Are you one of the 180,000 that have expressed an interest in tickets to see the Buffalo Bills play at the Rogers Centre? I find that astounding, but that’s how many people Anthony Viner, president and chief executive officer of Rogers Media, says have declared their interest.

This is an amazing deal for the Buffalo Bills, who had the lowest ticket prices in the NFL in 2007 with an average price of a mere $51.24. There are approximately 62,000 seats at Ralph Wilson Stadium and the average take per game is $6 million which includes revenue for tickets and concessions. In sharp contrast the Bills will be paid $78 million Canadian for playing 8 games - 5 regular season games and 3 exhibition games - at the Rogers Centre which amounts to almost $10 million Canadian per game. Rogers is part of a consortium that negotiated this deal with the Bills that runs through 2012. The Buffalo Bills will provide the team, the NFL will provide the opponent and the Toronto consortium will sell tickets, concessions, and promote the event.

Ticket prices have yet to be announced but there is talk that they could go as high as $350.00 and I wonder how many of the 180,000 who are interested are interested enough to pony up that kind of money to watch an NFL game. At the Rogers Centre on August 14th the Buffalo Bills will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in an exhibition game and on December 7th the Buffalo Bills will play the Miami Dolphins in Toronto in a regular season game. In 2009 Buffalo will play 1 regular season game in Toronto. In 2010 they will play 1 regular and 1 preseason game in Toronto. In 2011 they will play 1 regular season game in Toronto and in 2012 they will play 1 preseason and 1 regular season game in Toronto.

The Buffalo Bills will be the first NFL team in history to play annual games outside of the USA. Will you be attending? For more information follow the link to the Rogers Centre website. http://www.rogerscentre.com