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Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson in no hurry to add games in Toronto - ESPN
GROSSE POINTE SHORES, Mich. -- Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson is in no hurry to have his team play more than one annual regular-season game in Toronto.
Wilson told The Associated Press on Sunday he'd prefer waiting "two or three years" to determine whether the northern experiment is a success before he'd consider reworking the contract reached last year with Toronto-based Rogers Communications. The Bills are locked into playing five regular-season -- one a year -- and three preseason games in Toronto under the agreement which runs through 2012.
Rogers officials have expressed interest in adding at least one additional regular-season game a year, particularly if the NFL goes forward with a proposal to expand its regular-season schedule to 17 or 18 games.
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High-priced tickets averaging just under $200 were considered a major reason why Toronto organizers experienced difficulty selling out Buffalo's regular-season game against Miami on Dec. 7. There were also thousands of empty seats for Buffalo's preseason game against Pittsburgh in August.
Organizers have already attempted addressed that concern by lowering prices by 17 percent, including pricing 11,000 tickets at less than $100. Last year, only 4,700 tickets were priced at under $100.
Another disappointment for the Bills was how the game lacked a "home" atmosphere. Aside from being played inside the domed Rogers Centre, rather than in the wintery outdoors at Ralph Wilson Stadium, there was also a large contingent of Dolphins fans in attendance for Miami's 16-3 win.
The Bills "host" another AFC East rival, the New York Jets, in this year's game at Toronto,scheduled for Dec. 3. Buffalo is not scheduled to play a preseason game in Toronto until next summer.
The Bills were interested in playing in Toronto in a bid to expand their market and tap into the revenue-generating potential of Canada's largest city and financial capital. Toronto is considered part of the Bills' market, and located about a 90-minute drive east of Buffalo.
The deal is already paying off for the Bills, who are getting $78 million -- more than double their calculated 2006 operating income -- to effectively lease their games to Toronto organizers.
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