eternity , no matter where the games are played in the CFL , just think how many fans would be in the stand in BC if Hamilton was to cross over and play out there , would they get 25000? Not sure they would .

What are the Toronto Maple Leafs? Can someone fill me in on this, I am completely unfamiliar with this sequence of words that have popped up several times in this thread…are they some kind of Canadian joke or something? :?

The CFL has been long and dead in Toronto for a while, Braley will sell the Argos soon after he cashes the cheque from hosting the GC, what will be next for the argos in terms of ownership? Will they ever get their own stadium as cool and as intimate as IWS2?

Maybe the Cats can buy the RC from Rogers and use it for Grey Cups and lease it to the Blue Jays once Braley sells the Argos or puts them into purgatory. :wink:

No kidding!

The baseball world is talking about this big trade with the Jays which makes them a contender next year. I should imagine that they will sell a few more season tickets next year. I don’t know what happened with the Rogers plan to configure the Rogers Centre permanently for the baseball season, that was supposed to have an impact on the Argos.

The rumour is one more year and then Ricky Ray and team head to Ottawa :smiley:
The Ottawa team gets to keep the “R” on their helmets …“R goes”, kind of catchy.

My buddy lives in Chicago and he said they are looking at a team in England (!!! WTF !!!). As he stated, the NFL already has too many teams and is not worth the ticket prices.

BTW- I tried (key word there) watching an NFL game last week but got bored quickly, especially when the QB was able to step away from center, walk over to the RB who was over on the left too far and tell him to move over to the right, then walk back and look at the D to call his play. SNORE.

Yeah tabbyfan, I love all football but too many teams, I can't really get into it. The best way I find to watch the NFL is just watch the highlights on Monday morning, works great, lots of great plays to choose from all the games played and you don't even have to watch any of them.! :thup: :wink:

Now the playoffs I don't mind watching at least half games for on PVR when it suits me and the SB the whole game. As I say, it's gridiron, not the best gridiron rule wise compared with Canadian football but still gridiron, and with some great athletes no question.

mike, where did you hear the rumour about the Argos and Ottawa? Makes sense and honestly, I'd love Ottawa to get on the best possible foot from the get go since they built a Canadian football stadium there, or are building to be more accurate. :thup:
Certainly makes Toronto a bit more expendable seeing they don't have such a stadium in the city and aren't likely to do so. That being said, awesome the 100th is being played where it started in Toronto with a team there with the oldest pro name in pro sports, continuous, in North America. Read that on the GC train, nice. But after the 100th, move them to Ottawa just might be what the doctor ordered. :wink: If Toronto then wants a team in the future, build a Canadian football stadium.

With the Argos going to Ottawa it makes the Cats that much more of a prize in SO as the only team. Really, are 3 teams necessary in Ontario? No, keep the 2 teams with the new stadiums that are football specific, and move the other one. :thup:

Ricky Ray in Ottawa is good for the team and organization there, no question. As I say, they deserve it with building a new stadium.

The argos are not going anywhere ...

but i hope it happens really ..would KILL THE CATS ONE AND ONLY BIG GAME DAY would that shut ya up then earl

No. :wink:

Pondering the purpose Toronto serves in CFL

[i]In every CBA negotiation I participated in, Toronto was always brought up as the CFL's road block to prosperity. The game-day experience has been most accurately compared to playing football in a shopping mall, with just enough chatter and buzz to make the Rogers Centre feel awkward. It is a 50-50 proposition when you see someone on the street wearing Argonaut gear, that they work or play for the football team. The only businessperson with the stones to keep this franchise afloat already owns another team, and a former league commissioner once referred to the Greater Toronto Area squad as the anchor of the league.
...
Whether the Argonauts defeat the Alouettes next weekend and become the home team in the host city -- which the league must be hoping for -- if this celebration and resurrection of football competency doesn't entice the masses, what will? Or will the Grey Cup game, out of necessity, become an annual rite of passage in Toronto, since for the moment, it is the only game that sells out due to an influx of out-of-town fans?

[/i]

[url=http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/pondering-the-purpose-toronto-serves-in-cfl-179061581.html]http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 61581.html[/url]