The Buffalo Fan Alliance has uncovered documents from a Canadian public filing that suggests a Toronto-based group has plans to relocate the Buffalo Bills north of the border.
The fan group came across a biography on a company website for Rogers Communication Consultant Roger Rai. The profile said Rai “assists in the sports ownership affairs for Rogers Communications and that he’s part of the ownership group attempting to acquire and move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto.”
Buffalo Fan Alliance Co-Director Matt Sabuda says the biography was filed this year along with a press release with similar information that was later redacted.
“We feel as a fan group and members of the community it’s our responsibility to get this information out there and hopefully the Rogers group can offer a far more iron clad explanation as to what they would do to keep the Bills in Buffalo if they were the successful bidders, because information like this certainly does nothing to help their cause and in fact severely hurts their cause,” said Subuda.
Roger Rai told the Associated Press that he’s not involved with the group’s bid. He says the references were the result of a misinterpretation by a co-worker who wrote the biography. But Sabuda says he feels the information is still concerning.
“Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot more of an explanation they can offer and it’s very difficult to wrap our heads around that explanation, because if this is in fact a public document that in all likelihood underwent a fairly thorough review process, it’s difficult to wrap our heads around the idea that it was a simple mistake,” said Sabuda.
Rogers Communications is part of a prospective ownership group that includes rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Larry Tanenbaum.