Eric Wood rips Toronto series

[GottaBillieve]

http://boards.buffalobills.com/showt...ian-home-games!

[Mrfalcon]

I don't want to hear it's that Torontonians won't support a crappy product. Hell, they have been supporting the Maple Leafs for decades!

Certain teams are recession proof, because of their following. It's like the Cubs, or pre World Series Red Sox. Or the Knicks for most of their history, and certain College football and basketball programs.
Most other teams in Toronto have moderate to average attendance if they are mediocre to average. The exception to this to some extent are the Raptors, and at times TFC. Those are a more diverse and younger crowd, who resembles nothing of the suit and tie geezers and old bags who sit in the lower bowl of Leaf games. The average Leaf fan will probably never see a live home game at face ticket prices, because corporate money and original season ticket holders who pass them down from generation to generation control all the seats. Reselling and scalping are huge, which further drives up prices.

The reason why Bills football in Toronto failed is because it was the idea of a few clueless old guys who thought they knew what the public wanted: Ralph Wilson, Rogers, Godfrey, Tannenbaum. They don't care that the Bills fans and players don't like it.
They're renewing it til 2017, because the same guys at the top are getting something out of it, Ralph pockets his millions and Rogers gets content for its media empire, mobile devices, and god knows what else. In Ontario the taxpayers are essentially subsidizing luxury boxes and entertainment for businesses because they write it off on their taxes anyways. It could have been the Bills, it could have been a U2 concert, or it could have been the circus. In the end I suspect that Rogers and the people fronting the money for this aren't losing all that much in the end, and passing the losses to the customers of their services, or the taxpayer.
Like someone else pointed out: This is the future of sports, more corporate money, more dependence on tv deals, more dependence on ads and multimedia networks. They could have 4,000 butts in the seats and they wouldn't care. Most people are content to watch in HD from the comfort of their home or computer anyways.

[george91]

........
They're renewing it til 2017, because the same guys at the top are getting something out of it, Ralph pockets his millions and Rogers gets content for its media empire, mobile devices, and god knows what else. In Ontario the taxpayers are essentially subsidizing luxury boxes and entertainment for businesses because they write it off on their taxes anyways. It could have been the Bills, it could have been a U2 concert, or it could have been the circus. In the end I suspect that Rogers and the people fronting the money for this aren't losing all that much in the end, and passing the losses to the customers of their services, or the taxpayer.
Like someone else pointed out: This is the future of sports, more corporate money, more dependence on tv deals, more dependence on ads and multimedia networks. They could have 4,000 butts in the seats and they wouldn't care. Most people are content to watch in HD from the comfort of their home or computer anyways.

As many of us up here are Rogers shareholders directly or through any major Canadian Equity mutual funds, you have to wonder about the bottom line of this whole deal. I am guessing that they have lost a few million annually based on ticket sales. Compared to their annual net income of > 1 billion dollars, I guess it's pocket change to them. As you say, they are probably recouping it or profiting from it in other ways as you have pointed out above.

[geargo]

You're only half right. Grass is going in and the Argos are going out, but baseball season is over when the Bills series goes on and Rogers already said putting field turf over the grass or even playing on the grass will not be an issue for the Bills game. Rogers hates the Argonauts and want them to fold. This is why I won't attend Buffalo Bills games in my home town among other reasons. Please just put a winning team on the field so we can talk about playoffs and positive things....

First off the Argos are not going to fold. A 150 year old franchise is not going to go away. Second, the Argos owner has very deep pockets so the Argos will not go anywhere.

Putting the grass in the dome keeps it only in baseball configuration and can't be changed.

[WarriorCanuck]

Well Woods does come off as a bit of a whiner but what he says is true none the less.