Deadspin
The Buffalo Bills will cross the border and play five regular season games in Toronto over the next five seasons, becoming the first NFL team to play annual games outside of the U.S. And for their trouble, they'll receive $78 million. Did the French and Indian War accomplish nothing?
The Toronto group is using the eight-game series to show the city can support its own NFL franchise. The Bills sought the agreement to generate additional revenues by expanding their market to Canada's largest city and financial capital, a 90-minute drive from Buffalo. Ticket prices for the games in Toronto have not yet been released, but are expected to average more than $100 at a facility with a 54,000 seating capacity for football.
That would be the Rogers Centre, of course. The Toronto group, Rogers Communications, has already made 100,000 reservations for the series, with the idea being, I suppose, that they can sell that many tickets. So what does this mean for Buffalo fans? Over at the Bills blog Buffalo Rumblings, a commenter says: "This money is also known as the 'Bill Cowher Fund' ". Maybe, but this deal could also insure that the team won't be relocating anytime soon.
Bills To Be Paid $78 Million To Play Eight Games In Toronto [CBS Sporstline]
Comments
Coming soon: The Toronto Seahawks
Pfft, Jokes on Buffalo. That's $78 million Canadian.
/stuck in 2002
Pittsburgh to Buffalo is not even a lateral move.
" Did the French and Indian War accomplish nothing?"
It caused the British to tax the shit out of the colonies to the point that they declared independence.
Also, it was the beginning of the "french are pussies" meme, which is something we should all be thankful for.
@josereyes.theroof wishes to perform Tim Harris's sack-dance...: Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Hell all seem on the same tier to me.
Francophile bastards.
But what about the Argonauts???
/CFL is awesome
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
/From Buffalo
@FEAST: More likely, Bidwill will move the Cardinals, again.
Toronto Cardinals? Confusing everyone since 1920.
I thought they were going to play some of their games in Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
We all know where this is leading: the Oklahoma City Bills.
Book it.
Unless your name is the Toronto Maple Leafs, you have to be successful to do good sports business here. A 7-9 NFL team won't last more than a few years.
@Jehovahs Witness Protection Program: This is still a sad day, regardless of whether you think it will make them more likely to stay in Buffalo, some of us up here know the truth.
With any luck, I'll be gone before they are.
In a related move that shocked the FCC, Toronto announced its new home broadcast team of Terrence & Phillip.
James Fenimore Cooper approves.
Jim Kelly just accidentally kicked the Grey Cup over Niagra Falls.
The better historical reference is really the War of 1812, in the course of which both Toronto and Buffalo were burned to the ground, just the Bills have burned every hope of triumph or glory in the hearts of their fans to ashes.
As Buffalonian, you'd expect me to get worked up about this, but frankly I think it's about time someone else got to share in the soul-ripping psychic agony of being Bills fans.
So much for Norwood hiding in Canada. They're going to find him yet.
$78 million? pfft...that's like a looney seventy-five in Canadian dollars
I say LET EM LEAVE!
/Packers fan stuck in Western New York
Seriously, Bills fans are a bunch of wildly delusional douchebags*. It only makes sense to move them to Canada, where they have plenty of those.
*289 excepted.
@Sh!tShow: The Kids In The Hall could be sideline reporters. They could crush J. P. Losman's head!!!
@DennyCrane: This is going to kill the CFL, and that is sad for a recent three down convert like myself.
It's cool, but I still can't believe they named their stadium after Mr. Rogers.
But will they have a terrifying, 40-foot Scott Norwood robot?
Buffalo Buffalo (Fuck Tornoto) Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo (Fuck Tornoto) Buffalo Buffalo.
Is it still dramatically correct with explitive laced parentheses included?
"Ticket prices...are expected to average more than $100..."
I said this in an email to Will after the Masters, and I think it's stil relevant - how is it that Golf ($50 for a major/playoff event day pass) is the unquestioned sport of plutocrats, but football ($100, for 4 hours of a midseason Bills game) is the sport of Joe Sixpack?
/Huge Football fan
/Equally Huge Golf fan.
You should just all be happy we're not on strike anymore.
/off to Bennigan's
//no, wait, there ARE no Bennigan's in Canada! Joke's on us...
@Afino:
Where's the asterisk excepting me from the Toronto group of wildly delusional douchebags?
/still thinks the Leafs will win the Cup in his lifetime
@Secret Identity: A lifetime is a long time. We still have a chance. We're just 2 or 3 good drafts, a coach, a GM, a president and an ownership group away.... fuck.
@The Trying Too Hard To Look Young Face: Yeah, but it'll be a slow death, and hasn't the CFL been dying a slow death since the '80s?
Nothing to worry about, see?
@Arriaga_II:
Actually with the downward slide of the US America dollar, $4.50 CDN will be a fortune to the average US American in a few years.
I need to call my dad.
Shit, with the exchange rates the way they are, the Bills won't be able to do any shopping in Toronto. And isn't that what NFL road trips are about, shopping till you drop?
@Skeets:
Son?
@The Trying Too Hard To Look Young Face: No, it isn't. The sky is not falling. Financially, six of eight CFL teams made money last year, Ottawa is back in two more years and a team in the Maritimes might finally be on the horizon.
Once the shine wears off, and the wannabe Americans in the GTA figure out they're paying more for Bills games than they would be if they drove over the border and scalped a ticket,this too shall pass.
If you aren't the Leafs, Toronto is a fair weather town.
Incidentally, those 100,000 reserved tickets that sound so pretty in a press release? No one has put a dime of money down on them yet. Let's see how badly the sticker shock effects people once they find out they have to pony up for all eight games at once for a minimum of $100 per ticket.
/counting the days until I can piss on Paul Godfrey's grave.
@Secret Identity:
Didn't realize you were a Bills fan too.
Sorry about that, carry on.
@David Hume: Until attacking a fellow golfer with your 5-iron becomes legal, this shall remain the same.
@Secret Identity: Umm, how long are you planning to live?
/Canucks fan settling in for the long haul
Posts like this make me wonder how there hasn't been a Toronto Pants Party yet.
@Secret Identity: Yeah.... like you could get a dozen or so tickets to a Jays or Argos game.
What? Only 5,000 people at a game? Really?!
@Secret Identity: I'll be there in June for the series with the Cubs, could that be a possible date/event?
@Agamemnon Busmalis: I'm actually going to the Saturday game in that series.
/already working on a clever Fuck-u-dome sign
@Scoops: Let's keep in touch then. I'll look up my seat # for Saturday and shout at you in the next few days or whatever.
/just getting ready to watch tonight's game
//sigh
@Agamemnon Busmalis: Cool, cool. I'm like nine rows back, behind the visitors' (1B) dugout.
The Nunavut Marlins.
Comment on this post
Reply by EmailLogin with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?