Bills’ venture deemed a success
Schumer, Goodell express optimism
PITTSFORD — The praises of the Buffalo Bills’ “Toronto experiment” were sung Monday by U. S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The power duo struck an upbeat tone after a morning meeting with Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. at St. John Fisher College.
“I feel a lot better this year than I did last year at this time, and so does Ralph Wilson,” Schumer said. “The good news that we discussed in our meeting is that the so-called experiment with the two games in Toronto, preseason and regular season, has been a huge success, not just for Toronto but even more importantly for Buffalo.
“Our goal — the three of us, led by Mr. Wilson and with Roger really caring— is to make the Bills in Buffalo as strong as possible so they’ll stay here a very long time.”
The meeting between Wilson, Goodell and Schumer had been planned months ago and is the latest in on-going dialogue involving New York’s senior senator about the Bills’ future. Wilson enlisted Schumer’s aid two years ago in pressing the league to enhance revenue- sharing for small-market teams.
Schumer would not comment on whether he made any attempt to persuade Wilson to alter his succession plan for the Bills’ franchise. The team is scheduled to be sold by Wilson’s estate after his passing.
“To talk about the future publicly — about what happens after Ralph Wilson would be gone, God forbid — would be counter-productive, so I’m not going to do it because we need to do everything to keep the Bills here,” Schumer said.
However, Schumer followed that up by stating that Buffalo’s best hope for strengthening the Bills is increasing the franchise’s revenue.
“The best assurance you can have long term is to build up a strong franchise, and that’s happening now,” Schumer said. “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.”
The Bills will receive an average of $9.75 million a game for their eight-game series in Toronto which starts this year and runs through 2012.
“The nature of the conversation was to find out how the Bills are doing and fortunately that’s good news,” Goodell said. “The effort here to regionalize the team further into Southern Ontario and into Toronto has been a very big success for the team.”
Asked about the agenda, Schumer said:
“We talked about a number of other things. We focused on Toronto but we talked about the stadium, we talked about Tim Russert. 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.”
Goodell, meanwhile, said the league would hand down no punishment for Bills running back Marshawn Lynch as a result of his hit-and- run accident in May.
That was no surprise. Once Lynch pleaded guilty to a traffic violation, it was a foregone conclusion he would not receive a suspension. If the league set a precedent and the bar for a suspension was set at traffic violations, Goodell’s office would be swamped with suspension decisions.
Meanwhile, Lynch’s attorney in his criminal case, Michael P. Caffery, said Monday that his client has not had his license or registration revoked in New York State.
On June 27, an administrative law judge revoked Lynch’s license and registration when the running back pleaded guilty to a traffic violation in connection with the May 31 hit-and-run accident. But Caffery appealed that revocation, and the penalty has been postponed until the appeal can be heard.
“He has not lost his license at all, because the revocation has never gone into effect,” Caffery said.
