Rich is going to wrangle a computer and talk about the draft this week, but in the mean time I thought I'd address something that popped up in the Canadian press this afternoon. To put it plainly, the Bills done got paid:
The $78-million payment eclipses what Forbes calculated the Bills made in 2006, in the magazine's latest annual financial breakdown of NFL franchises. Forbes calculated the Bills had an operating income of US$31.2 million after bringing in $176 million in revenues that year.
Broken down, the Bills will make nearly $9.75 million per game in Toronto, something they'd be unable to make at Orchard Park, where the small-market team has perennially had the lowest ticket prices in the NFL. The Bills' average ticket price for this season is about $51 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, which has a 72,000 seating capacity.
Wow. I know we've been throwing numbers around here and there, but when you see the real figures pop up you can't help but understand the decision.
The fact of the matter is the Bills will never see these kind of numbers from Western New York, even though they get all the revenues made at Ralph Wilson. Even with the Winter Classic, it's nothing near making almost $10 million for one game. (I would have the exact numbers on the Winter Classic revenues here if the Buffalo News didn't clear their archives after 11 seconds...)
You can take the news two ways: 1) Shrug your shoulders and hope it's for the best, or 2) Make an awful photoshop and scour the series of tubes for a photo of Canadian Monopoly.
Guess who took the high road?
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