Goodell Meets With Schumer, Wilson To Discuss Future Of Bills

Goodell Meets With Senator, Bills Owner About Team's Future In Buffalo

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) yesterday "struck an upbeat tone after a morning meeting" with Bills Owner Ralph Wilson about the Bills Toronto Series and the team's future in Buffalo, according to Mark Gaughan of the BUFFALO NEWS. Schumer, after the meeting, said that Buffalo's "best hope for strengthening the Bills is increasing the franchise's revenue." Schumer: "The best assurance you can have long term is to build up a strong franchise, and that's happening now. The ticket sales are much, much better. If you involve the Toronto market, making sure the Bills stay in Buffalo, you've added 4 million people to the market." Goodell said of the meeting, "The nature of the conversation was to find out how the Bills are doing and fortunately that's good news. The effort here to regionalize the team further into Southern Ontario and into Toronto has been a very big success for the team." Schumer added, "We talked about (the fact) there's going to be new decisions in the league about small-market teams -- revenue sharing -- that comes up next year" (BUFFALO NEWS, 7/29).

BILL OF HEALTH? Goodell has "every confidence that the plan to play three preseason and five regular-season games in Toronto through the 2012 season will do nothing but help the Bills thrive in Buffalo." Schumer added, "Any way we can expand the market in Buffalo and bring people from Canada -- not just from the Hamilton and southeast Ontario market but the Toronto market -- into Ralph Wilson Stadium to see the Bills, the better off it is for the Bills" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 7/29). Goodell yesterday at Bills training camp indicated that fans "ought to be happy with what they still have because the business model doesn't work well enough unless games get outsourced." Goodell: "It's been very successful in making the Bills stronger in Western New York, which is our effort here ... by expanding the region in which they draw fans. It's bringing more people down from Toronto. They're spending more money in Western New York. So far it's been a great success." But ESPN.com's Tim Graham wrote the "sad part of the Bills' situation is that this is about as favorable as their economic outlook will be without losing more games." As the NFL "juggernaut churns onward, small-market Buffalo will lag farther behind" (ESPN.com, 7/28).