[troutman]

Toronto already has an NFL team: I think they are called the Bills.

No way TOR is "30th" on the list. TOR (S. Ont) has 10 million people, and there are 30 million people in Canada that might potentially support a TOR team (like they do with the Jays). SA and POR are not even close. Las Vegas is not an option. A stadium would be built quickly if the NFL wants to go to TOR.

I think the NFLPA would be reluctant to go to Mexico.

Howard Bloom:

http://www.sportsbusinessnews.com/

Separating fact from fiction, here’s why the NFL’s 34th franchise will end up in Toronto:

• The NFL is going to expand to Los Angeles. Despite comments Paul Tagliabue made at Super Bowl XL, the NFL has always expanded by two. It makes no sense whatsoever to add only one franchise, the scheduling headaches are enormous. The NFL’s bye weekends allow every franchise to open and close their seasons at the same time. History dictates the NFL will continue to follow that thought process
  
  
• By moving into Canada the effect on the American television market would be nil, properly positioned a Toronto based NFL franchise could be marketed as a ‘national’ franchise. Canadians do not react well to Torontonians believing they are the center of Canada’s universe. The team could play a pre-season game in Montreal, Toronto or Edmonton and hold their training camp in the Ottawa area. In other words, build the teams’ brand as Canadian and be sensitive towards Canadians. A Toronto based franchise will be great for the business of the NFL and the franchise can be positioned as a national franchise. That would give the NFL access to more then 35 million people.
  
  
• There are those who believe American markets exist that could be home to an NFL expansion franchise other then Los Angeles. San Antonio’s Alamodome seats just over 58,000 for football and the good citizens of San Antonio won’t build a new football stadium. Orlando, don’t kid yourself. The Citrus Bowl isn’t big enough and Orlando has a tourist driven economy, a transient population has never been a good formula for supporting a football franchise. Hartford, that plan died on the vine when Robert Kraft used the interest the Connecticut city had in building a new stadium for the Patriots to leverage Hartford’s interest in keeping the team in Massachusetts. Las Vegas has long been interested in an NFL franchise – as long as Vegas sports books allow betting on football (more then $40 million a year), that will never happen.
  
  
• There has also been some discussion about two expansion franchises being added to the Los Angeles market. That doesn’t make any sense. There are enough concerns regarding the viability of the NFL in the Los Angeles market. Many believe the market is well served by the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins. Putting two franchises into a market doesn’t make any sense. That said, the NFL needs to put one franchise into the Los Angeles market and it needs to do that sooner rather then later. It will be challenging enough to make one franchise work in the Los Angeles market, two expansion teams is nonsensical.
  
  
• There have been talks about placing an expansion franchise in Mexico City. The Hispanic market is very important to the NFL but the security concerns a team in Latin America would represent to the players and their families it’s never going to take place. With all due respect, the NFL Players Association will never allow the league to expand to Mexico City without the league and/or the team assuming astronomical personal security for athlete and their each family member. Imagine Denzel Washington’s 2004 film “Man on Fire” in a real life situation with an NFL player or a member of his family.
  
  
• Ted Rogers represents the perfect ‘front man’ or lead owner the NFL loves. He offers the league the largest media platform any individual can provide the league in Canada. In Larry Tanenbaum, the NFL has a partner already fully vetted by the National Basketball Association. The NFL doesn’t like their owners to own other major sports franchises. The Toronto Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, Raptors and the expansion MLS franchises all closely linked to Rogers and Tanenbaum are owned by corporations and ownership groups, not by Rogers or Tanenbaum personally.
  
  
• Rogers understands content is king. An NFL franchise would represent untold content for his all-sports radio stations, cable sports network and other media platforms. When Rogers (the company) purchased the Blue Jays, Ted Rogers (the CEO) made it clear he believed a tremendous synergy could be created between the Blue Jays and every facet of the Rogers media empire.
  
  
• Tanenbaum has consistently shown a strong interest in playing with the ‘big boys’. When Larry Tanenbaum wants something he has the drive and determination to find a way to get it done.
  
  
• Paul Godfrey has proven on numerous occasions he has the ability to bring people and money together to create what he believes are world-class opportunities for Toronto. His biggest dream has always been an NFL franchise – he’s consumed by that goal, and with a proven track record he’ll find a way to get the deal done.
  
  
• The Rogers Centre can be retrofitted to meet NFL standards, increasing the seating capacity to around 70,000. There are logistics in getting this done, but none of them are insurmountable.
  
  
• The NFL can make whatever politically correct statements they believe they need to make about the future of the CFL and expanding into Canada, but at the end of the day Roger Goodell as the NFL’s eighth commissioner is responsible for creating new revenue sources for his 32 bosses, the 32 men who hired him. During Paul Tagliabue’s 17 years the NFL added four teams who collectively paid expansion fees totaling $1.54 billion. Two franchises each paying a $1 billion expansion fee will make Roger Goodell look like God to his 32 bosses. Goodell has every incentive to make it work.