Once upon a time this may have been the case, but today I highly doubt it. Toronto already has legions of NFL fans, and while it is indeed possible that might kill the Argos, it also has the (IMO equally possible) possibility of massively growing it. The CFL already acts as a funnel of many players (and some front office staff) to the NFL, and while the NFL is more popular in Toronto and Vancouver, the CFL rules in the Western Provinces, and both the recently-reborn Ottawa CFL team and the Alouettes in Montreal are having little difficulties. Considering that and the fact that the CFL season is 2/3 over before the NFL kicks off, I highly, highly doubt the Bills moving to Toronto would wreck the CFL.
Beyond that, the most major problem for the Bills in Toronto is the lack of a suitable place to play. The Rogers Centre (where the Bills in Toronto series was played) is fine for exhibitions, but its too small for a permanent NFL team home - it's designed for baseball, and is smaller by nearly 10,000 seats than the smallest NFL stadium. Building a new stadium in Toronto would be tough owing to the NFL's unwillingness to allow owners to finance new stadiums. The new owner of the Bills in Toronto would have to build a new stadium, at a cost of a billion dollars or more, and considering how the province got burned on the Rogers Centre (which opened in 1989), public financing hasn't got a chance in hell.
So, a prospective Bills owner, in addition to dropping over a billion dollars on the team, also has to dumb that much again for a new stadium. If Toronto had won the 2008 Olympics, this idea might work by having the Bills reside in Olympic Stadium after the games, but without that push, the idea is a nonstarter for that idea alone. And that's before one also remembers that the NFL makes its money by TV contracts, and the Bills moving to Toronto almost certainly ends up being a net loss for TV ratings, which is NOT going to be accepted by the NFL, ever.
Once upon a time this may have been the case, but today I highly doubt it. Toronto already has legions of NFL fans, and while it is indeed possible that might kill the Argos, it also has the (IMO equally possible) possibility of massively growing it. The CFL already acts as a funnel of many players (and some front office staff) to the NFL, and while the NFL is more popular in Toronto and Vancouver, the CFL rules in the Western Provinces, and both the recently-reborn Ottawa CFL team and the Alouettes in Montreal are having little difficulties. Considering that and the fact that the CFL season is 2/3 over before the NFL kicks off, I highly, highly doubt the Bills moving to Toronto would wreck the CFL.
Beyond that, the most major problem for the Bills in Toronto is the lack of a suitable place to play. The Rogers Centre (where the Bills in Toronto series was played) is fine for exhibitions, but its too small for a permanent NFL team home - it's designed for baseball, and is smaller by nearly 10,000 seats than the smallest NFL stadium. Building a new stadium in Toronto would be tough owing to the NFL's unwillingness to allow owners to finance new stadiums. The new owner of the Bills in Toronto would have to build a new stadium, at a cost of a billion dollars or more, and considering how the province got burned on the Rogers Centre (which opened in 1989), public financing hasn't got a chance in hell.
So, a prospective Bills owner, in addition to dropping over a billion dollars on the team, also has to dumb that much again for a new stadium. If Toronto had won the 2008 Olympics, this idea might work by having the Bills reside in Olympic Stadium after the games, but without that push, the idea is a nonstarter for that idea alone. And that's before one also remembers that the NFL makes its money by TV contracts, and the Bills moving to Toronto almost certainly ends up being a net loss for TV ratings, which is NOT going to be accepted by the NFL, ever.
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Toronto Rough Riders (need the second nickname in Canada, each with its own spelling)
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Why would there be any move at all to keep them out? Canada never seemed to mind the Bluejays, Expos, Raptors and Grizzlies. Why would an NFL team be so controversial, especially since the CFL play arena football, they wouldn't be cutting into the same marketshare.
Or does this have to do with Canada not wanting the first NFL team from Canada to be the Bills? Because is so, I can sympathize![]()