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Two months after tickets to the Buffalo Bills’ games in Toronto went on sale, there still are about 11,000 tickets unsold for the first three games north of the border.
That seems to be a sign that ticket prices in Toronto, which will be the highest in the NFL, are pricier than Canadian fans want to pay. But officially, the folks in charge of tickets at the Rogers Centre in Toronto say they’re happy with the pace of sales.
“We’re really pleased with the way it’s moved,” Rogers director of football operations Adrian Montgomery told the Buffalo News. “[W]e’re thrilled with the number of tickets they’ve purchased, particularly since, to this point, we’ve only offered them on a multi-game, multi-year basis.”
Still, many Canadian fans must be irked at how much more they’re expected to pay than fans have to pay to see games at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The cheap seats are going for $183, and the lower bowl and club seat tickets range from $350 to $575.
The Bills have been guaranteed $78 million for the eight-game series of five regular-season games and three preseason games in Toronto over the next five years.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
They’ll have no trouble selling tickets after they acquire Brett Favre from Green Bay. ;^)
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Can’t blame the Canadians for not paying those prices, eh? Who wants to see a Bills game anyway you hosers? Take off, eh?
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 9:35 am
As a Torontonian who is a big NFL fan, I never even considered going to see the Bills play in Toronto. Those prices are just ridiculous. It’s way cheaper (and not that much more difficult) to make the drive to Buffalo to see them play. Also, the Bills aren’t exactly at the top of my list of teams I would like to see play.
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Rating: 3.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Being a huge NFL fan and Canadian living in Toronto I can tell you it’s a combination of the ticket prices and the fact that it’s the Bills playing…if it were a ’sexier’ team like Dallas or New England the tickets would be long sold out….also there are 100 different bus trips offered for every Bills home game for considerable less than a single ticket for games played here
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hardcore Bills fan in Toronto. Got my seasons seats in Buffalo for less than the Miami game is costing here. I hope the whole thing is just a mess. Only breweries and corporate can afford seats like this. Utter bs.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am
they have packages the tickets in such a way that if you want to see the regular season game of Bills vs Dolphins (there’s a great matchup!!!) then you have to spend a minimum of $300 (incl. tax) for the worst seat in the house. If you want a lower bowl 50 yard line ticket then it’s costing you over $800. Sorry but I can get a flight to anywhere in the US and a ticket to a decent game for that price and enjoy a weekend away from the wife.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 9:45 am
This is an obvious ploy to get Favre to play for the Rams
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July 21st, 2008 at 10:08 am
the prices are nuts. The Bills get a ton of fans down from Canada for home games (and Sabres/Leafs games), but the people that come aren’t Toronto high-rollers. Rodgers is pricing out the most enthusiastic, and therefore, best fans. They’ll sell out though, the stadium only holds like 53k.
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 10:17 am
They just opened up the first pre-season game tickets to be sold individually. Before you had to buy as a package. They’ll sell out fast now I think…
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 10:41 am
This writer has it so wrong! The real story is that ONLY 11k tickets remain for the 3 games. Figure the stadium holds 53k per game - that works out to only 7% of the seats remaining unsold. Factor in that one of the games is preseason (Yawn!!), the ticket prices are Outrageous, and only recently could one purchase single game tickets. To me, this suggests that demand for the NFL in Toronto is very strong indeed!
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Rating: 2.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
BigEd1340am says:
July 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
Are there really any Canidiots(Canadians)left up there during those months?? Isn’t it Law they have to be down here in Florida driving slow in the left lane with blinker on from Sept to April
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Holy crap.
#1
like. #1. You’re a genius, sir.
Fact: Canadians drive faster than us Americans. Uh Oh.
Fact: Canadians who go down to florida HELP the floridian economy.. which is G O O D. good. muy bien. excellente. get it?
Fact: There is no such law.
Fact: You’re a douchebag.
Fact: You’re from Florida. Therefore you’re a failure.
Get a life. (Or try jumping off a bridge.)
