Why the Bills Should Stay in Buffalo

There's been a lot of talk, both before and after the Buffalo Bills signed a deal with Ted Rogers to play a series of home games at the Skydome, about the NFL team moving to Toronto. The deal appears to be a win-win for both sides; the Bills will receive about $78 million, a huge sum for a financially-struggling team in a small market, over five years to play a handful of regular-season and preseason games north of the border. With Bills owner Ralph Wilson planning to put the team up for sale when he either gets too old or dies (he is 92 years old), it seems pretty obvious that the team will move to Toronto and become the first non-American NFL franchise.

Except it's not obvious at all and shouldn't happen.

Some people seem to believe that Toronto just "deserves" a team, a rather absurd notion. Why exactly does Toronto deserve an NFL team? Surely, Los Angeles has more of a right to one than Toronto anyway? Proponents cite that Toronto has a history of supporting big American major league teams - like the Raptors and Blue Jays. While this is true, it's only true to a certain extent, the point being that, like most other cities, Toronto only really gets behind their teams when they're winning (the exception being hockey, of course). When the Jays were winning World Series and reaching the playoffs in the 90s, their attendance skyrocketed. Today they're doing pretty decently, but not great, and talk has begun of whether they should continue to stay in Toronto.

This kind of fairweather support is enough to generate income for teams in the NBA and MLB, but NFL fans tend to sell-out their stadiums every week even if the team is terrible. NFL higher-ups wouldn't want a Toronto franchise to reflect poorly upon them with lots of empty seats - they already have that in Buffalo. Some of the early games in Toronto also haven't seemed to display any kind of fervent desire to have the NFL in the city, either. If the Bills moved, as well, Toronto would be inheriting a terrible team that is famous for being terrible - they famously lost 4 Super Bowls in a row in the 90s and haven't made the playoffs in years. Would fans show up for that?

As well, the Skydome, while seating over 50,000, would immediately be the smallest stadium in the league. A Toronto NFL team would have to build a bigger, expensive stadium that Rogers may be unwilling to do, having already shelled out the tens of millions required to buy the franchise and paid the $78 million to get the team to play a few games in Toronto. What if the Canadian dollar's worth goes down against the U.S. dollar? Salaries will be much more expensive, on top of the other expenses required to maintain a competitive team. In a small stadium and a probably terrible team, would Toronto have the finances to have a viable NFL team?

For the television market, which is a massive source of money for the NFL, ratings for the CFL - supposedly a vastly inferior product - have exploded and consistently get higher ratings in Canada than for NFL games. If the NFL were going to expand, it would have to compete with a stronger CFL for the football market, something which it doesn't really have in the U.S.

It's not like Toronto is filled to the brim with would-be football fans just dying to get any football team in town, either. Toronto is home to the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, one of the oldest professional clubs in North America and the most successful sports team by far in Toronto with 15 Grey Cups. With a storied franchise whose history is long and successful, and more trophies than they can shake a stick at, the Argonauts should be raking in the dough from all those rabid Toronto football fans. Except the Argonauts have faced financial difficulty as a result of low attendance and struggle to maintain relevance in an alleged"crowded Toronto sports scene". Clearly, football fans in Toronto are fewer than need to be for an NFL team, otherwise they would be packing the Skydome for Argonauts games. It's also unclear what would happen to the Argonauts should Toronto receive an NFL team, something that no one in Toronto apparently cares about.

Unless there's another reason why Toronto seems to want an NFL team but doesn't care to support its own CFL team. The answer would appear to be, as with many other Toronto-related issues, a question of reputation. Toronto wants to be counted among the big, awesome American cities like New York and Chicago. They want to be included in conversations about the big-time NFL in cities all over America (maybe even the world?!). They want "Toronto" to be splayed across the New York Times, discussed on ESPN. According to this view, the CFL and Canada are merely holding back the city from gaining its rightful place among the elite (whatever that is) in the rest of North America, a.k.a. the U.S.

For financial, practical, and historical reasons this should not happen. The Bills are a deeply-cared about part of the Buffalo community. Yes, they may be perpetual losers, but they are Buffalo's perpetual losers, damn it. The city has suffered enough hardship over the years, and is currently a shadow of its former self. Having heartbreaking sports teams is the only thing that makes the city not feel so crappy about being so crappy. To take that away just doesn't make sense, for any reason or for anyone involved.