BUFFALO, N.Y. -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and state Sen. Charles Schumer will meet with Bills owner Ralph Wilson to explore ways to keep the team in Buffalo.
With NFL approval, Wilson scheduled some Bills preseason and regular-season games at the 50,000-capacity Rogers Centre in Toronto. The decision has led to speculation that the franchise will one day move north.
"Commissioner Goodell is committed to doing anything he and the league can to keep the Bills in Buffalo," Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday after meeting with Goodell in Washington.
The league approved the deal to send the Bills north for one game per season through 2012. They will also play three preseason games in Toronto during that period. The Toronto partners are Blue Jays owner Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors.
"Hey, I can't speculate what's going to happen in the future," Wilson said last week when asked about the Bills moving north. "But don't worry. Don't worry right now."
Rep. Brian Higgins, from Buffalo, also met with Goodell. In a letter to the commissioner, Higgins asked the league to consider amending its constitution to either allow full community ownership, modeled after the Green Bay Packers, whose fans bought the team before the NFL prohibited such arrangements, or at least a minority stake.
The team's lease with Erie County extends until 2012.
Wilson, 89, says his family is not interested in running the franchise after him.
"Ralph's heart, I have no doubt, his heart is in keeping the Bills in Buffalo. If money were his only goal he would have moved them a long time ago," Schumer said.
PHOERIG28 
