The Buffalo Bills are one step closer to playing games in Toronto full time, as Toronto Argonauts co-owners, David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski, floated the idea of a CFL consortium in purchasing the team.
The Toronto series already started last season for Buffalo as the league has agreed to let the Buffalo Bills play two games a season in Toronto.
Empire State Development, the corporation that controls the subsidiary that administers the Bills' lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., gave the go-ahead last year for the team's proposed plan to play games in Toronto.
The plan calls for the Bills to play one preseason game and one regular season game a year at the Rogers Centre, home of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays. An estimated 15,000 Canadians already cross the border to attend Bills game at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
"Playing these games in Toronto will provide an opportunity for the Bills to expand their fan base," said Dan Gundersen, upstate chair at Empire State Development, in a statement. "This plan will help draw Canadian fans to Buffalo for the remaining season games and the long term economic impact on western New York will no doubt prove beneficial for many local businesses, as well as the Buffalo Bills."
Erie County, which has some control over the lease, has also signed off on the proposal, according to Business First.
The plan will face another hurdle, as NFL owners meet in Philadelphia and discuss the proposal.
It received the “go-ahead” and the Bills will play in Toronto in each of the next five years, the final years of the team's current lease at the stadium.
Owner, Ralph Wilson, 89, who has repeatedly said he will not leave his team to his heirs, currently owns the Bills. If the team is not sold before he dies, the Bills will be sold to the highest bidder.
Toronto-based businessmen, Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum, announced their ideas to acquire an NFL team last year.
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