Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills, has died at age 95. He was a great leader in the community, respected among his peers for his integrity, and, um... have we mourned long enough yet? Good, let's start the bidding and get this team out of here.
The elderly Wilson announced that upon his death, the Bills would be sold to the highest bidder, with no preference given to keeping the team in demographically unpromising Western New York. And that led to ghoulish speculation and strategizing about the team's future.
In Toronto, they're they're continuing to talk as if they are the leading candidate to receive the Bills. Frankly, I don't understand how you could think so. A big sticking point is the fact that the Rogers Centre is quite small compared to other NFL stadiums. (It would tie with Oakland for smallest stadium in the league.) The rebuttal to that has always been a claim the strong dollar and a rabid fanbase would allow them to make as much money out of a smaller stadium. Well, the dollar is no longer strong, and the enthusiasm of Toronto fans has been disproven by the Bills games that have been played in Toronto.
And that series of Bills games in Toronto is the mind-boggling thing about people hanging on to the Bills-in-Toronto dream. To my knowledge, it's unprecedented for a city to get a "test drive" of the sports franchise they want to adopt. The closest thing I can think of was when Oklahoma City got to temporarily host the New Orleans Hornets in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, then later became the new home of the Seattle Sonics. And in that case, the adopted team was popular in the temporary city.
When we had the fortune to see how Toronto reacts to the presence of the Bills, it wasn't promising. Even with a small stadium, they had difficulty selling all the seats. After seeing that, it's hard to believe anyone would still be interested in owning a team in Toronto.
I know, you can make the case that the public would feel greater ownership of the team if it's permanently part of the city. That may be, but remember that it's not a question of whether the Bills could be successful in Toronto. It's a question of whether they can pony up the cash to win the auction. When your proposal is built around doubt like that, you're not going to win against investors from American cities who know the franchise will be successful.
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