Bills Sponsor H.S. Football In T.O.; Leagues On Collision Course?

Bills Sponsoring Ontario High School Championship Games At Rogers Centre

With the Bills first preseason game in Toronto “drawing closer, and the CFL season about to launch, there is a sense" that the NFL and CFL are "headed for some sort of collision course,” according to David Naylor of the GLOBE & MAIL. The Bills, at a press conference below the Rogers Centre stands that are “decked out for tomorrow’s CFL preseason game,” announced that the Ontario high school championship games will be sponsored by the Bills Toronto series. The games will be played at the Rogers Centre leading up to the December 7 Bills-Dolphins game and will be played on an NFL-sized field. It also was announced that the Bills will wear a Bills Toronto series jersey patch for each game the team plays in the city. Meanwhile, 90% of the approximately 30,000 tickets that went on sale in May have been sold. However, “only about half of the 9,000 VIP seats, ranging in price from $350 to $575 a game have been sold.” Bills Toronto Series GM Adrian Montgomery said that the “marketing of those seats to high-end corporate customers is just under way” (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/18). In Toronto, Bill Lankhoff writes, “While Toronto organizers may be painting a happy face, when the standard and premium tickets sold add up to less than 40,000 it does leave room to wonder if somewhere the ghosts of Argos past are yanking [NFL Commissioner] Roger Goodell’s chain” (TORONTO SUN, 6/18).

Youthful Enthusiasm: In Toronto, David Grossman reports the Bills and Rogers Communications are paying a “$50,000 annual tab” to sponsor the Ontario high school games. And Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations Special Projects Coordinator Mike Thorpe “didn’t seem to think the school teams would have much difficulty playing the Canadian game on a field configured for the NFL.” Thorpe: “Other than the difference in posts for field goals, and a smaller field, there really won’t be that much of an issue. We have a sponsor and we’re indoors. Those were our biggest problems” (TORONTO STAR, 6/18).