Toronto - more regular season and no preseason games?!?

[bbb]

Russ Brandon was just on WGR and said the report of more regular season games in Toronto was not accurate and said they will NOT play more than one regular season game per season in Toronto.

 

Thanks. After you said this, I just listened to it in the audio vault and indeed he says no more than one regular season game per season. This is huge...............I have the feeling they will not take any preseason, but we're kind of used to that by now.

[biglukes]

Thanks. After you said this, I just listened to it in the audio vault and indeed he says no more than one regular season game per season. This is huge...............I have the feeling they will not take any preseason, but we're kind of used to that by now.

The most interesting thing, to me anyways, about that story in Sunday's paper touting the possibility of more games in Toronto was that it was written by Mark Gaughan. I've normally found him to be pretty reliable, so it sounds like somebody gave him some bad intel and he jumped the gun by printing it.

[bbb]

The most interesting thing, to me anyways, about that story in Sunday's paper touting the possibility of more games in Toronto was that it was written by Mark Gaughan. I've normally found him to be pretty reliable, so it sounds like somebody gave him some bad intel and he jumped the gun by printing it.

 

Yeah, I thought of that, too. I think it was MrRags earlier in this thread who said look at the source, and I defended Gaughan. He's almost always right! I would much rather have him be wrong, and me be wrong in defending him, on this one, though!

 

I hope indeed he is wrong and that Russ wasn't doing some sly linguistic thing.

[Lv-Bills]

So what you are saying is that Bills fans wait to the very last possible minute to buy game tickets? We beat the Pats and no one thinks "Hey, I should go buy a ticket"?

 

PTR

Yes Russ, that's exactly what people are saying. You can't recover 12 years of crappy football, and a terrible owner by beating New England. When season tickets were at about 37,000, tickets aren't scarce. Also, it's not like people haven't seen a fast start and monumental slide before as well (see Trent Edwards).

 

Games aren't cheap for people anymore, even if the Bills prices are low. Some people can't blindly spend $300 to take a family of four to a Bills game, especially when they suck, and the owner is pretty much non-existant.

 

The Pittsburgh PIrates have had 19 losing seasons in a row. It looks like they are going on 20. They started great last year and collapsed. However, when they started fast and were in it around the all star break, people were buying tickets like they were Steeler games, yet, full didn't believe. The fans were right. Games were empty at the end of the year.

 

The Pirates started incredibly well again this year. The Pirates started selling out almost all of their home games around mid-season, and then they collapsed again this year. Games are now empty again. It's not that people don't like the Pirates, they just don;'t want to shell out money to a crappy ownership group that they don't believe in.

 

The NFL is a different beast now than it was in the early 90's. If the Bills look competent and start winning, their season ticket sales wil go up in the mid 50's., there will be a scarcity of tickets, and all games will sell out easily.

 

Until then, fans that have been jacked around by terrible leadership have no reason to believe in the crap the Bills have put them through for better part of decade. Period.

 

And all of this from a season ticket from VA, Section 135, Row 17, two seats. However, just because I have season tickets doesn't mean that I ridicule fans that don't. I actually admire them for having the strength to not have them, while I largely have thrown away my money at an organization that doens't seem to care much about their fans year after year, for the last decade or so.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Lv-Bills

[BillsWatch]

Russ Brandon was just on WGR and said the report of more regular season games in Toronto was not accurate and said they will NOT play more than one regular season game per season in Toronto.

 

Did he say anything regarding playoff games

[bbb]

Did he say anything regarding playoff games

 

Jeremy actually asked him that and Russ was like Come on. He didn't say no, but he made it sound ridiculous that it was even a question (maybe because we never play playoff games - LOL)

[mead107]

Brandon said no today. Said story is false.

[mrags]

Yeah, I thought of that, too. I think it was MrRags earlier in this thread who said look at the source, and I defended Gaughan. He's almost always right! I would much rather have him be wrong, and me be wrong in defending him, on this one, though!

 

I hope indeed he is wrong and that Russ wasn't doing some sly linguistic thing.

I'll take this as a compliment and an apology. I did and still do agree with your point. The fact is MG is generally pretty good. I was simply stating that the media in general is rediculous and constantly stirs up non factual stories to sell papers, increase tv ratings, etc... Just like how the national media loves the Jets and so forth. That's all I was saying. In the end, I don't care about being right, I'm just glad I was right about this particular subject and it means were not giving up any additional games. Thank you Russ.

Edited September 19, 2012 by mrags

[papazoid]

lost in the original mark gaughan article was info that would debunk the "ralph is cheap" crowd:

 

Last week's column reported the current Bills' payroll stood ninth in cash spending and 10th in total contract values of all the players this year.

This week, radio station 1500 ESPN in Minneapolis reported it had cumulative player spending data for the seven-year period from 2005 to 2011. This was actual money spent on players.

The Bills, surprisingly, ranked 14th in the NFL, at $744 million.

The data shows there was not a sure-fire link between spending and winning. Pittsburgh was 32nd over those seven years, at $621 million. The Steelers won two Super Bowls and lost another over that span. The Giants, who won in 2007 and 2011, ranked 30th at $695 million.

Spending doesn't hurt, however. Super Bowl winners Indianapolis, New Orleans and Green Bay all were in the top 10 and so was perennial contender Baltimore. Here are the rankings, with the dollars in millions:

1. Minnesota, $808. 2. Oakland, $797. 3. Indianapolis, $786. 4. New Orleans, $782. 5. San Diego, $771. 6. Green Bay, $768. 7. Dallas, $760. 8. Houston, $760. 9. Miami, $760. 10. Baltimore, $750.

