National Football League in Toronto The National Football League ( NFL ) has long been rumoured to be considering placing one of its franchises in Canada ' s most - populous city , Toronto , Ontario . Toronto is the fifth most populous city in North America , and the fourth - largest market in English - speaking North America . While the Canadian Football League ( CFL ) has professional Canadian football teams in Toronto ( the Argonauts ) and nearby Hamilton ( the Tiger - Cats ) , there are no professional American football teams in Canada , NFL or otherwise . Despite being in Canada , Toronto is physically farther south than existing NFL franchises in Minnesota , Seattle and Green Bay , and has teams in each of the other major professional sports leagues : the Maple Leafs in hockey , the Blue Jays in baseball , the Raptors in basketball , Toronto F . C . in soccer , and the Rock in lacrosse . Furthermore , San Diego Chargers executive Dean Spanos , speaking in regards to international NFL play , was quoted in January 2008 that " the long term goal is globalizing our sport " and that " it is possible that within five or 10 years , the league will have franchises outside the United States . " Toronto would most notably be competing with Los Angeles , the second most - populous city in the U . S . , for an NFL franchise . History . The first professional U . S . football team to play a home game in Toronto was the Los Angeles Wildcats , a traveling team in the American Football League of 1926 ; the original AFL was the first major competitor to the National Football League for the dominance of professional football . Because the Wildcats nominally represented Los Angeles , California , a city to which frequent travel still posed a major obstacle , the Wildcats instead were based in Illinois and played most of its games in the home stadiums of its opponents , with the exception of a February 1927 West Coast road trip and their lone game in Toronto . The Toronto game ( which the Wildcats lost to the New York Football Yankees , 29 – 0 ) was relatively popular ; at the time , Canadian football still more closely resembled rugby football and had not yet adopted the forward pass . Three years after the game , Canadian football allowed the forward pass . The NFL has had a presence in Toronto since 1959 , when the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League played three NFL teams in a three - season span . These exhibition game s , which had been first tried in Ottawa in 1950 and were later staged in Montreal , were played by CFL rules in the first half and NFL rules in the second . Despite the Argos having the services of all - star fullback Cookie Gilchrist , injury problems led to many of the Argonauts ' losses ; the Argos at this time were in a rut and had missed the playoffs several times since 1953 . The Bills themselves , then an American Football League team , tried their hand with a game against the nearby Hamilton Tiger - Cats . Unprepared , Buffalo lost the game 38 – 21 . After several years , the American Bowl series brought three preseason games to Toronto from 1993 to 1997 ; with two featuring the Bills . Former Toronto Blue Jays CEO and President Paul Godfrey has been interested in pursuing an NFL franchise for Toronto since 1988 . Before recent developments , most skeptics believed that it would be too expensive to bring an NFL team to Toronto and most possible investors may shy away from the approximately US $ 1 billion price tag that an NFL franchise comes with . Additionally , an NFL team in Toronto would likely have to pay its players in U . S . dollars while reporting its revenues in Canadian dollars - - the same anomaly that faces the NHL ' s Canadian teams . Then - NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue himself dismissed the prospects of a Toronto team in 2006 , although he left the door open to including Toronto in the NFL International Series . The late Ted Rogers , owner of Rogers Communications , and Larry Tanenbaum met in 2008 and discussed the possibility of an NFL franchise in Toronto . Tannenbaum said that he and Rogers were " highly interested " in bringing an NFL franchise to Toronto . He also was quoted as going to " pursue it more rigorously " as soon as the NFL gave him the word . Buffalo Bills . For decades , the Bills have had a large market in southern Ontario , with the team averaging 15 , 000 Canadian fans to Ralph Wilson Stadium per game . On October 18 , 2007 , the Bills announced plans that they were seeking approval to play a pre - season and at least one regular season game in Toronto in an attempt to capitalize on the Canadian market . The team has a Canadian sales office and a radio affiliate in Toronto , CJCL . The NFL ' s television rules have also been applied in a similar manner to secondary markets in the U . S . , so that nearly all Bills games are televised in Toronto ( on CFTO and CITY ) , except for home games that do not sell out ( the Toronto television market extends to the Canadian border in Fort Erie , Ontario , well within the 75 - mile ( 120 km ) radius of Ralph Wilson Stadium , and is thus subject to the league ' s blackout policy . On January 30 , 2008 , it was announced that the Bills reached an agreement to play five annual regular - season and three exhibition NFL games , beginning with the 2008 season , in Toronto . On Thursday , April 3 ( although it had been leaked through various sources as early as early March ) , it was announced that the Bills would play the Pittsburgh Steelers in a pre - season game on Thursday , August 14 , 2008 , at Rogers Centre . On April 15 , the regular season match was revealed , with the Bills hosting their division rivals , the Miami Dolphins , on December 7 . The Bills lost 16 - 3 . Both games had ticket prices from C $ 55 to C $ 295 and VIP tickets from C $ 325 to C $ 575 . The average ticket price of C $ 183 was significantly above the highest average price in the NFL ( after converting to U . S . dollars ) , and nearly four times the Bills ' ticket prices ( which were the lowest in the league ) . The first of these games took place in the 2008 NFL season . The preseason game against the Steelers was one day before the Toronto Argonauts played in the same stadium ( the Rogers Centre game was at the same date and time as a Hamilton Tiger - Cats road game , in Winnipeg ) . Buffalo won the game , 24 – 21 , but the game was marred by reports that organizers had to give away over 10 , 000 tickets to assure a sellout crowd , an accusation Ted Rogers denied . The regular season game against Miami was played after the end of the 2008 CFL season ; the Bills , led by backup quarterback J . P . Losman , lost to the Dolphins 16 – 3 , eliminating them from playoff contention for the ninth straight year . Reportedly , about half of the fans in attendance were Dolphins fans . Rogers Communications paid C $ 78 million to host the games , hiring a general manager and management staff to handle the games . There is speculation that when Ralph Wilson , Jr . dies , interests ( including Godfrey ) would bid for the franchise in hopes of moving the Bills to Toronto . For 2009 , ticket prices were lowered an average of 17 % . The game was a featured night game on NFL Network ' s Thursday Night Football package between the Bills and the New York Jets . Again , the Bills lost 19 - 13 . Rogers Communications announced in March 2009 that it was in a position to renegotiate the agreement and that they would be able to land another regular - season Bills game to create a three - game package beginning in 2010 . In 2010 , the Bills lost to the Chicago Bears , 22 - 19 . NFL officials were considering expanding the season to 18 games in 2011 , possibly incorporating international play , but such an expansion was not included in the next collective bargaining agreement . Regardless , any additional regular season games in Toronto would require the approval of the NFL owners , and if the game resulted in the loss of a regular season game at Ralph Wilson Stadium , it would also require the approval of Erie County and the Empire State Development Corporation . Rogers has repeatedly expressed interest in expanding the series to four games per season — an even split between Buffalo and Toronto ; the Bills organization opposes such a move and says that under no circumstance will the Toronto Series be expanded to more than one regular season game each year . In the 2011 Bills " State of the Team " address , team CEO Russ Brandon said that the series has been a major success and that it has increased the Toronto share of ticket sales by 44 % from prior to the series , despite the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and the team ' s overall decline in ticket sales . The team intends to renew the Toronto Series agreement in conjunction with its lease on Ralph Wilson Stadium at the appropriate time . In 2011 , the Bills beat the Washington Redskins , 23 - 0 . The following year , the Bills lost to the Seattle Seahawks 17 - 50 The NFL ' s dealings with Toronto have led to speculation that the NFL may be considering moving the Bills or another team to Toronto permanently . The Bills are the most frequently named team for such a move , due to their standing connections with Ontario . In addition , the Bills play in one of the league ' s smallest markets ; they have no waiting list for season tickets , and though they avoided blackouts in 2007 and 2008 , in the 2010 season three of their seven regular season games at Ralph Wilson Stadium were blacked out , as was their annual " Kids Day " preseason game ( which normally sells out with its discounted tickets for children ) , and the team narrowly avoided a fourth blackout when a local restaurateur bought the remaining tickets for a Patriots game immediately before the blackout deadline . The Bills also failed to sell out the last three home games of the 2011 season ; their last game of the season , against the Denver Broncos , was particularly poorly attended , with only 45 , 000 fans in attendance , half of which were either fans of the Broncos or of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow . The last four home games ( not counting the game already in Toronto ) of the 2012 season , including a prime time contest , are also unlikely to sell out , with three of the four having over 20 , 000 seats remaining available as of September 2012 . The difficulties in selling tickets for Bills games , particularly late in the season ( when western New York ' s weather becomes much poorer ) , dates to the 1990s , which was part of the reason behind removing 7 , 000 seats from the