More From Toronto than Ticket Revenue

The news came out last night that Rogers Communications is ready to pay $78-million dollars to the Buffalo Bills, for the eight games to be played in Toronto over the next five years. What's not known, is how that money is disbursed between the Bills (the home team) and their opponents (the visitors). Visitors typically receive a 40-percent cut of ticket revenue to NFL regular season games (50-percent for preseason games). What's also unclear, is whether the NFL, NFL International, or NFL Canada gets part of the ticket revenue.
But what's almost as important to the Bills, are the ancillary sponsorship benefits they may reap from playing the eight game series north of the border. The main thrust of the Toronto initiative is to generate more sponsorship revenue from Canadian corporations, both in Toronto and in Orchard Park. The Bills are already at work trying to drum up sponsorship business in Ontario, in hopes that Canadians (and Canadian companies) buy into the Bills as their team. Those sponsorships really hold the key to how successful the Canadian initiative will be for the franchise. And they are critically important to the Bills long term viability in Buffalo.