Bills' owner Terry Pegula says he's not opposed to another NFL team in Toronto

When the Buffalo Bills were sold to local owners Terry and Kim Pegula instead of a Bon Jovi-led Toronto-based group last year, it looked like the NFL in Toronto threat was all but over. The Pegulas have always been clear about their plans to keep the team in Western New York (they even cancelled the Bills-in-Toronto exhibition series in December), and the idea of an NFL team in Toronto always seemed tied to it being the Bills thanks to the geographic proximity and the amounts of Southern Ontario fans that already support the Bills. However, that may no longer be the case. Sun Media's John Kryk spoke to Terry Pegula Tuesday at the NFL's annual meetings in Arizona, and Pegula told him not only that he wouldn't try and block a Toronto NFL team (under the right circumstances), but also that the NFL asked him specifically about that when he was approved as an owner:

That's very interesting, and it's something that hasn't really been broached much in the endless discussions of the NFL in Toronto. In some ways, an expansion team (which isn't going to happen for a long time, if at all) or a relocated team from a city outside Buffalo might fit Toronto better. There's still going to be lots of acrimony from elsewhere if a team leaves to go to Toronto, but it might be less painful than if it's the team from right across the border. However, an NFL team in Toronto would likely have close to the same painful impact on the CFL regardless of which team it is, so this is something the CFL should be a bit concerned with.

Of course, this is only a vague possibility at this point in time. While there are several NFL teams looking to relocate (with the Rams, Raiders and Chargers most prominently mentioned at this point), most of them are focusing on Los Angeles, where significant stadium solutions have already been proposed. There's nothing even close to that going on in Toronto, where negotiations over the Argonauts' potential move to BMO Field (which reportedly would only add $10 million in costs, a far cry from the costs of a NFL stadium) are still ongoing, and no new stadium projects have really even been discussed recently. The NFL isn't also necessarily as big on going to a full-time international franchise (especially to Canada; England and Mexico are bigger targets) as you might think, and international expansion carries plenty of hurdles.

Moreover, while the Toronto and Southern Ontario market is large, the Bills already have a substantial portion of it. Pegula told Kryk 12 per cent of the Bills' season-ticket holders and 22 per cent of their overall receipts come from Ontario. Thus, while he may be fine with the overall idea of a team in Toronto, he'd probably want some financial compensation for increased competition in his market, and that could help work against relocation to Toronto too. This certainly isn't an imminent threat, and it's one that still faces many of hurdles. Still, it's worth noting that the idea of the NFL in Toronto doesn't appear to be dead (for Pegula or the league), even if the idea of the Bills in Toronto is.