A day after word came that Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula reached an agreement to buy the NFL team, fans were happily putting behind them years of anxiety about what would become of the Bills when Wilson was no longer around to keep them from relocating.
"It's an important part of the identity of the region," Cam Morton of Orchard Park said as he exited the Bills store carrying logoed seat cushions for the season ahead.
The Bills are essentially locked by a lease agreement into playing at Ralph Wilson Stadium through the next six years, but the long-term future was a question mark. Before Wilson died,Cheap NFL Jerseys, he'd expressed no interest in leaving the team to relatives, meaning it would be up for grabs.
"We've always had that cloud hanging over our heads," said 30-year season ticket holder Allen Knaszak of the Buffalo suburb of Boston. "I texted my daughter at school last night and said, 'It's so nice to know that long after I'm gone, you and your kids will be here,'" Knaszak said Wednesday at Ralph Wilson Stadium after a stop at the Bills store.
And with the 1996 Cleveland-to-Baltimore move of the Browns as a reminder, fans were taking nothing for granted.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo Bills fans finally have the assurance they have been seeking since well before the March death of the team's 95-year-old founder and owner Ralph Wilson Jr.: The team is not going anywhere.
Still, Knaszak,Cheap Jerseys Paypal, for one, was finding that old habits die hard.
"This just great,Wholesale NFL Jerseys," he said. "This just goes right on top of what happened Sunday" when the Bills beat the Bears in Chicago to open the season. "I still haven't come down from that yet."
"I've been worried about this for a long time,Cheap Jerseys From China," said Ken Johnson, who with his trademark 1980 red Pinto, rarely misses a game at home or away.
The Pegulas bid a NFL record-setting $1.4 billion for the franchise, a person with direct knowledge of the sale process told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the sale was conducted privately. That ensured they beat out other bidders with designs on moving the team to a larger, more profitable market. A pairing of rocker Jon Bon Jovi with Canadian businessmen interested in a Toronto team had fans concerned enough to boycott his music.
"I'm looking at the picture of (Pegula's) family saying, 'hmm, he's got a son, he'll probably pass it on to him,Jerseys NFL Wholesale,'" he said, laughing. "This is how we're trained here."
The sale is subject to approval by a majority of the NFL's 31 other owners,Jerseys NBA Cheap China, which is expected to come at league meetings on Oct. 8.
