CFL to the USA... again?

[Lee.]

Given the choice, Canadians would root for a team in their own country over the team that's just across the border.

Thanks you for speaking for all Canadians, Hed. If it ever happens, I'll be sure to drop my Green Bay and Indianapolis allegiances for the sake of rooting for a team that's being forced down our throats by our national media.

[Gothamite]

Therecent piss=poor attendance at Rogers Center gives the rest of the country hope that a Toronto NFL team won't happen.

Goodell himself cited outrageously high ticket prices as the main problem there -- I may have gone myself if they weren't selling upper deck seats for $100 each. The Grey Cup was cheaper.

I'm sure that had you shown up on gameday with some kind of proof that you were a Rogers customer in any way, you would have been comped a ticket or two.

Many of the filled seats for those games were flat out giveaways.

Many but not most, and as has been established, this was due to the fact that the prices were too high. People wanted to go, the interest was there (they still showed up didn't they?), but the cost was too great.

How has that been established, exactly? How can anyone prove that was the reason behind the empty seats?

[Bleujayone]

An article written about both the expense Buffalo pays to keep the Bills and the myth about how pro sports improves a local economy.

http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/sto...4155600^1773351

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Can we afford to pay the Bills?

by Gary Burns

My car was nearly swallowed up by a cavernous pothole as I exited the expressway the other day. The hole was hiding right there in the middle of the road.

You know how those things conceal themselves, lying in wait.

BANG went the front end as it slammed to the pavement. ?Damn,? I said out loud as my car and I bounced out the other side of the hellish valley.

It was another routine encounter with the axlebreakers of evil that lurk on our highways. Just another encounter with what the euphemism specialists call ?our crumbling infrastructure.?

I was shaken, but I still had all my teeth. That?s something, I guess. I also was angry ? angry enough to reflect (again) on how our tax money is spent. Why don?t they use it to fix these things?

I fleetingly considered the ways the professional political class actually does spend our money. It?s probably not healthy to think about this. You inevitably realize that for all the good our money does, we might as well march en masse into Delaware Park carrying bags of cash, dump it all into a big pile, and commence to have one heck of a bonfire.

Cars are disappearing into potholes and the roads are rarely repaired ? certainly not in a timely manner. We do, however, still have the Buffalo Bills. We pay good tax money to keep them.

How did I get from potholes to the Bills? The Bills have been in their own pothole for just about forever. Maybe that?s it. Or perhaps my subconscious is bubbling with excitement over Ralph Wilson?s selection to the NFL Hall of Fame.

Or maybe I?m simply thinking that I?d rather fix the roads than give money to a pro sports team.

At any rate, when Ralph stands up to the podium at Canton this summer, I doubt that he?ll have much to say about the fact that Erie County taxpayers are subsidizing the Bills to the tune of roughly $7.35 million in 2009. He probably won?t even say thank you.

You know, there was a time when our Coastal Accountants thought these gifts were worth it. Hey, if it means keeping the Bills in town, then go for it. Look at us, world, we have a National Football League team and you don?t. Take that, Los Angeles losers.

Now I?m older. The Coastal perspective has changed. And now there?s the frightful economic uncertainty that surrounds us, since we?re experiencing a global downturn on a scale last seen 80 years ago. Corporate welfare for the very wealthy people behind a franchise in the rich, rich, rich National Football League seems increasingly ludicrous.

Isn?t it nutty, in these times, that we are stuffing cash into the mouth of a cat that has grown so fat?

I admit that the potholes in the roads are just one example of the way things are on planet Earth, far away from pro sports fantasyland. But we really do have major problems. Honest. We may tumble over the edge and if we go over, it could be quite unpleasant.

Check the state Labor Department?s monthly jobless report. The latest figures in hand are from December, when, according to the data, the unemployment rates in four WNY counties had shot above 8 percent. The cities of Niagara Falls, Lockport, Buffalo and Jamestown also recorded rates above 8 percent.

Niagara Falls, home of the Seneca Niagara Casino and not much else, had a jobless rate of 10.9 percent.

What this means is that in the real world, the world of flesh and blood and pain, fathers and mothers without work must struggle to keep roofs overhead and food on the table. At the same time, they?re required to meet their local, state and federal tax obligations.

Erie County Executive Chris Collins and others in high places still say it?s worth it to subsidize the Bills, calling it a ?quality of life? issue. The Bills give us a national identity, so we should pay. The Bills bring us together as a community, so we should pay. The Bills make our lives better, so we should pay. On the Coast, we believe that argument is a much, much tougher sell now than it used to be.

The fundamental truth is that decent jobs are really what makes lives better. My quality of life is a heck of a lot better if I can pay my way, and that?s harder to do without a steady income ? with or without the Bills.

What if we used the Bills? allotted $7.35 million as a down payment toward making Western New York a more appetizing place for business? Putting people to work repairing a few highways would be a start.

The Coastal One believes in taxes, the monies to be used to finance services that benefit the common good. One for all and all for one. However, so much money is wasted, spent frivolously and misappropriated. So much goes to keep afloat massive retirement and health-care benefits for public employees ? benefits that are unsustainable in the long term yet politically untouchable in the short term. So much money. So much.

This isn?t merely another cheap tirade. Well, yes it is. Nevertheless, you know it?s true.

So why not a bonfire? We all could bask in the glow, we could all feel warm and cozy together for a few moments, sure in the knowledge that at last we actually know where our money is going.

[Corvus]

Given the choice, Canadians would root for a team in their own country over the team that's just across the border.

Thanks you for speaking for all Canadians, Hed. If it ever happens, I'll be sure to drop my Green Bay and Indianapolis allegiances for the sake of rooting for a team that's being forced down our throats by our national media.

Yeah, I gotta say, Vancouverites are more likely to support the Seahawks then any NFL team in Toronto. There is a lot of antipathy towards Toronto from the RoC. This applies to all sports too. I think a lot of Canadians are more likely to support the team from their general region, then to support the one team in Canada just because its here.

Anyways, I don't see the CFL being crazy enough to try US expansion again anytime soon. I just don't see the need, or market for it. Its not like there's a shortage of football in the USA.