11. Cleveland $748. 12. Arizona, $747. 13. Atlanta, $746. 14. Buffalo, $744. 15. Jacksonville $743. 16. New England, $742. 17. Philadelphia, $741. 18. Carolina, $738. 19. St. Louis, 737. 20. Washington, $736.

21. Chicago, $733. 22. Cincinnati, $732. 23. Seattle, $731. 24. Tennessee, $719. 25. San Francisco, $718. 26. Kansas City, $717. 27. N.Y. Jets, $703. 28. Denver, $701. 29. Detroit, $679. 30. N.Y. Giants, $695. 31. Tampa $682. 32. Pittsburgh, $621.

 

ralph is NOT cheap.....

[spartacus]

The man speaks the truth. The narrative is already written though. I could type up and post the "Bills moving" article tonight. We all know how it would sound.

 

The NFL is doing a LOT behind the scenes with the LA stadium situation. The NFL is determined to have a team or two there sooner rather than later.

 

IF the Bills move, the NFL is not going to "waste" the negative PR and backlash of a relocation on Toronto; they will go to LA. That you can bank on.

 

pure speculation - and wrong to boot

The NFL only wants the illusion of moving a team to LA to extort stadium deals from the locals

 

They make much more money without a team there since they are not bound to show a crappy team on TV, or worse have games blacked out

[bbb]

I'll take this as a compliment and an apology. I did and still do agree with your point. The fact is MG is generally pretty good. I was simply stating that the media in general is rediculous and constantly stirs up non factual stories to sell papers, increase tv ratings, etc... Just like how the national media loves the Jets and so forth. That's all I was saying. In the end, I don't care about being right, I'm just glad I was right about this particular subject and it means were not giving up any additional games. Thank you Russ.

 

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

If the Bills and Rogers Media can renegotiate the existing five year deal so that Toronto could give back a preseason game, there is no reason why the Bills can't sign a new five year deal, wait until the state puts up the money for the stadium improvements, and then renegotiate the new deal to give Toronto another regular season game. I'm not saying the Bills will do that, but it strikes me as a possibility.

 

When the Bills asked Erie County for permission to play 1 regular season game per year in Toronto, the County said yes and got nothing in return. Given how eager Erie County is to sign a 1 year lease extension, Ralph has no reason to think that the County would resist taking it up to 2 games later. He just has to make the same "regionalization to save the franchise" argument that already worked once.

 

If the state buys the Bills argument that the state will eventually get back the $220 million or so from the NY state income taxes that the Bills players pay, moving one more regular season game to Toronto would have very little impact on the NY state income taxes paid by those players. One extra game in Toronto only moves about 2 "duty days" outside the state each year.

 

Just my 2 rubles.

[machine gun kelly]

_{The posts were right, that we can't sell out our current games. Bottom line is unless you want to call them the LA Bills, we need Toronto. That's it. Goodell loves regionalization so if we can pull from Toronto, Rochester, and Hamilton CA, we can most likely maintain a viable position in the Buffalo area.}

 

_{Didn't Greeen Bay play two games in Milwaukee, for 30 years?}

[mrags]

_{Didn't Greeen Bay play two games in Milwaukee, for 30 years?}

Without looking it up and at the risk of soundingliene a young idiot, I thought they played half thier games out of thier own state for a while.

Edited September 20, 2012 by mrags

[papazoid]

If the Bills and Rogers Media can renegotiate the existing five year deal so that Toronto could give back a preseason game, there is no reason why the Bills can't sign a new five year deal, wait until the state puts up the money for the stadium improvements, and then renegotiate the new deal to give Toronto another regular season game. I'm not saying the Bills will do that, but it strikes me as a possibility.

 

When the Bills asked Erie County for permission to play 1 regular season game per year in Toronto, the County said yes and got nothing in return. Given how eager Erie County is to sign a 1 year lease extension, Ralph has no reason to think that the County would resist taking it up to 2 games later. He just has to make the same "regionalization to save the franchise" argument that already worked once.

 

If the state buys the Bills argument that the state will eventually get back the $220 million or so from the NY state income taxes that the Bills players pay, moving one more regular season game to Toronto would have very little impact on the NY state income taxes paid by those players. One extra game in Toronto only moves about 2 "duty days" outside the state each year.

 

Just my 2 rubles.

 

i dont think toronto would get a 2nd game until the nfl goes to an 18 game regular season schedule (9 home).....which will eventually happen.

 

Without looking it up and at the risk of soundingliene a young idiot, I thought they played half thier games out of thier own state for a while.

 

 

The Packers played part of their home slate in Milwaukee starting in 1933, including two to three home games each year in Milwaukee's County Stadium from 1953 to 1994.

[mrags]

 

 

i dont think toronto would get a 2nd game until the nfl goes to an 18 game regular season schedule (9 home).....which will eventually happen.

 

 

 

 

The Packers played part of their home slate in Milwaukee starting in 1933, including two to three home games each year in Milwaukee's County Stadium from 1953 to 1994.

I agree about the 18 game schedule and another game in Toronto. IF... The Bills don't have a new owner at that time. My guess is a new owner will probably kill the Toronto deal after whatever contract theyvare in, expires.

 

Thanks for the info on the Packers. I thought there was more to it myself. Maybe it was the Vikings or something. I don't remember. But I like the part I read about how the NFL threatened to move the Packers if they didn't build or fix thier stadium up to standards. Just makes me feel more comfortable that this fight had been going on for many many years with many many teams.