stadium in the 2008 renovation ; the problems have escalated in recent years . Western New York ' s economic problems force the Bills to keep their average ticket prices among the lowest in the NFL , though several teams offer lower prices than the Bills do , offset by higher prices in other parts of the stadiums ; this is also a factor in the team ' s refusal to take advantage of the loosening of blackout restrictions in 2012 , a move that alienated a large number of Bills fans . Additionally , the team has not made the playoffs since 1999 , the longest active playoff drought in the league ; Buffalo has the dubious distinction of being the only NFL team to have not made the playoffs in the 21st century ( the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions broke their playoff droughts in 2011 ) . Owner Ralph Wilson has said that he will never move the team ; he turned 94 in 2012 ( the oldest owner in the history of the NFL ) , is in declining health , and has no apparent successor ; his family may sell the team after his death . The Bills ' lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium was set to expire following the 2012 season , which would have left the team free to move . In January 2012 the league requested renovations to Ralph Wilson Stadium costing approximately $ 130 million as a condition of renewing the lease . The Bills later indicated that the renovations necessary to keep the team in Buffalo would be over $ 200 million . The Bills agreed to a short - term lease extension on Ralph Wilson Stadium in late 2012 , one that is pending municipal approval . Although the ten - year deal has extreme punitive penalties for terminating the lease early , it also allows for a smaller buyout of the remaining portion of the lease after seven years . The lease also indicates that the Bills ' future in the stadium is unlikely beyond the end of the lease ( the county and state only agreed to a portion of the renovation monies the Bills had requested ) and that if the Bills are to stay in Buffalo , a newer , more modern stadium ( the prospects of which will be studied as part of the lease agreement ) would need to be constructed . This also does not necessarily ensure the Bills ' presence in Buffalo will be guaranteed for seven years ; for instance , the Houston Oilers got out of their lease early by announcing their intentions to leave three years in advance , forcing the city of Houston to terminate the lease early due to a collapse in fan support . Other teams mentioned as relocation candidates are the Jacksonville Jaguars , the Minnesota Vikings , and the New Orleans Saints . Like the Bills , the Jaguars play in one of the NFL ' s smallest markets . For several years they had trouble selling out EverBank Field , culminating in the 2009 season , when all but one of their home games was blacked out ; however in 2010 a public relations push raised their ticket sales considerably , and Jacksonville had no blackouts that year . The Jaguars were sold to automobile parts tycoon Shahid Khan in 2011 , who made a verbal commitment to keeping the team in Jacksonville ; outgoing owner Wayne Weaver rejected overtures from outside interests who would have moved the team ; the Jaguars are locked into a lease on the stadium through 2027 and will also become the regular tenants for the NFL International Series games in London beginning in 2013 . The Vikings have been discussed as their lease on the Hubert H . Humphrey Metrodome expired in 2011 ; they have so far been unable to secure a new stadium deal in Minneapolis . The team is one of the few NFL franchises losing money . A deal for a new Vikings Stadium was in the works , thus quieting relocation talk , but the negotiations fell through , and the situation was further complicated by the collapse of the Metrodome ' s inflatable roof during the 2010 season . Since then , two proposals have been made ; one by the city of Minneapolis , and the other by suburban Ramsey County . After the Minnesota Legislature approved a stadium - financing deal for a new stadium at the current Metrodome site in May 2012 , the Vikings were effectively eliminated from the pool of potential relocating teams . Similarly , the fate of the Saints was unsure after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and severely damaged the Louisiana Superdome in 2005 . However , the Saints and Louisiana struck a deal to repair and renovate the Superdome , securing the Saints ties to New Orleans ; the Saints ' attachment to New Orleans was further cemented when they won Super Bowl XLIV in 2010 . Potential roadblocks . Despite these inroads , many commentators consider NFL expansion into Toronto unlikely for the foreseeable future . The biggest roadblock is the league ' s determination to place a team in Los Angeles , which NFL official Eric Grubman calls " one of our top goals " . According to some commentators , unless there are financial or political roadblocks in LA , this focus on Los Angeles will likely override any prospects of moving into Toronto . The Canadian Football League ' s Toronto Argonauts currently play in the city and have in the past been protected from American competition . The World Football League intended to place a franchise in Toronto known as the Toronto Northmen , but then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau