As the Bills find themselves applying a Band-Aid to their lame-duck lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the Bills could be expanding their presence in their home away from home.
Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News believes that the Bills will play more games in Toronto in the coming years.
The five-year arrangement in Toronto expires after this season. After playing one regular-season game per year there for the past five years, Gaughan thinks the number could grow to eight over the next five, with a 2-1-2-1-2 format taking hold.
Bills fans won’t like it, but it’s a far better outcome than the Bills moving away entirely. And that’s the ongoing value of regionalizing the team. After team founder Ralph Wilson passes (he’ll be 94 next month), the franchise will be sold. And the new owner will need to be able to crunch the numbers in a way that makes staying put make sense.
If the Bills can parlay eight games over five years in Toronto into the kind of revenue that tips the scales toward not moving to L.A. or London or elsewhere, losing a few more games to Canada is better than losing all of them.