In a piece of good news for fans who want to see the Bills in Toronto -- but a bad sign for the NFL’s efforts to grow its fan base north of the border -- ticket prices for this year’s Bills home game in Toronto have been slashed.
Fans attending the Bills’ December 16 game against the Seahawks at the Rogers Centre in Toronto can get tickets for an average of 35 percent less than it cost to attend the Bills’ previous games in Toronto. Obviously, that’s great news for fans, who are growing increasingly wary of shelling out big money to attend NFL games. But it’s also obviously bad news for the NFL, the Bills, and the Rogers Centre: They’re only lowering ticket prices because the reality is that the Bills just haven’t been a hot ticket in Toronto. The Bills, who hoped to capitalize on their close proximity to Canada’s biggest city, have struggled to fill the Rogers Centre and generally been met with apathy from Toronto fans.
Tim Graham of the Buffalo News has the breakdown of ticket price reductions, including a number of tickets that used to sell for $575 and are now down to $225. Many tickets that used to go for $155 are now going for $85, and the cheapest seats have gone from $99 to $48. So seeing the Bills in Toronto will be much more affordable this year.
Unfortunately, that’s because the Bills have found out they’re not as popular in Toronto as they thought they were.