ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. \u2014 Michael Hoecht was born in Canada on the shore of Lake Ontario, which President Trump recently ordered U.S. federal agencies to call Lake America.<\/p>\n
About 90 miles southeast of Oakville, Ontario, Hoecht will play for what he considers his hometown team on Thursday night. He\u2019s an outside linebacker for the Buffalo Bills, who will open Highmark Stadium against another border team, the Detroit Lions.<\/p>\n
As part of the pregame festivities, the Bills decided to stage the U.S. and Canadian anthems.\u00a0The one-off decision has confused some fans and drawn criticism from commentators<\/a> who questioned why a U.S.-based team would perform Canada\u2019s anthem amid the countries\u2019 trade dispute.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everything,\u201d Hoecht said this week in the Bills\u2019 locker room, \u201chas to be a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bills\u2019 front office finds itself in a weird place.<\/p>\n Sports teams frequently frame financial decisions as goodwill. In this case, however, one person\u2019s kind gesture can be interpreted as a political provocation.<\/p>\n No, inviting Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies to perform their national anthem in a stadium visible from across Lake Erie wasn\u2019t about social or geopolitical harmony, the Bills insist. (\u201cMoana\u201d star Auli\u02bbi Cravalho will follow with \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.\u201d)<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, it\u2019s all about the business,\u201d said Pete Guelli, Bills president of business operations. \u201cThis is part of a broader marketing effort into Southern Ontario and Toronto. It\u2019s been a critical part of our business model, and it\u2019s going to continue to be. This has been in the works prior to anything that\u2019s come up on the (geopolitical) front.\u201d<\/p>\n At a time of great rancor, the Bills want to remind a large fraction of their fans that they\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n But the expected side effect can be soothing too.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bills have already acknowledged the fanbase is important and that they\u2019re trying to grow the fanbase,\u201d said Andrew Nicholls, a Midland, Ontario, native who teaches British, Canadian and European history at Buffalo State.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing wrong with that. And if you tie it to the fact so many of your fans cross the border to see your team in your new stadium, making them feel at home is nice. I can see both scenarios being true at once.\u201d<\/p>\n Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed last month. Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports. Prime Minister Mark Carney enacted retaliatory tariffs. The U.S. will ban imports of certain Canadian goods outright beginning Sept. 29.<\/p>\n Since late 2024, Trump has repeatedly suggested Canada could become the 51st state and referred to then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as \u201cGovernor Trudeau.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis destruction of our historic alliance has made Canadians really, really mad and also scared as a country,\u201d Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that there\u2019s ever any coming back from that because it has been such an eruption. But this kind of gesture still matters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more points of light we see like this in what we feel as an emerging and terrifying darkness, the more we are reminded that one day this can be repaired, we view it with fondness.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bills\u2019 campaign into Canada has been years in the making<\/a>.<\/p>\n NFL bylaws define a club\u2019s territory as everything within a 75-mile radius around its stadium. That includes Toronto, Canada\u2019s largest city. About 21 percent of Canada\u2019s population lives within Buffalo\u2019s designated market.<\/p>\n From 2008 through 2013, the Bills Toronto Series relocated eight Buffalo home games \u2014 six regular season, two preseason \u2014 to the Rogers Centre. The experiment was a PR disaster, but after a hiatus that included Terry Pegula buying the club after Ralph Wilson\u2019s death, the Bills started courting Canadians again.<\/p>\n \u201cBuffalo\u2019s a small market,\u201d Guelli said, \u201cbut when you combine it with the Greater Toronto Area, it\u2019s a top-five NFL market. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 percent of our PSL holders are Canadian. Our waiting list is closer to 20 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve built a multibillion-dollar stadium and firmed up this team in our market for the next 30-plus years; Canada was an important part of that and always will be.\u201d<\/p>\n In December 2024, the Bills sold minority stakes to Toronto Raptors legends Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady and former Toronto FC star Jozy Altidore.<\/p>\n Last year, the NFL awarded Buffalo marketing rights to all of Canada through the league\u2019s Global Markets Program. The Bills also partnered with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to grow youth football, including joint camps with the CFL\u2019s Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s pull is obvious to Western New Yorkers.\u00a0This season, the Bills expanded their radio network<\/a> to TSN affiliates in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, with national availability through iHeartRadio Canada.<\/p>\n In a team-sponsored stunt Wednesday morning on the Niagara River, former Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick made a \u201ccross-border completion\u201d<\/a> to old mate Stevie Johnson from one boat to another.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of Canadians make up a large portion of our fans,\u201d Bills receiver and Brampton, Ontario, native Joshua Palmer said. \u201cThe anthem is a nice gesture. It only makes sense to show your gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n