Bills safe in Buffalo, but for how long?

In most of the measuring sticks for major cities, Buffalo is solidly outranked by Toronto and Los Angeles. It has less people, less land area, a smaller economy and fewer sports teams.

What Buffalo does currently have is its own National Football League team, the Buffalo Bills.

The question of whether or not it will continue to have that team is closely tied to the question of whether or not Toronto and Los Angeles will be successful in their own attempts to land a franchise.

For all the uncertainty currently surrounding the Bills’ future in Buffalo, the specific circumstances haven’t really changed much in the past five years or so. Ralph Wilson still owns the Bills and he still refuses to sell the team as long as he’s alive or to guarantee that the team will be sold to a Western New York-based owner after he’s gone, so the possibility still remains that the Bills could eventually move to Toronto or Los Angeles.

There are several potential candidates to keep the team in Buffalo. Former Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano, Hall of Fame Bills quarterback Jim Kelly and current Sabres owner Terry Pegula have all been linked to possible Bills ownership groups.

Jeffrey Gundlach, a Los Angeles-based hedge fund manager who grew up in Buffalo, has also expressed interest in purchasing the team, though his L.A. ties mean he wouldn’t be guaranteed to keep the team in Buffalo.

Another factor that could give Buffalo fans some optimism is that they’re far from the only team mentioned in relocation discussions.

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Matthew Warren, a writer for the Bills’ blog Buffalo Rumblings, feels that regardless of who the Bills’ next owner is, they – as well as fellow oft-rumored migrants Jacksonville – are only a couple of the teams on the potential moving list.

“The Minnesota Vikings’ lease is up in a year and despite recent announcements, they have no stadium deal in place,” Warren said. “The San Diego Chargers are also having attendance problems and problems with the city of San Diego. Both of those teams are more likely to relocate to Los Angeles than Jacksonville.”

While two separate attempts to build an NFL-ready stadium in the L.A. area are already underway, Toronto has done its part to remain in the conversation for a new team.

Since 2008, the Bills have played one preseason and one regular season home game at the Rogers Centre each season.

Additionally, as Mark Masters pointed out in an articLe for the National Post last month, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, city councilor Doug Ford, have recently been extremely outspoken about their desire for an NFL team in Toronto.

Strangely enough, Doug Ford even briefly mentioned the New Orleans Saints as candidates to move to Toronto, despite the Saints having made the playoffs three out of the last five seasons and regularly drawing solid crowds, before retracting his comments.

The Fords’ comments may not be all that helpful to the cause of NFL football in Canada, but they’ve certainly kept the subject on the front burner.

Yet, for all the recent talk about American football in Toronto, Warren argues that Canada’s largest city has far worse chances of actually landing an NFL franchise than L.A.

“L.A., without question, has a better shot than Toronto,” Warren said. “Roger Goodell has publicly made it a goal to get a team to L.A. … There are already stadium plans in L.A. with financing in line, sites with environmental studies done, and naming rights seemingly waiting to be purchased.”

“The only thing Toronto has going for it are the laundry list of teams that have left Los Angeles over the years.”

There is one factor that could be in favor of Toronto or L.A. as opposed to keeping the team in Buffalo, though, and that could be a new state-of-the-art stadium.

Ralph Wilson Stadium currently works for the Bills, but it’s not generally regarded as one of the league’s premiere venues. Replacing it doesn’t seem in the cards, either, as Warren said any attempts by future Bills owners to push for a new stadium would not bode well.

“I think a new stadium is the dumbest idea a new owner could do, especially if one person purchased the team outright,” Warren said. “Spending a billion dollars on an NFL franchise is enough spending for one day without funding an $800k stadium. The only reason the Bills make money is they don’t have a mortgage payment to make. It’s not like the state of NY or Erie County have the money to publicly fund the project, either.”

As of right now, there are other teams that seem more likely to head to L.A., but the Bills still probably remain Toronto’s best shot at an NFL team. The Bills in Toronto series has kept Toronto’s name in the NFL news. It has not, however, produced much of a fan response in Toronto itself.

The one part of the Bills in Toronto series that has been a notable success is in bringing in more Canadian fans and revenue, a very potentially lucrative new fan base for the Bills.

If Toronto can’t lure away the Bills, that’s probably as close to the NFL as it’s going to get. For the moment, Bills’ fans have at least some reason for optimism, but the questions around their team’s long-term future still remain.

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