POSTED 12:12 p.m. EST, March 30, 2006 BILLS A PRIME CANDIDATE FOR L.A? In response to our story regarding the possible candidates for a move to Los Angeles, one league source has advised us that he believes the Buffalo Bills are a prime candidate to ultimately fill the market that was vacated more than a decade ago by the Raiders and the Rams. "Their owner is 88 years old," said the source. "The team will be sold when he dies. Their lease is very easy to get out of, and the economy of Buffalo and ability for the team to make money outside of ticket sales is probably the worst in the league. Their season ticket base may be the worst in the league." As we said earlier on Thursday, one of the current teams will make the move, possibly by the end of the decade. If the team that moves is the Bills, we wonder whether the franchise will change its nickname. While even suggesting such a thing likely constitutes a second-degree felony within the greater Buffalo area, "Los Angeles Bills" just doesn't sound right. Sure, the NBA's Lakers kept their name when they moved from the land of 10,000 of inland bodies of water to the land of 10,000 pockets of smog, but the "L" thing made it sound okay. Maybe the Bills become the "Los Angeles Buffaloes" or the "L.A. Bulls" or something close to the current name. Or maybe they go the way of the Oilers, which became the Titans after the team moved to Tennessee. Regardless, the franchise currently known as the Buffalo Bills should be considered as a possible candidate for a move to Los Angeles -- and that unfortunately could mean the disappearance of a very important aspect of the league's history. http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm (go down) Part 2 of this http://64.193.62.178/~maddenma/forums/showthread.php?t=128451 This would make realignment interesting http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ychenz/sports map/nfl.html Realignment if Buff goes to LA according to me and based on the conservative owners(I'd do the NFC but I doubt the owners would do it.) AFC East NY Jets Baltimore New England Miami North Cleveland Pittsburgh Cincinnati Indianapolis South Jacksonville Tennessee Houston Kansas City West Denver San Diego Oakland Los Angeles NFC East Dallas NY Giants Philadelphia Washington North Minnesota Chicago Green Bay Detroit South Atlanta Tampa Bay Carolina New Orleans West Arizona St. Louis San Francisco Seattle
As long as they don't expand the league and have a pathetic odd number of team with byes on Week 1 and 17. That's pathetic.
the Cards are going nowhere now that they have a new stadium. I honestly thought that the likeliest team to move would be the chargers but if they re-up their lease then I can see the bills moving. Wilson is old and stranger things have happened. I mean no one ever thought that the browns would move and we all know how that turned out. If the bills do go I wouldn't mind seeing the ravens take their place, by the time this would happen ray will be retired or on the way out and the ravens won't be as good as they are now which isn't saying much.
Ewww. That would suck. I don't want the Bills going anywhere. Let em' mess around with the NFC. And why wouldn't they just put Indy back with us? They were in the East a few years ago anyway. Bah.
I think it would suck to see the Bills move. The AFC East would never be the same if this happens... I think the New Orleans Saints are a more prime candidate to move to Los Angeles than anyone else right now. We'll see, but I'm not in favor of the Bills moving...
I would never want Indy and the Pats together in our division -- that would probably make the AFC East the hardest division in football now that Miami is up and coming, we would be in the basement for a decade
Miami really should be in the south division due to location. The rivalries with the Jets & Pats are the reason they are still in the East but if the NFL wants to group teams geographically then they should be in the South. Move KC to the North and Pittsburgh to the East.
Being a lifelong upstate ny'er, its really hard for me to see the Bills any place else but Buffalo. But the article is absolutely right, the economy in upstate NY is just absolutely terrible. My dad lost his job, in Rochester, due to his plant closing down, and he moved to South Carolina. I will be following my family down to SC after I finish college in May. Upstate NY just can't support a big league franchise right now, they simply don't have the tax revenue to do so.
you talk about Division rivalries...how can you propose moving Pittsburgh out of their division. They have bitter rivalries with the Browns and Ravens as it stands right now.
I don't understand why Tagliabue has a hard on for putting a team in LA? They have been without a team for 10 years and do not seem to mind one bit. They lost not one, but two teams within a 12 month period. The Bills cannot move because as a result of the news yesterday, the Jets moving their operations to NJ and the new stadium in the Meadowlands, the Bills are the only NY team left. Maybe they can move to Long Island or Queens
KC has some of the best rivalries in the NFL with Oakland and Denver. I can't see the NFL breaking that up.
It just make geographic sense aside from the fact that it would be f'n retarded to have KC in a division further west than LA. My I don't give a damn about rivalries cuz they can make new ones realignment AFC East New England New York Pittsburgh Baltimore North Indy Cincinnati Kansas City Cleveland South Houston Miami Tennessee Jacksonville West Oakland Denver LA San Diego NFC East New York Washington Philadelphia Carolina North Green Bay Detroit Chicago Minny South Tampa Bay Atlanta New Orleans St. Louis West Dallas San Francisco Seattle Arizona
