More NFL Reality

A pair of news stories the past two days struck me as more examples of the NFL's new reality: Money rules all. Its a reality we're all dealing with in Buffalo, as we worry about the city's ability to keep the team.

Tuesday, the team had a media event in the Rogers Centre. Donte Whitner was there to unveil the new logo, interact with some young Canadien football players, and promote the upcoming games. The announcement came that 90% of the standard tickets for the next three Bills games up North are already sold. That leaves only VIP packages that range in price from $350 to $575 per ticket per game. Wow. Choke on those prices for second. The moving of 8 games to Toronto is a good thing for the current Bills, based on the influx of cash. But there's now no question that Toronto is interested and ready for the NFL. They can certainly afford even standard prices that are more than double those in Buffalo.

Plus, in a series of articles about the Bills and NFL in Canada, published in the National Post, Rogers Communications Vice-Chairman Phil Lind was asked about the possibiliyt of Buffalo & Toronto one day splitting the home schedule. His answer, said with a smile, "That's a very good suggestion."

Monday, I saw this item about the new Giants-Jets Meadowlands Stadium under construction. MetLife has signed on to be one of five sponsors for the stadium, at a reported $10-15 million a year. That's for just one of five stadium sponsors. So that means, at least, the teams will split $50-75 million a year for sponsor rights. That's in addition to another $20 million from one of those companies for the actual stadium naming rights. The Bills likely couldn't get a stadium naming rights deal for as much as MetLife will play for one of the entrances. Just another example of the growing disparity in NFL revenues, and another reason why it will be difficult for Buffalo to compete.