Your new NFL franchise (almost): the Toronto Bills

A few years back Rogers began sprucing up the 'dome (covering the grey facing with blue, renovating the first level concourse, which looks really nice) and there was talk to getting rid of the hotel and opening up that space for some views of downtown. Not exactly PNC Park or Camden or whatever as far as a view, it would let everyone look at the fab overpriced condos that have been built north of the 'dome.

I don't know what kind of business they do at the hotel, but it seems as if if the Windows retaurant in centre field is out of use (maybe on opening night and that's about it). It might be easier to get rid of that and put in seats below the video board. I wouldn't know how feasible it would be to gut that area for seats.

 

Well, Stephen Brunt pretty much nails it in his column today. Follow the money.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080430.brunt01/GSStory/GlobeSportsFootball/home

Here, the topic of ticket prices arises, a red herring if there ever was one.

Yep, they're going to be expensive. And, yep, Toronto is a great big city where all kinds of things are expensive. Mass affordability isn't the issue – it's whether there are 50,000 people willing to pay what Rogers Communications chief executive officer Ted Rogers is asking.

If there are, it doesn't really matter who can't pay the piper, and if there aren't, the organizers will have seriously misread the market – which, frankly, is hard to imagine.

And as Brunt points out, Toronto's the largest market in North America outside Los Angeles without an NFL franchise.

 

I'll raise you Mexico City.

 

How about Toronto is the largest NA market outside LA without an NFL franchise, excluding cities with an altitude of 1.5 miles above sea level and some of the worst air pollution on earth.

 

Not sure, but Toronto might have more working televisions as well, so it might be a larger television market.

 

Damn you and your facts, Simon.

 

Listen to the crickets ... children of the night. What sweet music they make.

 

If the Bills were smart, they'd build a stadium halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, right off the Thruway.
The Bills moved their training camp to the Rochester suburbs in an effort to draw more money from that area.
And incredibly, if the Bills don't sell out, the entire Syracuse TV market is blacked out, which includes Utica, which is 200 miles away.
Build it there and run a train from Syracuse to the stadium and you'd probably get another 10,000 season-ticket holders.
But since that won't happen, move them to Toronto since most Bills fans could make the 90-minute drive.

 

(1) It's tough to imagine Western New York (or the state as a whole) laying out $500 million or more for a football-only stadium. If they did, though, it certainly would need to be built east of Buffalo rather than south in order to accommodate the Rochester market a bit better. That by itself could cut 90 minutes each way off the tip to games.

(2) The train idea was tried in the late 1990s or early this decade. It was a nice novelty that fans might consider using just so they could do it once, but the inflexiblity of the system -- having to be at the train station at such and such a time and having only one chance to catch your ride home can be too restrictive. I'd rather drive in case we want to audible after games to go take in the Canadian Ballet or whatever.