Buffalo in Toronto

Yes it’s true. News this big can’t be falsified. I’m sure this news has hit you at least five times today: the first thing on the morning talk radio, interruptions on CNN, billboards proudly displaying it, chatter around the water cooler, and even the bum who sells you a magazine you can get for free anywhere else tells you it as a "hot tip." Here’s time number six: The Buffalo Bills are playing a home game in Toronto tonight. Seriously, no hosin’ around. In fact, the Buffalo Bills will play a total of 3 preseason games and 5 regular season games in Toronto through 2012.

It’s all part of a marketing strategy the Bills developed to tap into the vast, metropolitan area Toronto offers, only about 100 miles away. Unfortunately, there’s strife caused between the fans and Bills executives. Many fans are disappointed and unhappy with the choice to "outsource their Bills this wantonly." But from a financial and economic standpoint, the change of pace should prove to be a great boon to Buffalo, which was ranked in Forbes magazine as one of America’s Top 10 Fastest Dying Cities. The hope is to generate more income for the City of Buffalo and give it the shot in the arm it needs. Fans, on the otherhand, see this as only a sow sign of the future; a future wherein the Buffalo Bills eventually become the Toronto Bills, or Toronto "Something More Canadien"s.

Tonight, the first preseason Toronto game occurs at the Skydome, Buffalo vs. Pittsburgh.