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Goal-Line Stand » All Tags » Bills in Toronto (RSS)

  • Video: Fans overtake Canadian anthem

    We've alluded to this moment on a few occasions. In fact, it's been mentioned pretty much everywhere . That's what happens when you get such a dog game: It was all downhill from there ...

  • Rear-View Monday: Bills in TO a success in eyes of NFL

    We’re going to do things a little differently this week. The week, for us, has been all about the Bills Toronto Series, so we’ll use this avenue to relay our final, broad thoughts on the series two games in. After that, we’ll get to the week that was throughout the league. Two hundred and fifty days ago, Ted Rogers and Ralph Wilson had Mr. Burns-like grins on their faces as they announced to the world that Rogers Communications would pay $78 million to Wilson in exchange for his team to play eight...

  • Bills players complain, but did they earn crowd support?

    TORONTO -- This was the beginning of what is expected to be a five-year rehearsal for NFL fans in the city of Toronto, but some things are beyond human control. Such as the potential for a horrible football game. Dolphins vs. Bills, Dec. 7, 2008: Bad football game. This isn’t an excuse, just an observation. It would’ve been hard for any crowd to get up for a game of this calibre. On Sunday, Toronto fans did their job by filling the seats. The crowd barely favoured Buffalo, and the "sell out"...

  • Dolphins-Bills Live Blog

    TORONTO -- We're live from the football press box at the Rogers Centre for the first ever National Football League regular-season game on Canadian soil. The sole purpose of the blog is to give people an indication of what things are like from within at this historically significant and somewhat controversial affair. 2:45 -- It's easily one of the coldest days of the year, which can't thrill the organizers of the tailgate party. We were considering heading over to the party to get some...

  • Sunday Preview: Historic day for Canada

    Well, we’re less than a day away. Tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. ET, at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, ON, for the fourth time in history, the National Football League will play a regular-season game on foreign soil. Not flooded with excitement? Yeah, if Rogers Communications’ incomprehensible prices, the not-quite-sold-out preseason game and a violently rejuvenated rivalry between Buffalo and Toronto weren’t enough to dull your anticipation, Uncle Ted’s death -- just five days prior to the game -- provided...

  • Bills Toronto Series Updated Quick Hits

    Sean Fitzgerald of the National Post went down to Orchard Park to investigate what we did two weeks ago: the series' effect on local businesses . “During the week, business is terrible,” Sabuda said. “That's why we look forward to the weekend of a Bills' game, the home games in particular. That's our bread and butter. That's what keeps us going throughout the year, that money.” Sabuda and his wife have owned Milligan's Pub for five years, and they will have to live without...

  • Bills Toronto Series Quick Hits (Thurs.)

    Here’s a quick look at what’s being said about the upcoming Dolphins-Bills game in Toronto. ------------------------------ Not surprisingly, former Bills great Jim Kelly is once again on his soapbox about the Bills staying in Buffalo . And while we appreciate Kelly’s passion, we’re wondering why a guy who seems so frustrated by this series keeps coming to Toronto to do every promotional event possible. ------------------------------ Legal red tape could eventually also interfere with Toronto’s chances...

  • Bills game in Toronto on pace to sell out

    Ticket sales haven’t gone the way Rogers Communications expected when it paid 800 trillion dollars* to bring eight Buffalo Bills games to Toronto over the next five NFL seasons, but a Rogers executive in charge of the series tells the Goal-Line Stand that fewer than 2,000 tickets remain for this Sunday’s Dolphins-Bills game in Toronto. “It’s very close to a sell-out,” said Adrian Montgomery on Monday, adding that about 2,000 tickets have been sold since last week. For weeks, the presumption has been...

  • Senator will re-pitch bill barring NFL from Canada

    Canadian Senator Larry Campbell made headlines in the summer when he pioneered a bill attempting to bar American football from Canada. Whatever happened to that legislative effort? Well, a couple minor things got in the way. You know, a federal election and the biggest economic downturn in 80 years... But Campbell hasn't given up on his goal to prevent the Buffalo Bills or any other NFL team from attempting a move to Canada. He told the Goal-Line Stand Monday that he planned to reintroduce the...

  • Bills Toronto Series Quick Hits

    The Globe and Mail’s Stephen Brunt points out that Barack Obama’s tax policies could significantly impact what Ralph Wilson decides to do with the Bills . …any tax reforms brought in during 2009 would be backdated to Jan. 1 of that year, anyone hoping to avoid them has only a month to do business. Already that's happening in the NFL. Miami owner Wayne Huizenga says rather grumpily that he'll complete the sale of his stake in the Dolphins before year's end. The sale of part of the Pittsburgh...

  • Godfrey remains involved in Bills Toronto Series

    Rogers Communications kingpin Paul Godfrey may have stepped down from his post as president of the Toronto Blue Jays, but the long-time proponent of bringing NFL football to Canada remains connected to the Buffalo Bills’ eight-game, five-year series taking place in Toronto. “Paul is a trusted advisor on all things related to football for Rogers,” said Adrian Montgomery, the Rogers exec in charge of the series. In other Godfrey news: The former Toronto Sun publisher has been named president of the...

  • An overlooked angle of the Bills Toronto Series

    All this talk about the fans, but as the Dolphins-Bills game in Toronto looms just 18 days from now, what about the people who rely upon the Bills playing eight regular-season home games in order to maintain a livelihood? I spoke to a few scalpers Monday in Orchard Park. Instead of making the trip to Toronto, most of them are going to head to Pittsburgh on Dec. 7 to work the Cowboys-Steelers game, meaning they’ll have to pay for gas and hotel rooms. They said the Miami home game is usually one of...

  • Talking Bills Toronto Series from the trenches

    With all the bitter feelings, jealousy, and frustration plaguing the Buffalo Bills’ eight-game relationship with the city of Toronto, the focus has been on the fans, and rightly so. If it weren’t for them, franchise relocation wouldn’t be so gruelling. Owners wouldn’t have to move teams, with little warning, in the dead of night . Fans on all sides of the coin (pro-Toronto Bills, pro-Buffalo Bills, pro-CFL) have vented loudly as rumours swirl that this eight-game series is a potential precursor to...

  • Bills Toronto Series preparations underway

    Driving in to work today, I noticed Bills Toronto Series ads hanging from street posts. We're 25 days away from the first regular-season NFL game ever played in Toronto. Coincidentally, I received a press release today from the Bills with the schedule of events slated for Dec. 7. Game time is 4:05 p.m. ET, but, in spite of preseason dread at the thought of having a team that went 1-15 last year taking on the Bills in the season's final month, we could have a game with some importance on our...

  • Time for Rogers to send a message

    In case you missed it, NBC’s Peter King reported on “Football Night in America” that former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly is putting a group together to buy the Bills from Ralph Wilson . Wilson, who’s kicking it at 90 years of age, has established quite the business relationship with Rogers Communications, which has the Bills playing eight games over a five-year span in the city of Toronto. Speculation is that Rogers has interest in purchasing the team upon Wilson’s death. We’ll give this to...
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