Is the Team Going to Move?

As another NFL season has come to a conclusion, I will say as a result of the Super Bowl, I still see the professional football league as "an anything can happen" league. Though prior to the game I was annoyed it was strictly a northeast contest, the New York Giants made the game exciting and may have pulled off the biggest Cinderella upset in bowl history, or at least recent history. The Jets' win in Super Bowl III may have been bigger overall, but it was before my time. There was also a San Francisco/ Cincinnati game in the late 80s that was exciting until the end, yet both of those teams were contenders for the game. The Giants started this year acting like the outcasted stepchild. However, as a result of my summer travels to the Toronto/ Niagara/ Buffalo area, another event at the end of the season has triggered my interest. And that is the Buffalo Bills announcing they would be playing a preseason game every other year and a regular season every year in Toronto until at least 2012. Bills' owner Ralph Wilson says this is to allow the Bills' fan base across the border in the Hamilton-Toronto vicinities to have more opportunities to view them play, yet after seeing the area, I wonder if there is more to it.

Toronto is one of the larger cities in the world and still growing; the largest city in Canada; and the one Canadian city that has proven it can handle a franchise in both the NBA and Major League Baseball. Other Canadian cities have lost their franchises to U.S. cities. The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team even won two straight World Series' titles in the 90s to the disgust of the American fans down south. It is overall a very clean city, and even though it does have its share of crime, you still feel safer in it than you do in a lot of American cities. It has a great sports facility in the Rogers Centre, formerly known as the Skydome, which will be the home away from home for the Bills in those Canadian contests. The combination dome/ open- air stadium does have the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League also playing in it, yet the CFL seasons begins and ends a lot sooner than the NFL's, so their shouldn't be a clash in scheduling. Yet I know I am not alone in wondering if the Buffalo ownership isn't looking at Toronto as something more than a temporary event.

The reasoning behind this curiosity is the economy of western New York state is in the pits. Standing in downtown Buffalo, it was almost spooky how empty the place was. The mall we parked at appeared to have died in the 80s and no remodeling had been done since to make it re-inviting. The only place that seemed to have any action was actually the library, and the city does have a nice one. Being a Missourian, I enjoyed the Mark Twain room in that facility. Yet I was about the only bookworm in my party so we didn't stay there long. The difference between the Canadian and the American side of the border in this region is even more clear when you reach Niagara Falls. The Canadians have truly outdone themselves in marketing the falls, and have made a dazzling little town on their side with high rise hotels overlooking the water, and of course, casinos to also occupy the guests. It is a fun side to be on. As for the U.S. side, the place looks old. Again, it almost seemed to tell me its glory days were in the 70s and 80s, and it almost seemed to lack any hope. I even heard a lady walking beside the water pointing to the Canadian side and saying she wanted to go there. In this particular journey, I was bringing Canadian relatives across to see the U.S. for the first time, yet I don't truly feel I gave them a great representation of it with the Buffalo area. Could the Bills be looking to flee the city eventually? Could the NFL find its way to Toronto, just like baseball and hoops did?

I do feel for the Buffalo fans. A fellow Chiefs fan once told me about how kind and hospitable they were to them during a Chiefs/Bills AFC title game in the 90s, even though they were in town to cheer for the opposition. They were giving them advice on when to get to the stadium and how to avoid traffic. The fan told me he didn't think the people of Kansas City, in the "warm and friendly" midwest would give the opposing fans that kind of positive reception. Professional sports is about money, and although I am sure the Buffalo faithful still fills the stadium each Sunday, Toronto would be a gold mine to the team and the league. Is this a prelude to a permanent move to the Canadian market? Or can the team be shared by both cities?

In the end, I just hope whatever happens, there can be a way to avoid ill feelings, because the cities involved in this arrangement are still neighboring cities, despite an international crossing between them. And they both enjoy the Bills.