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Bills Legends Have a Hand in New Buffalo Football Franchise
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle is reporting that Buffalo Bills legends Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas will be involved in an arena football league team in Buffalo that expects to begin play in 2009. The team will play in the AF2 (a feeder league to the AFL), with Kelly and Thomas being minority owners. Majority ownership will belong to Rochester Business man Bob Bartosiewicz, Who currently owns the Rochester Raiders, an arena football team that plays in the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL). They will be known as the Buffalo Stampede, and have yet to sign a lease with any arena. 
This won’t be Buffalo’s first try at arena football. In 1997, the city was awarded an AFL franchise, which became the Buffalo Destroyers. Despite breaking records for season ticket sales among all other arena league teams, the franchise was sold in 2003, and moved to Columbus, OH after owner Mark Hamister said the team had lost upwards of 5 million dollars in it’s final seasons.
You have to stand up and applaud Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas for staying involved with the city that made them the well off gentlemen they are today. People in the city of Buffalo will be excited to see anything that had to do with those two former superstars. They’re as popular today as they were twenty years ago, and with the right marketing, they should help this business venture go far. These teams usually consist of former local high school and college stars, and Buffalo has no problem getting behind they’re local teams. I know I’m excited to see what happens.
- Pat Duffy
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