MVN - Most Valuable Network

Bills Could Play “Home” Game in Europe

The National Football League and Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson have not been getting along so well recently.

Last April, the League’s owners approved the new CBA (collective bargaining agreement), despite votes against it from Wilson and Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown.

Wilson publicly stated all year that the NFL did not plan to start up revenue sharing to help small market teams like Buffalo.

Well the relationship between the two sides may be getting worse.

Yesterday the NFL named Buffalo as one of six possible teams that could host a regular season game in either England or Germany next season.

The other teams could include Kansas City, New Orleans, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle.

The league also ruled out Mexico and Canada for possible locations. The precedent of international games began in the 2005 season when Arizona and San Francisco played a game in Mexico City.  The game made sense because both teams are relatively close to the Mexican border.

Both teams also were struggling with home game attendance.

The team released a statement Monday saying:

“While the NFL makes the decisions regarding the playing schedule, the Bills certainly are supportive of the international regular-season game initiative.  If our team is selected to participate it would be great recognition for our city in an international forum, not to mention the tremendous experience it would serve for our players, coaches and staff.”

Who are they kidding?

It would take the team away from the die-hard fans of Western New York.  It would be a slap in the face to the team and its fans.

That is 80,000 tickets worth of money, plus the concessions, parking and other items the team profits from on game day. Wilson and GM Marv Levy should be furious.

How can you count a game at a neutral site a home game?  Why would anyone in either country root for Buffalo?  Most of America does not even know where in New York the city is.

Though the international exposure would be nice, this would hurt the Bills much more than help.

I have always suspected the league does not like small market teams. If Buffalo is chosen, the team’s future could be in jeopardy.

The NFL is expected to announce the decision next week.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Around the league. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.