DON’T GET ME STARTED would love to get a lasso and hog-tie the tongue of Dallas owner Jerry Jones. Make no mistake about it, his professed positive comments on singer Jon Bon Jovi, tied to the sale of the Buffalo Bills and move them to Toronto, might likely have Jones lobbying the other owners to cast their votes on the sale in his favor.
Jones indicated that the NFL needs to look at ways to grow financially and there will be a debate about placing a franchise in Toronto. He mentions population and other items that would lead fans to think he favors a move to Toronto.
Message to Jerry Jones: “Hey, cowboy, stick to trying to get your team back into the playoffs and stay out of Buffalo.” As for the Bills estate, let’s hope that Ralph Wilson’s decades of ownership and keeping the team in Western New York be respected.”
Toronto first and foremost is a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey city. Add the Raptors and Blue Jays plus a Canadian football team and you have enough sports to capture the imagination of the fans. They didn’t support the one game a year the Bills played in that northern city. They might be like Los Angeles as a city that didn’t support the NFL, having lost two teams because of a lack of attendance. No television since games were not sold out.
Also remember, the Leafs and Raptors play a lot of games on Sunday. Imagine the Leafs playing a Sunday 1 p.m. game in Oct/Nov/or Dec against a 1 p.m. NFL game in Toronto. The Leafs would get the audience.
And speaking of audience, what in the world would happen to television. Does Toronto or Canada audience factor in the U.S. ratings? Would the NFL prevent television from airing a Toronto home game in Western New York because it didn’t sell out? Remember there’s places outside of Syracuse that could not receive Bills non-sold out games. So a television decision would really cause a debate. If the media giant in Toronto gets the bid, it might be conceivable that CBC might want to send the game throughout Canada every week. The television debate between CBC, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN might prove very interesting.
“Hey Jones, have you taken notice of that since you use the word “population” in your comments?” Let’s not have Jerry Jones dictate how the league should vote, though I suspect that he might lobby for the Toronto connection with Bon Jovi.
A move to Toronto might mean that there would be a lot of payments to be made like $400 million to local Western New York for moving the team before 2020; perhaps some $200 million to the NFL for replacing a team to another city. That’s around $600 million a new owner might have to fork over before a shovel hits the dirt for a new stadium that would cost the team and Toronto taxpayers some $1 Billion. I doubt that Bon Jovi’s worth of around $275 million measures up to some of the locals that want to keep the team in Buffalo. .
According to what I’ve read, the Bills estate isn’t bound by any term that says, “Take the highest bid,” That’s why Mary Wilson (part of the group that will determine the next owner) will remember Wilson’s love of keeping the team in Western New York and award it to those that will
So Ms. Wilson, Littman and others…..send a message to Jerry Jones that he will have no bearing on who they sell the team to despite any lobbying to move the team (needing 24 votes.) All of a sudden I’m rooting for Donald Trump with Jim Kelly involved, Terry Pegula, Bob Rich, Tom Golisano on Don’t Get Me Started.
Filed under: Don't Get Me Started
Tagged with: Buffalo Bills, Jerry Jones
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