The operating revenue comparison makes me dizzy. I don't get it. Why would they compare the payment to operating revenue? The thing you have to compare it to is total revenues to salary cap. This amount goes toward total revenue, not operating revenue. The Bills have to pay their players out of that $9.5 million. Are people that braindead that they can't do numbers anymore?
Let's see here: $9.75 million a game x 16 games is $156 million total revenues if every game were in Toronto.
So, is that really more than the Bills make in Buffalo? Hard to believe when you consider their total revenues in 2006 were $176 million. With revs rising at 10% each year (as the cap has) that would put 2008 revenues at $212 million. Let's say that Bills revs rise slower than that while the league pitches in a higher amount (but we can't assume that is true because Wilson wasn't complaining about the revenue picture now but only in the future when Buffalo will be maxed out and unable to maintain operating revenues relative to the cap. Wilson said the Bills are not maxed out yet but will be by the end of the current CBA). So, conservatively, let's say the Bills pull in $200 million in revenues each year. Hmmm, at Buffalo, they only pull in about $6 to 7 million per game.
So, where is the extra money coming from? TV revenues? 32 teams split $1.25 billion a year. That's $40 million right there. Say another $5 million off selling the rights to NFL signatures for properties, etc.
$45 million from TV, etc.
$110 from tickets, parking, concessions...
$5 million from the taxpayers in Buffalo
How much does the league chip into Buffalo then?
A whopping $40 million, it looks like.
With this Toronto million, that's an extra $3 million, potentially more if people buy luxury boxes, could be another $1 million. Sell the rights to the name of the stadium, another $500k there.
Now you've maxed out revs in Buffalo at $204.5 million.
So, back to Toronto.
Can Toronto beat that current Buffalo number without relying on the league's $40 million?
I have my doubts.
Capacity for football at the Rogers Centre is 50,000 seats.
So, 50,000 at $100 a pop = $5 million.
Add in concessions, parking, luxury boxes, and you begin to realize that the Rogers people may actually be taking a bath by giving the Bills almost $10 million per.
Now, a new nightmare: what happens when the Canadian dollar traditionally falls to .75 of the US dollar as it has in the past.
Suddenly, your total revenues don't look so good, and suddenly you have a Toronto Raptors situation on your hand.
Buffalo fans won't travel to Toronto (too much traffic, border problems with passports, people will be pissed off), but Toronto is a megalopolis so they won't have trouble selling tickets. But still, they'll have to raise the price of tix if the Canadian dollar ever drops.