ROGER GOODELL: “I see the Buffalo Bills being in Western New York for a long time.”
Commissioner calms fans’ fears
Praises concept of Toronto games
CHAUTAUQUA — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did his best Friday to soothe the nerves of Buffalo Bills fans antsy about a potential future move of the team to Toronto.
“The Buffalo Bills are doing terrific,” Goodell said before participating in a public forum at Chautauqua Institution. “I think their step to Toronto has helped strengthen that, and I see the Buffalo Bills being in Western New York for a long time.”
Goodell offered full support to the team’s plan to play eight games in Toronto over the next five years.
“The efforts going on to regionalize the team I think are strengthening the team and making the team more successful in Buffalo,” Goodell said. “I think that’s what’s positive, and I think that’s what the fans should understand. It’s good for the Bills and I believe it will be good for the fans overall.”
Goodell said he does not agree with the perception that the move could be the first step toward the team’s relocation to Toronto.
“I don’t accept that, from the standpoint that it’s strengthening the team here in Buffalo, and it has made the team more successful,” he said. “It’s regionalizing it, just as we did in the 1990s when we started selling tickets more aggressively in the Southern Tier, the Rochester area and out to Syracuse.”
Goodell also downplayed the thought that the series eventually may expand to more than one regular-season game moving to Toronto per year.
“It’s too early to speculate on that,” he said. “I think if it goes well and it does what we hope it’s going to achieve, then there would be no reason to expand it necessarily.”
Goodell acknowledged he does not have direct control over what happens when the estate of Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. eventually sells the team.
“As far as the long-term future of the team, those are not issues we deal with, with respect to how an owner wants to pass a team on,” Goodell said. “Mr. Wilson has made it clear he would like to see the team stay in Buffalo, and I will work very hard to make sure that it does.”
Goodell, who was born in Jamestown, said he has had conversations with Wilson about the plan of the estate to sell the team.
Pressed on the issue, Goodell said, “We have ownership transfers all the time. It’s not unusual in our league. We have owners that pass away, unfortunately. This happens. And the teams go on and continue to be very successful. So I think you’re sounding an alarm that’s a little [unnecessary].”
Of course, Goodell does not have control over the fact that a new owner of the Bills would face significant debt costs that might eliminate current profits, or that a Toronto bidder would likely find it far easier to justify a $1 billion price tag for the team than any bidder aiming to keep the team in Buffalo.
Despite the preoccupation of fans and media over the Bills’ future, Goodell’s visit to Chautauqua Institution was a feel-good trip. He conducted a 45-minute conversation, moderated by WIVB Sports Director John Murphy, before a crowd of about 2,000 at the institution’s amphitheater. Then he took questions from the crowd for 20 minutes.
A Goodell family reunion was to be held today. Four of his brothers were in attendance, and he received numerous ovations from the crowd for his down-to- earth attitude about the state of his $7.6 billion-a-year business.
“I have more cousins than you can imagine,” Goodell said. “In fact, they’re probably filling this amphitheater right now.”
