The Buffalo News Western New Yorkers should hope Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. has a bunch of good years left in him. It would be great for Buffalo, in fact, if the 88-year-old Wilson hit the century mark. Wishful thinking? Who knows? But that's an obvious conclusion to draw from Sunday's front-page interview with the head of the city's NFL franchise. Wilson reiterated what he has told The News at least four times in the past decade that the Bills will be sold when he dies. This is a change from about a year ago, when Wilson left the door open a crack to the prospect of leaving the team to his wife. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He didn't say nothing about moving to another town.
Toronto can't and won't be able to support the team as good as Western New York can. Buffalo and the entire Western NY area it represents including Rochester, the southern NY tier, the Finger Lakes, Syracuse, North Western Pennsylvania, and Southern Ontario come together to fill a 74,00 seat stadium and support the Bills. During the SB losing run the stadium sat 80,000 and was sold out for a decade. The population may continue to decline in Buffalo yet support for the team remains consistent. There is a deep rooted history and culture of football that exists in Buffalo that doesn't in Toronto. Sure, they have the CFL but TO has a deep rooted culture of hockey first, not football. People live and die for the Leafs first, other sports second. In Buffalo it's Bills first, Sabres second. If the team were to move to TO there would be an initial "can't do no wrong" grace period of fan support. After that, if the team isn't wining the support won't be there. Remember when the Blue Jays were World Series champs? They sold out SkyDome. Now, they can't get 30,000 for a game. Why? Because they only support winners in a city where there's a lot more going on than just the game. Buffalo has football, hockey, and not much else culture wide. Toronto is a huge city with a wealth of culture. Some compare it to New York City in its diversity. There a lot more things to do there. The point? WNY need football a lot more than Toronto does. Football will eventually become an afterthought just like the World Series Champion Jays have become. Is that better for the NFL? To have a rich billionaire Canadian owner in Canada's biggest city hosting an NFL game in the year 2012 to a stadium of 40,000 fans just like an old Cardinals games at Sun Devil Stadium. Last year Buffalo averaged 67,000 for a 7 win team. That's more than SD, Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Indy.
how can ya argue with that........why dont he just leave the team toa gran child or something witht no move claause
