BillBoard

That's a question Buffalo Bills fans are left to ponder as they contemplate the team's new ties to Toronto.

For the moment, Toronto is giving the Bills a much-sought shot-in-the-wallet, pumping $9.75 million into the Bills coffers for each of the eight preseason and regular season games the team will play there over the next five years.

It's a way to bolster the Bills revenues and get around the Buffalo Niagara region's stagnant economy, which limits how much the team can charge for tickets and how much it can raise from corporate sponsors and suite holders.

But in the longer run, Toronto lurks around the corner like a stalker, waiting for the right moment to snatch up the team and move it across the border for good.

Just when that day will come isn't clear, but its arrival will become uncomfortably close the day Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson dies and the team begins down its long-planned path toward a sale.

Rogers Communications magnate Ted Rogers has the money to buy the Bills and he already has a toe-hold on the franchise through his role in the Toronto deal.

Any new owner will need to bring in new revenues to justify the team's sale price, which could range anywhere from $700 million to more than $1 billion. The new owner won't find many stones that the Bills haven't already turned over locally in their ongoing search for additional revenue, so that means the focus will turn more intensely on Toronto.

The best case scenario for Buffalo is that the Toronto arrangement is such a smashing success that the team can build on its newfound niche in Canada and bring in additional sponsorship money.

It also could broaden the team's ties with Toronto to play two, three or maybe even four games in Toronto per season. That could satisfy traditionalists by keeping the Bills in Buffalo on at least a part-time basis while keeping the supply of tickets scarce enough in both markets to give the team the power to raise prices.

But that doesn't get around the uncomfortable reality that the team would be worth more to its new owner (and command a higher sale price for Wilson's estate) by moving outright to Toronto.

While Wilson has been criticized locally for highlighting the shortcomings of the Buffalo Niagara region's economy, he's largely been on target with his remarks. Buffalo is a shrinking market, and that makes it tougher on any business to squeeze more revenues out of a pie that's getting smaller by the day.

That's why there's no turning back from the Bills link with Toronto. Never again will the team play all eight regular season home games in Ralph Wilson Stadium. There's too much money at stake.

The question is whether one game in Toronto will be enough … or even two or three or four … to maintain the team's roots in Buffalo. Especially when the grass is so much greener in Toronto.

So Bills fans, get used to sharing the team with Toronto. It's Buffalo's only hope.

--- Dave Robinson