Yes, it only makes sense to move the Bills to Toronto where NFL fans there could care less about them and the current fans in Buffalo don't want to make the trip to TO for just one game a year, never mind 8. :roll: Meanwhile London, England has showcased itself to be more of a NFL city than Toronto. Bigger stadium, sell more seats even with having to watch Tampa Bay 2 of the last 4 years, better crowd than the dead-mosphere in the Skydome, and much less griping from players having to play there than in Toronto. The NFL has shown way more interest in having a team there than in Toronto. If anything, the Bills in Toronto series has only shown that 1. the Bills made a shrewd deal to fatten their bottom line financially with little to no impact on their gate despite screwing their fans out of one home game a year, and 2. the apathy for the bills games only serves to send the NFL a message that Toronto may not be a good city for the NFL. Protest all you want that the city will support a team of its own and not the Bills, but there's no just no evidence for it. The NFL approves the game mainly for the Bills to get the fat Rogers cheque, they won't allow a full time move there if they can't guarantee it to be a financial success.
People are used to paying cheap NFL tickets in Buffalo and I can understand that. Why when I want to watch the NFL, living here in Hamilton, would I pay more money to see the Bills play in some sort of concocted football stadium when I can go to The Ralph in a dedicated built for football stadium with the football atmosphere? It makes no sense.
Rogers is just waiting around until the team comes for sale and they can get it on the cheap hoping the Bills family, after Ralph passes on, wants to unload it to the first person who can write a cheque for at least a decent amount. They don't want the team from my understanding. And then they are hoping to tie in an Olympic bid to get a new football stadium built, is my guess.
NFL rules/policy, DO NOT allow Corporations to purchase a NFL team, So sorry Toronto :lol:
Nice! Fixed it for ya!
Yes, the NFL was so impressed with the Bills in T.O series, that Toronto did not even get mentioned in the NFL Commissioner State of the union address at the Super Bowl.With as little as 18,000 tickets really sold for each game. Rogers papering the house, to ensure the game is not black out and the NFL being told that there is 250,000 people on a waiting list for tickets, why would they.The NFL is so political that know sitting Senator or Governor of any State, especially a Governor for NY is going to allow a team to leave and go to a foreign country. Take the pressure of a Canadian city losing a NHL team to the States and times that pressure by 10
So what is the purpose of the Bills in Toronto series then? Another factor probably is that Rogers wants to try to appear "with it" for the major leagues with the young, "hip" professionals (quoting Pelley or someone from Rogers in the Globe indicating that CFL fans in Toronto aren't that) they so desire to please in the Toronto downtown area and this is branding as well for these people sticking with Rogers for cable, wireless and that, so it's fine to lose money on this beast. Who knows. And I think I'm coming to the conclusion who cares what Rogers does, maybe we are giving them more power than need be discussing this. :?
Why would they need a new stadium? The Rogers centre was built to fit a CFL sized stadium, end zones reconfigured, and the hotel area could be re-built with seats.
Even if they didn’t renovate the stadium it’s a non-issue, Toronto fans have proven they will pay more for NFL tickets than fans in Buffalo. A 50,000 crowd in Toronto is equivalent to a 75k plus crowd in Buffalo.
The big money maker in the NFL is the “private suites” they just can’t sell them in Buffalo because of the lack of a corporate sector. Toronto is full of well healed individuals and a huge corporate sector.
So having a 60k plus stadium is a non-starter
Mike, you know Goodell has indicated Toronto has "stadium issues", I can find the link if you want, he made reference to this a few years ago at a SB. But I will say I think the NFL doesn't have many options left for cities in North America, especially the US where the economy is tanking and not good. So while Toronto's stadium is piece of crap IMHO for football as it is baseball first (even at that crap for baseball for this guy), and the NFL hates those stadiums, they want football specific stadia, it does have lots of corporate suites as you say and even with the freebies given out for the Bills series as we all know, if Rogers puts in the highest bid for the Bills when they come on market I do think they will have the team. Buffalo is a city on the decline and I don't see how they can get a new stadium or anyone that will match what Rogers will probably offer.
Right, which is why they have had to give thousands of tickets away for free every game and have had to “readjust” the tiket prices (read - cut ticket prices). And why this year with a good Seahawks team with a breakout rookie leading them as the visitor they only has 40,770 in attendance and have failed to sellout each of the regular season games? Toronto fans willing to pay more for their seats? They sold out on the $48 cheap seats but could not sell out the higher end lower bowl seats at a price of $85-235. Meanwhile at home the Bills had an average attendance of 64, 950. They had over 43,000 season ticket holders alone. I have no idea where you get the idea that fans in Toronto are happy to pay for NFL tickets when they’ve only been able to sell the cheap seats and have had to paper the stadium with 10-15K giveaways including a lot of the higher priced seats. The only people happy to pay for having the NFL in Toronto are Rogers. Even with more options for corporate support Toronto has done nothing to distinguish itself as a premier destination for a future NFL team.
If Rogers does get the Bills and the Bills continue their losing tradition , what happens to their value in the TO market , the NFL , considering the backlash of Rogers constant dumpimg on the CFL.
Will the rest of Canada turn on Rogers media?
I know it's all hypathical - just asking
Corporations can not purchase NFL teams, every team in the NFL is owned by an individual ! :rockin:
Corporations are now people in the US dontcha know 
The only franchise not owned by an individual is Green Bay, they are owned by the community!
Under the NFL Policy Rogers can not purchase a NFL team. So Sad Too bad : :thup:
Rogers can now focus their attention on losing even more money on the one game a year at the worst stadium in the World :lol:
Will the rest of Canada turn on Rogers media?
gem, exactly how are people going to turn on them even if they don’t particularly like the persona of Rogers, which I don’t? If you like their wireless products and service, you’ll use them and if you like their cable products you’ll use them. For cable you don’t have an option in your area except to go Bell or bunny ears or antennae. In terms of sports, if you want to watch what they have on for an evening compared with what’s on on other channels, you watch them.
For myself with Rogers taking over my provider Shaw, I will seriously look at Bell for cable and internet and phone, er Fibe, if Rogers peeves me off. I don’t do wireless for phone but there are other options there like Wind for example.
Rogers can diss the CFL and bring all the Bills stuff but bottom line right now, I use cable and internet and a land based phone. Rogers is taking over Shaw, they already have me on this so to speak. Their media division like Sportsnet is smaller potatoes really. That is easy for me to turn off, since they don’t carry what I like best, the CFL and with hockey and baseball and NFL and basketball, I can get enough on other networks.
Around 5 years ago no question you could get away with just Tsn as it would have most of the main programs now thats really not the case now for the sports fan you need Tsn and Sportsnet.