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Your new NFL franchise (almost): the Toronto Bills

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by DocTalk, Apr 29, 2008.

  1. ServeItUp

    ServeItUp Active Member

    This is an interesting point. Not that the Bills are competing for the striped-suit award with the Bengals but I wonder how this will affect the off-field activities of some players. What if a player has a warrant or something and he's seen playing in Canada?
     
  2. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    When was the last time the NFL's lowest payroll won the Super Bowl?

    Last year, the Patriots had the highest payroll, followed by the Giants and Cowboys. Six of the top eight payrolls made the playoffs. The Patriots were annually among the highest payrolls (if not the top) when they were racking up Super Bowl victories.

    The Dolphins, Lions, Jets, Chiefs and Bills had the bottom five payrolls last year and went a combined 23-57. All five spent at least $40 million less than the third-highest payroll team (the Cowboys).
     
  3. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    What he said.
     
  4. Hammer Pants

    Hammer Pants Active Member

    I live in the South, and I detest cold weather to the point where I've considered having Irish coffee on many mornings (but I've never done it ... I like my job).
     
  5. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I can see the Toronto situation work if they make it like the Packers did when they played in Milwaukee for all those years. Give Toronto one game a year, and one preseason game, and it can work for Buffalo.
     
  6. Brooklyn Bridge

    Brooklyn Bridge Well-Known Member

    If the Bills are looking for a new stadium, how is the city of Buffalo expected to pay for it? I might be wrong, but isn't Buffalo a typcial Northeastern industrial city--Lost its manufacturing base, declining population, high taxes? Its not exactly a place like Atlanta or Phoenix, somwhere thousands of people a year are moving to.
     
  7. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    If the Bills want a new stadium Buffalo will give them one. They aren't going to risk losing that team. Buffalo kids may have to go to school in the parking lot but the Bills will get a stadium.
     
  8. Brooklyn Bridge

    Brooklyn Bridge Well-Known Member

    It seems like the good people of Buffalo love America then.
     
  9. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Green Bay is far colder than Buffalo. However, RWS is located in a very windy area (not that far off the lake) and is also subject to the lake-effect snow squalls that hit the southtowns, like Orchard Park, and generally miss the city of Buffalo itself.

    The stadium isn't located in the city of Buffalo and thus is administered by Eric County. Any stadium improvents, or new stadium, would be paid for by the residents of the entire county, not just the city of Buffalo residents, which make up about 30 percent (300,000 of 1 million) of Erie County's population. The state would also probably kick in a nice chunk of change so as not to lose the state's lone remaining professional football team.

    If they got creative, they could try to get neighboring Niagara County to foot some of the bill.

    BUt it will not be the stadium that will determine the Bills' future in Buffalo. Their future there will be determined by the inheritance tax situation after Ralph Wilson finally dies. If some out-of-town interest wants to buy the team, and thus significantly limit the heir's tax liability, the Bills are toast.

    No one in Buffalo has that kind of cash. There are those in Toronto that do; probably Los Angeles and San Antonio and Orlando, as well.

    And RW has said many times he has no intentions of emulating Ewing Kauffman and turning the franchise over to a local trust, or whatever Kauffman did when he died, to make sure the Royals could remain in Kansas City after he died, with local ownership.

    The fans of Western New York helped turn Ralph Wilson's original 50,000 investment into a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. THey are among the most loyal in the NFL, and Buffalo is regularly among the leaders in attendance. The Bills are the heart and soul of the area.

    But he'll eventually dump on them if he has to because business is business.

    (And the problem with the Buffalo public school system is systemic; poor leadership and financial mismanagement. Not a shortage of cash because the Buffalo Bills are sucking away money that otherwise would transform Grover Cleveland, Lafayette, East, Riverside, Bennett, Hutch Tech, Buffalo Arts and Burgard high schools into Choate and Northfield Mount Hermon).
     
  10. Brooklyn Bridge

    Brooklyn Bridge Well-Known Member

    Just a question, if the money isn't found for a new stadium, would Tortonto be a logical replacement? Its only 90 minutes away and while it is in Canada, I would guess its better than going to LA or whatever other city wants to cough up money for an NFL team. what other major cities would take an NFL team aside from LA and maybe Portland, but I don't even think that area is big enough.
     
  11. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    According to 2003 census figures, there are 2.2 million people in the Portland metro area. It's already bigger than existing NFL markets Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Nashville, Buffalo, New Orleans and Green Bay, and growing at a faster rate.

    Portland's problem is no viable stadium in the next five years at the minimum.
     
  12. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    As noted by micro, it's not going to matter if the folks who buy the team from Ralph's family have L.A. in their eyes.

    I asked this on another Bills thread, but is Jim Kelly really an option? I've heard some legendary tales of his cheapness, but maybe he's just been hoarding his cash to buy the Bills.
     
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