Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson has held talks about continuing their annual games in Toronto, he reported via an AP interview today.
Asked about extending the agreement with Toronto, Wilson replied, “Oh yeah, we want to renew it. We were talking to them recently, and they want to renew it.”
Wilson indicated that one of the key conditions of renewing the agreement is lowering ticket prices. He said that the Toronto-based communications that the Bills partner with, Rogers Communications, acknowledged that ticket prices had been too high, at close to USD 180 per seat.
Wilson believes that the high ticket prices led to difficulty selling out games at the 54,000 seat Rogers Center.
Increasing the regional draw of the Bills, including into Canada, is a key to keeping the team in the smaller Buffalo market.
“Right now our focus would be making what we’ve done here with the Bills playing the one game in Toronto successful,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said during a visit to Ralph Wilson Stadium in October. “The more we work on that and focus on that makes it even better for this market and for Toronto, because for us, it’s all one region.”
