T.O. in Buffalo AP Photo/James P. McCoy
In what has to be the biggest surprise of the NFL off-season the Buffalo Bills signed a one year, 6.5 million dollar contract with Wide Receiver diva Terrell Owens.
T.O. has been knows to decimate both his starting QB’s confidence and any kind of cohesion in the locker room, but Buffalo might be making a very educated gamble on this deal.
Clearly this is a tem looking for something, wither a bigger presence and a new stadium in Buffalo, or a relocation maybe to Toronto but either way having a guy of T.O.’s star power on the roster will certainly help them achieve whatever it is they are up too.
Think about it like this having a guy like Owens play an otherwise somewhat meaningless game in Toronto’s Sky dome (Rogers Center) seriously raises the attention that game will be played. It also raises the profile of the NFL in Canada since Buffalo is very close to Canada they will be the clear winners there.
Owens will also help bring in more sponsors and attention to a team that very much operated in the football wilderness. Last season the bills sold 56 thousand season ticket packages, and had around 120 corporate sponsorships.
In the down economy the Bill’s front office were a little less than optimistic in reaching the numbers again in 2009. With the addition of Owens is seems highly likely that those numbers will not only be met for the upcoming season, but may well be exceeded.
Let us not forget all those Jersey sales and Owens related merchandise the team can now go out and sell. For just 6.5 million dollar an almost insignificant NFL franchise has seriously turned up the volume for their brand.
In 2008 the team went 7-9 and failed to make the playoffs, with Owens they may be able to win another 1-2 games and qualify for the playoffs, but that is not the reason this move was made. In the end this was a straight up business move to bring the national spotlight back to the Buffalo Bills.
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