After this weekends fiasco that some may call "Sunday Night Football" it was made evident that Toronto is not a Bills city, you could also say that it's not a NFL city, the best way to put it is, Toronto is a football city. The city of Toronto has an illustrious history from the burning of York, Upper Canada Rebellion, Maple Leaf Gardens, the Santa Claus Parade and now the football disaster. Not only did Sunday's Bills-Dolphins game let down fans but putting together such a more showing but it was also a financial let down. Rogers believed that they would be able to sell tickets as a package and everything would be smooth sailing, when that didn't happen they put tickets on sale for a game at a time and they still did not sell. 24-hours prior to the game it was possible to go online to http://www.ticketmaster.com/ and buy a group of seven tickets in a row. The idea that had originally surfaced when the games in Toronto were first announced was that the Buffalo Bills would soon become the Toronto Bills and everyone would be joyous and jolly. What Bills management found out though was, even though Toronto's closest NFL city is Buffalo, Toronto residents show no loyal ship to the team just down the QEW. This is why the NFL will not be coming to Toronto on a permanent basis, as much as Toronto loves football and the NFL.
A new NFL franchise estimated to be worth $1-billion US and for a Toronto group to pony up that kind of money, the group would have to include some major buyers. Well there is such a group and from here on out I will refer to them as the super group. The super group includes former CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays Paul Godfrey, Toronto Maple Leafs Chairman Larry Tanenbaum and former head of Rogers Communication Ted Rogers. When the group originally got together to try and make this happen it convinced some cynics like Stephen Brunt to have a second thought on the idea. "We now have a group that actually has the money to bring an NFL team to Toronto, and that wasn’t the case before.” The super group have reportedly already tried to purchase one National Football League franchise. ESPN's Peter King reported that a Canadian group offered New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson $1-billion US for the team, only to have the offer rejected. It was not the full super group that were part in bringing the Bills to town, as Tanenbaum has made sure to let people know that he had no part in the fiasco, it was mainly set up by Ted Rogers. Unfortunately for the group the recent loss of Ted Rogers will negatively effect their chances of bringing a team to Toronto because Rogers Communications as a company may choose not to stay involved with the hunt. The super group will also suffer with the loss of Rogers because the stadium they had wished to use in the Rogers Centre which is currently not up to par with NFL standards and because the Canada's own Toronto Argonauts currently lease the stadium.
CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon believes all signs point to an NFL team being placed in Toronto, but this doesn't mean it will happen. "All of the tea leaves are indicating that it's shifting," Cohon said. "You have guys like Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum and Phil Lind, very powerful Canadians who are interested; you have an owner in Ralph Wilson in Buffalo who has said, 'When I die, my estate will sell the franchise'; you have the Bills interested in marking Toronto as part of their territory, which I believe is indication that, 'Hey, this our territory, we don't want another NFL team coming here. So I think there's all these things lining up as an indication that it could happen. So I'm not sticking my head in the sand. That would be the worst thing for the CFL commissioner to do. So I think there's a real potential." So why would one draw up the conclusion of Toronto not getting an NFL team with the commissioner of the CFL so sure that they will. An NFL team in Toronto would have to come to some agreement with the CFL and I don't believe that that would be the case. The NFL would be so arrogant to think that they would be able to just come right in to Toronto and Canada and take over without having to pay any infringement costs. If the NFL were to come to Canada, Canadian government would make sure that the CFL would be properly taken care of.
Canadian government would not allow for an NFL team to come to Canada for many reasons. Toronto Mayor David Miller as already stated that City of Toronto would not put fourth any compensation towards bringing a team to Toronto. “If private people want to raise a billion dollars for the NFL franchise, good for them,” Miller said. “But the health of the CFL is very important to this city and to the country and I don’t want to see anything happen that’s going to risk this league." I believe Stephen Brunt put it best in his article from the Globe and Mail; "Quietly, behind the scenes, the CFL has been sending out a subtle but pointed message. Its game is motherhood. Its game has history and tradition. Its game comes wrapped in the flag." Simply put the CFL is Canada's game and the NFL in Canada would destroy whats left of an already fragile game.
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