CFL and its fans wary of NFL's invasion

Shawn Jordan/Icon SMI

Toronto and southern Ontario's wealth appeal to the Buffalo Bills and the NFL. But if the Bills' annual ventures into the Rogers Center prove successful, where will that leave fans of the CFL and the hometown Argonauts (above)?

TORONTO -- If you're looking for an issue that divides Canadians and sparks fierce arguments and bitter feelings, look no further than the Buffalo Bills touching down north of the border Thursday for an exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

To many Canadian sports fans, this game in the Rogers Center is the first step in realizing their dream of Toronto one day having its own NFL team to join the NBA, NHL and MLB franchises in the country's biggest city.

To others, buying tickets to see the Bills in Toronto is nothing short of treason, contributing to a direct threat to the Canadian Football League and its long, storied history.

"For me, being an NFL and CFL fan growing up, I think it's an opportunity for people who appreciate the NFL to take this in, and they can still watch their CFL teams," said Bills defensive lineman Corey Mace, who grew up near Vancouver, British Columbia, and is the only Canadian playing in the Bills-Steelers game.

"Growing up, I was a [San Diego] Chargers fan and a B.C. Lions fan. There's nothing wrong with that."

There are plenty of football fans in Canada who agree with Mace, enjoy both versions of professional football and welcome the NFL's arrival on Canadian soil. Some fans do not, like Sterling Halliday, who has been selling anti-NFL T-shirts outside CFL games.

He's so concerned about the Bills' presence in Toronto that he plans a small protest.

"[The CFL] is one of the few things we haven't lost to Americans, and we should do everything we can to keep it," said Halliday, whose family owns four Toronto Argonauts season tickets. "The CFL is so old, and there's so much history there. To lose all that history for an American game …

"I'm trying to get all my supporters together and go down there and protest Thursday night to see what we can do. Have a nice, peaceful protest."

The CFL isn't staging any protests, although the league has been cautious in what it has said about its unwanted visitors. In fall 2007, CFL commissioner Mark Cohon warned NFL owners against approving Buffalo's relocation of eight games (five regular season, three exhibition season) over five years to Toronto.

He later adopted a softer stance, which suggests one or two Bills' dates a year won't harm the CFL -- but that's enough.

"We want our league to thrive here in our country, and we want the Bills to succeed in Buffalo," Cohon said. "Insofar as this limited series helps the Bills stay in Buffalo long term, it's fine. But we wouldn't support any expansion of it because no one knows what effect that would have on our league."

The eight-team CFL has been trying to use the Bills' presence to rally support in the face of competition. Its slogan for this season, "This Is Our League" -- accompanied by a snazzy video that plays in stadiums across the country -- is an obvious attempt to remind football fans where their loyalties should lie.

Related
The Bills are the first NFL franchise to schedule annual regular-season games outside of the United States. Here's a look at what that venture means to the franchise, and insight into the Bills' on-field prospects. • Naylor: Strange brouhaha • The Mag: Saving the Bills • Camp Confidential: Playoffs? • Watch: Bills' season preview • FB Outsiders: CFL-to-NFL transitions

And so far, it seems to be working. The Argonauts, who are the CFL's marquee franchise and play their home games in Rogers Center, say revenue is up marginally this season even though the team has struggled to a 3-4 start. But that doesn't mean the team's owners are any happier about the Bills being in town.

"I'm an NFL fan; I just don't think we need it," Argos co-owner David Cynamon said. "The NFL in Toronto doesn't do the country of Canada -- places like Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. -- any good. I think Torontonians are forgetting that. If one game or eight games takes one penny away from the CFL, what good does that do? I just don't think we need it."

The Bills have been brought to Toronto by Canadian cable giant Rogers Communications, whose CEO, Ted Rogers, is on record as saying he would like to bring an NFL team to the city.

Rogers Communications paid a premium for the games at $9.75 million (U.S.) apiece, resulting in ticket prices averaging about $200 apiece. The company views this deal as the next-best thing to Toronto having an NFL team of its own.

"The one presence that has been missing in the Canadian marketplace has been meaningful regular-season NFL games," said Adrian Montgomery, an executive with Rogers Communications and the general manager of the Bills' Toronto series. "We wanted to be able to deliver that to sports fans. We think there's a lot of demand for the NFL in this marketplace, and we're excited to be delivering it."

The steep ticket price has created more than its share of grumbling from fans who are use to paying between $20 and $79 to see the Argonauts. And sticker shock seems to be the primary reason the Bills-Steelers preseason game is several thousand short of a sellout (53,000).

But that is likely to be less of an issue when the first Bills' regular-season game in Toronto, against the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 7, arrives.

There's at least one interested observer with ties on both sides of the border. Steve Christie, a former Bills place-kicker who grew up outside Toronto, has homes in both Ontario and western New York.

"I think Toronto is a fantastic city, a major league city where they could certainly handle an NFL team coming from another city, which unfortuntately may be Buffalo," Christie said. "Down the road, we can't really control what happens. But if it comes down to who has the money, is there enough money in western New York to keep the Bills? Ultimately, there is enough money to take them in Toronto because southern Ontario is booming. It's solid growth."

Some Canadian fans welcome the NFL without reservations.

"I'm totally psyched," said Chris Clark, a 35-year-old management consultant from Toronto who became hooked on the Bills during his teen years when Buffalo began its run to four consecutive Super Bowls. "I feel like the Bills are a regional franchise, and there's a big part of southern Ontario that has a real stake in them. Buffalo is one of those towns where they invest their heart and soul in the team, and it's nice that they're sharing that with us."

Clark, who has made treks to Buffalo for games with friends for years, is looking forward to hopping the Toronto subway to see the Bills this week. And he laughs off any notion that doing so makes him something less than a true Canadian.

"I think people are kidding themselves if they think the Argos are anything more than a sideshow in Toronto," he said. "I don't see the [NFL and CFL] being highly competitive with each other, other than the argument that people only have so much money to spend on entertainment, because the CFL is nothing more than a shadow of the NFL."

There is a thought among many football fans in Canada that the two leagues might be able to coexist north of the border, side by side one day. (This would be helped by the fact that the CFL season begins in June and ends in November.) But the CFL and the NFL don't even have a formal working agreement in place after talks broke off this spring, in part because the NFL would not agree to guarantees the CFL wanted in the event that a team relocated to Toronto.

And many CFL fans worry that under any circumstances, the weight of the NFL and its marketing muscle simply would wipe the smaller league off the map.

"I don't believe they could coexist," Halliday said. "It would swamp the Argos, and their fans would disappear."

David Naylor covers pro football for The Toronto Globe and Mail.