Todd from Cleveland
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Rating: 3.85 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
July 21st, 2008 at 11:28 am
Ralph Wilson and Ted Rogers are trying to ripoff Toronto fans! And they know what real ticket prices really are in other places ESPECIALLY for exhibition games. Sure Season ticket holders are forced to pay for those 2 home exhibitions at same rate BUT they get 8 games plus possible playoffs to see. Or (at least)4 times as many games of importance 8 to 2.
Rogers and Wilson want Toronto fans not only to overpay by several times but want to force you to buy that worthless exhibition game if you want to see the late season game.
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July 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
todd from cleveland - not that i condone biged’s comments, but cleveland sucks. if you are from cleveland then you, and your football team, are both failures.
HERE WE GO STEELERS!!!
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July 21st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Why don’t the Bills move to London. I hear they sell out tickets quick.
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July 21st, 2008 at 1:20 pm
those tickets are pricey even by corporate standards.
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July 21st, 2008 at 1:23 pm
The bills would sell out the rest of their games if they would sign Culpepper
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July 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The points about outragous prices, etc. have already been made. I’m Canadian and signed up for the list of people to be eligible to buy the package but once I saw the prices, I said forget it. I pay for the NFL Sunday Ticket package now so unless those prices come closer to what I got Chargers tickets for when we vacationed in San Diego at Xmas, 2005, they won’t see any of my $. As for the Canadians in Florida remark, those are the retirees, who come down there to prop up your economy. Those retirees drive just as bad up here and I’m sure a few of them are also from other locations (ie - other States) as well.
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July 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Todd is correct
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July 21st, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I think the real story here is that the Bills are selling more Tickets in Toronto at outragous prices than the Jaguars are selling in Jacksonville.
This is the best argument why the Jaguars should be moved to Toronto, LA, Las Vegas or Podunk, at least they would have fans in the seats.
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July 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
First of all I am a Canadian who lives in the Toronto area for 8 months of the year and I looked in to buying tickets for the games in Toronto. I can tell you that tickets are horribly over priced and that single game tickets were not available for sale. If you had an interest in attending the game(s) you had to buy them in packages of either 3 or 5 game packages. This would have costed atleast $200 (a lot more then people can afford right now)
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July 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I don’t care how many tickets are left for the three games in Toronto, I feel that the Canadian people who pay the price of admission are getting royally hosed the Rogers Centre, the Bills and the NFL (not necessarily in that order.) Those ticket prices are completely insane. Like the Bills/Dolphins is some kind of marque match up.
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July 21st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
@ajgoldie,Buffalo has sexy uniforms.
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July 21st, 2008 at 8:14 pm
“I don’t care how many tickets are left for the three games in Toronto, I feel that the Canadian people who pay the price of admission are getting royally hosed the Rogers Centre
”
That’s why the McZenzie brothers called their fellow Canadians “hosers”!
Toronto and Ontario taxpayers built the Skydome and Rogers then somehow got the city government to give it to him for peanuts. And he even changed the Skydome name to Rogers Center after himself.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
To those whining that these prices are targeting corporate clients and it’s cheaper for the average Canadian fan to drive down to Buffalo and buy a seat there: that’s exactly the point. The Bills aren’t moving one regular season game to Toronto as a gesture of goodwill - it’s because Buffalo doesn’t have that kind of corporate money for the franchise to target.
So yes, Gord from Mississauga, you can’t afford these seats - just like you can’t afford Leafs tickets, and you’ll keep making the drive south to see the Bills and the Sabres and we’ll put up with you.
It will be a sad day if the Bills do move permanently from Buffalo to Toronto - not just for the city of Buffalo, but for the average fans in southern Ontario, too.
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August 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 am
You people overrate the NFL’s influence outside of your borders.
IN Toronto, the Maple Leafs are king.
If the Leafs played a game at the Skydome at the same prices, the bloody thing would sellout in five minutes.
Interest in this Buffalo Bills venture into Tranna is mainly from the media.
The general public could care less. As exhibited by the fact there’s still 8000 tickets available for the game in August.
The big news here is if Mats Sundin will resign with the Leafs.
The NFL game will be forgotten an hour after its played.
Just telling it like it is.
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