Bills home games in Toronto mean less money for Buffalo businesses

By: Doug Plagens, NCC News, Buffalo

Steve Sabuda, owner of Milligan's Pub in Orchard Park, NY, realizes that he may need to find a new way to "keep his business going." Ivano Toscani of the world-famous Anchor Bar in downtown Buffalo says that the Bills leaving would be a "tragedy," despite the fact that his business is the true birthplace of Buffalo wings. Sabuda claims that for a home game, his pub orders "four to six-hundred pounds of chicken wings." For any other day, they might go through "10 to 20 pounds." Toscani acknowledges that Bills games help everyone, as his restaurant "orders more wings, orders more food, orders more beer, and orders more staff," on days of home games.

SPECULATION

But what's causing this unrest among local business owners like Sabuda and Toscani is something that has not actually happened at this point. It's speculation, but speculation because "the writing's on the wall" according to Toscani. They're worried about 89-year-old Bills owner Ralph Wilson- the team's original owner, since 1959- taking his team out of Buffalo, over the border, and to the booming city of Toronto entirely.

But what has such speculation causing panic among Buffalonians. After all, it's only speculation. Jeremy White, who co-hosts the morning show on Buffalo's all-sports station WGR-AM 550, says Ralph Wilson must "think the people of Buffalo are stupid." "We can see right through you," says White, who believes that this is "all part of a bigger plan."

PERHAPS THE PLAN... BEHIND THE PLAN

The current plan is for the Bills to play one regular season home game at Toronto's Rogers Communications Centre (formerly the SkyDome) each year until 2012. The Bills will also take three preseason home games north of the border in that time, making for a total of eight games over the next five years. The "bigger plan" comes together at the end of the 2012 season, when the Bills lease on Ralph Wilson Stadium expires, leaving the team free to pursue other locales for the beginning of the 2013 season. Despite the fact Wilson told the media there is no reason to worry about the Bills moving "right now," many are fearful that the pride of Buffalo could be on its way out the door.

Sabuda says that this is something his city has been worried about for years. While a Bills departure would still leave the city with a team in the National Hockey League, rumblings of "The Sabres just aren't the same," and "The Bills are king," continue to be heard from area sports fans. But the sentiment in Buffalo is that "it's all about the money," according to White.

A MONEY ISSUE

White brings to light that games at Ralph Wilson Stadium always sell out, and that the team is not losing money in its current home. But in Toronto, an average Bills ticket will likely sell in the 250-dollar neighborhood, and in Buffalo, an a fan can pass through the gate for an average price of 70-dollars.

So until the stadium lease expires, all the fans of Buffalo can do is wait, retain hope, and prepare for what life could be like after the Bills. One fan inparticular said that Buffalo without the Bills would "destroy Buffalo," and that "if the Bills leave, [Buffalo] would be on its way to becoming another Binghamton or Utica, New York."

As Sabuda said, "Life will have to go on, unfortunately, with, or without, the Bills."