Bills Toronto Series

[3] On December 3, 2014, it was announced that a deal had been reached to terminate the remainder of the contract, ending the Bills' experiment in Toronto.

The Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League played a preseason game at Buffalo's Civic Stadium in 1951.

For instance, the 2010 Toronto Series preseason game had nearly 15,000 available seats but was still seen on television within the stadium's blackout zone.

In September 2006, Tanenbaum and Rogers held a news conference, where the two men discussed bringing an NFL franchise to Toronto.

[25] In February 2008, Wilson avoided questions about a possible permanent move for the Bills to Toronto while discussing "high rates" for Series ticket prices.

[6] The deal Wilson struck with the Toronto group allows them to bid on and relocate other available NFL franchises up for sale.

[26] The series set the record for the largest gate revenue for a single event in the history of the Rogers Centre, at C$8 million, although this was later surpassed by UFC 129.

[27] On May 22, 2012, the league gave their approval for a five-year extension to the Bills Toronto Series through 2017 should the two sides reach an agreement.

[29] Financial terms of the renewal agreement were not disclosed, but it was reported that Rogers paid roughly half of the $78 million the original deal cost.

[30][31] With the series entering its second phase, a perceived lack of interest amongst Toronto fans and the diminishing crowds attending games have been criticized.

[32] The first four years of the series were widely suspected to have included large ticket giveaways ("'papering' the stadium") in order to increase attendance.

At the time of renewal, the series was presented as a simple business deal offering lucrative NFL content to Rogers and increased revenue to the Bills with no hint of possible team relocation.

[31] With the future of Bills continually in doubt, fan reaction in Buffalo to the Toronto series has ranged from "outright anger [to] begrudging acceptance" that the revenue provided helps the team.

[38] Brandon has noted one success: attendance by Canadian fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium had increased from 11% to 20% at the time of the renewal agreement.

"[3][41] Brandon described it as "a one-year postponement to go into a deeper dive of evaluation about the future"[40] so that the team has "a more robust fan experience and try to create more of a home field advantage for us.

"[35][36] Keith Pelley, President of Rogers Communications, said that "the plan is to postpone it for one year, regroup and determine what's the next best step".

[42] Following the death of Wilson in late March 2014, Edward Rogers III and Larry Tanenbaum, board members of Toronto-based sports conglomerate Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, teamed with Jon Bon Jovi to submit a bid to purchase the team, with the expectation that they would relocate it to Toronto on a full-time basis.

[43] On December 3, 2014, it was announced that the Bills and Rogers Communications had reached an agreement to cancel the Toronto Series.

[49] Rogers Communications offered partial refunds to ticketholders who had purchased seats in 2008 and who were affected by the price reduction.

It marked the only time in the Toronto Series that attendance rose over the previous season, with the game seeing a slight increase from 50,746 to 51,579, significantly below the team's average of 69,282 that year.

The Bills faced the Seattle Seahawks in their regular-season Toronto Series game on December 16, at 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox.

With 28 seconds remaining Bills' quarterback EJ Manuel completed a pass to Stevie Johnson, which likely would have set up a game-winning field goal.