Bills fans feel Chargers fans’ pain when they’re not feeling relief

By Anthony Bialy  |   Thursday, January 29, 2009  |  Comments( 65 )

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Talk of a franchise moving to a city 120 miles away that the NFL drools about entering is nothing new for Buffalo Bills followers, but it’s to their comfort that it’s the San Diego Chargers getting maybe yanked around this time. Southern California’s only team has hired a marketing group to entice commerce from Los Angeles, which has provoked murmurs about the Chargers following the money elsewhere instead of trying to bring elsewhere’s money to them. If nothing else, Western New Yorkers know they’re not alone in worrying whether their squad stays.

It’s now the responsibility of a business called the Wasserman Media Group to sell Qualcomm Stadium’s suites, club seats, and advertising openings in L.A.; the team has not simultaneously retained a firm to sell the prospect of nothing changing to the people of San Diego. Meanwhile, reports are floating about Orange County’s one millionth proposal to build or refurbish a facility in one of the area’s million or so towns or sections such as South Central, Pasadena, Industry, Santa Monica, Los Wherevers or another exotically named district.

The onetime Los Angeles Chargers’ sudden interest in their original home leads to ambivalence among others whose teams face unsteady situations. No sports fan wants to see other sports fans lose their team, but the harsh truth remains that any NFL side displacing itself to L.A. would mean another shark out of the tank. The Chargers moving would induce schadenfreude in Buffalo fans, who would be happy to see one of their guys’ possible transfer spots get a team; that way, they’d never again have to endure incessant chatter about the Bills shuffling off three time zones away.

It’s nothing against fervent local Chargers followers, but those in Buffalo have to guard their own hides, just like how they’d feel cold-blooded contentment if the Toronto Jaguars or Vikings joined the AFC East.

Meanwhile, Bills supporters have already asked the questions that Chargers supporters now pose. Is this a wise marketing move by their team, or is ownership sinisterly gauging interest in shifting home latitude a little north? Will they look to hold a regular-season game in, say, the Coliseum, and will it be as blandly stifling as the Bills’ alleged home contest at the Rogers Centre last month? And can San Diego’s citizens do anything to change anything?

That helpless uncertainty is shared by Buffalo’s sports partisans, even though the relocation situation differs. While the Bills’ agreement to stay in Erie County runs through 2013, the Chargers have a slippery lease which beginning Sunday allows them to move without getting sued as long as they pay a $56 million fee to the city of San Diego. Their team’s transitory gestures make their situation look more urgently grim under the circumstances.

The Chargers bolting wouldn’t end further uncertainty. A franchise reassignment could provoke another full-scale moving derby like the one the league endured in the ‘90s when teams skipped cities as easily as a Spencer Gifts moves from one slot in the mall to another. Or, it could settle everything: The league could be keen to end repositioning once L.A. finally lured a franchise.

Unfortunately, either way the NFL won’t be happy until it has a team playing in, together on 3, 2, 1, the nation’s second-largest market. Also unfortunately, Bills followers have to not only feel sympathy if a fan base loses its team to Los Angeles but also simultaneously experience calm over the fact it wasn’t them.
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About Anthony Bialy

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CommentsComments: 65  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
Derek		10:17 AM
01/29/2009
Everyone hope and pray that old man wilson is still kicking for at least the next two years otherwise all bets are off. If he...
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No.2
Amir FaSaad		10:27 AM
01/29/2009
HUH !?! There's trouble in river city ? Now, how 'bout sports as A hole !?! Next thing ya know; will be in a redepression, HA!
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No.3
flda-dennis		10:50 AM
01/29/2009
Dark moon rising on all pro sports. Let the battle for the sports dollar begin!! You can see it here in Florida. Champions golf...
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