Ralph Wilson is old and when he passes on, I think the family sells the team and the new owners will move to where they get the best deal. And with the NFL wanting a franchise in LA, that will be the place offering the most bucks.
As for the so-called Buffalo fan base, they don't go to the games in Buffalo, so why would they trek into Canada? Every home game last season, some business in Buffalo had to buy 2000 tickets to avoid the TV blackout rule. Most Buffalo fans who huff and puff about how great the fan base in Buffalo supports the team, leave outside of Western NY and never go to a game themselves, being content to watch it on Direct TV.
Toronto is simply a stop gap measure for Wilson to make some money, and as it was pointed out in another post, not to put into the team but to put into his pocket. I doubt new ownership would seriously consider moving the team there when greener pastures beckon.
That's crap--get your facts straight. I believe it may have been one game in December, when we were already out of the playoffs and they still sold out all their games last year I believe (with that one bit of assistance). For a city probably one-fifth the size of Boston, it's kind of funny that even when they go 3-13 , like they did a few years ago, they still sold about 40,000 season tickets the next season--compare that to the Pats selling a whopping 19,000 season tickets in 1992, which ain't that long ago. And in Buffalo with their low ticket prices average fans can at least afford to go to the game and don't get raped by their owner out of every last dime. Even if he had the market pricing power, for reasons somewhat described below, I don't think Ralph would do it.
All that said, I agree with some of the posters here that the writing is on the wall in Buffalo after Ralph passes on. He's pretty much said there's no such thing as a "hometown discount" being offered here and economically the team could make so much more money elsewhere. He's a hero in my eyes for keeping them there this long--I actually talked to him about that once at training camp, thanking him for keeping the team in WNY when he could have made 2-3 times as much money moving to LA, and he basically said, "Ohh, pshaww, what am I going to do, sit in my kitchen and count my money?" You have to like old school sometimes. He gets a lot of grief both here and in Buffalo, but I do find it funny that the owners always trotted out as the modern, with it guys (including yours) are only now coming around to realizing that Ralph and old Mike Brown were right about the CBA, but of course no one's giving them props on that now after ripping them mercilessly on that two years ago.
I agree with the poster above that the best Bills fans can hope for is a regionalization of the team south of Toronto, close enough to Buffalo to keep the fans there as well. The "Niagara Frontier" Bills is my choice for a name. I'd give Ted Rogers and Co. a better than 50% chance of making that a reality once Ralph passes (he's said he won't move the team while he's alive).
In the meantime, that $78 million (approx. $15 million a year for the 5 years) is nothing to sneeze at and should help keep the team competitive in the short term--I suspect that we'll see that money put to use a bit next year, or even this year to extend Evans and Crowell (our only big potential FAs next year, I'm glad to report).
PS As you'll see below, we were in the top 10 in attendance this past season and th e 71k below is about what the stadium holds, BTW--
Highest Average Attendance by NFL Team in 2007:
1) 88,090 - Washington Redskins
2) 78,731 - New York Giants
3) 77,107 - New York Jets
4) 76,777 - Kansas City Chiefs
5) 76,612 - Denver Broncos *
6) 73,403 - Carolina Panthers
7) 73,001 - Cleveland Browns
8 ) 72,229 - Miami Dolphins
9) 71,153 - Baltimore Ravens *
10) 71,055 - Buffalo Bills