threatened to pass a Canadian Football Act to prevent such a move . The WFL backed down and moved the team to Memphis , Tennessee , where it became known as the Memphis Southmen and later the " Mid - South Grizzlies " in a failed bid to join the NFL . ( However , there were no complaints when the same league briefly moved the struggling Detroit Wheels to London , Ontario , which had no CFL team at the time , and still does not . ) American teams that " have " made their home in Toronto include the Continental Football League ' s Toronto Rifles ( 1965 – 67 , founded as the Quebec Rifles in 1964 ) and the Arena Football League ' s Toronto Phantoms ( 2000 – 02 , founded as the New York CityHawks in 1997 and , incidentally , owned by Rogers during its time in Toronto ) . The Rifles , too , faced resistance from the CFL , as the Argonauts signed Rifles coach Leo Cahill , quarterback Tom Wilkinson and running back Joe Williams a few weeks into the 1967 season , forcing the team to fold . Any NFL team that entered the Toronto market would have to deal with the Argonauts as well as the Hamilton Tiger - Cats , who play in nearby Hamilton , Ontario and have vehemently opposed any presence of the NFL in Canada . The Tiger - Cats responded to the Bills ' move to play games in Toronto by making an April Fool ' s Day mock announcement on April 1 , 2008 that they would move one of their home games against the Montreal Alouettes to Ralph Wilson Stadium ( even though the playing surface at that stadium is too small to accommodate a CFL - size field ) , and would play the Bills in a rematch of their 1961 contest , which the Tiger - Cats won , in June 2008 ( when the Bills would be in minicamp and the Ti - Cats would be playing preseason ) . Former NFL receiver Oronde Gadsden even went further and suggested in February 2009 that a CFL expansion franchise be placed in nearby Rochester . Another major issue would be the stadium . Although Paul Godfrey believed that the Rogers Centre could be home to an NFL franchise , it is unclear if the Rogers Centre could be a long - term home . Rogers Centre ( formerly " SkyDome " ) , a retractable roof stadium , has a maximum capacity of 54 , 088 when configured for CFL games ; in comparison , although the Centre ' s capacity is above the NFL ' s 50 , 000 - seat minimum , it would still be the smallest capacity stadium in the league , since the smallest NFL stadium in terms of capacity ( excluding the exhibition - only stadiums in Canton and Honolulu ) is Chicago ' s Soldier Field , which has 61 , 500 seats . While extra seats could be added near the end zones as a result of the shorter NFL field ( an NFL exhibition at the SkyDome in 1995 fit almost 55 , 800 fans into the stadium ) , a large - scale expansion would be very difficult because of the stadium ' s design . This means that a new football specific stadium would have to be built . Then - mayor David Miller , has stated that funding for a new stadium would not come from the City of Toronto and would have to come from private sources . Counteracting this small capacity is the large number of luxury box es in the stadium , which count as " unshared " revenue in the NFL ' s revenue sharing and collective bargaining agreement s . In 2011 , the new mayor of Toronto , Rob Ford , stated he favored an NFL team in Toronto , although he also ruled out public financing for a new stadium . He and brother Doug Ford , a member of the Toronto City Council , plan on presenting a proposal to league owners regarding the potential relocation of either the Jaguars or the Saints to Toronto , with the intention of relocating another team to Los Angeles and building a larger stadium in Toronto . This would cause serious problems for Buffalo , since not only would it possibly lose its Canadian fan base , said loss would render Buffalo nearly incapable of supporting an NFL team such as the Bills . Unless the Bills were the team to relocate to Los Angeles , there would be few relocation options for the Bills if two teams , not including the Bills , were to take the Toronto and Los Angeles markets . It would also be virtually impossible to contract the franchise ( the last attempt to do so in a major league , the Montreal Expos in 2002 , was rejected by the players ' union ) , leaving the league in the awkward situation of having to maintain a team without an NFL - caliber market to place it . Incidentally , the largest market outside of Toronto and Los Angeles without an NFL team is Montreal , which has an NFL - capacity stadium and a natural rivalry with Toronto but a history of tepid support of football ( as evidenced by the failure of the CFL ' s original Montreal Alouettes as well as their successors , the Concordes ) and a complicated relationship with the rest of English - speaking North America ; although a large portion of Montreal speaks English , it is the only city in the predominantly French - speaking province of Quebec with a sizable Anglophone population , and the province as a whole has an active separatist movement seeking to withdraw from Canadian confederation . Another obstacle would be the willingness , or ability , of players from the US to play and live in Canada , which has been a cautionary lesson from other non - NHL sports leagues based in Canada like the NBA and MLB . The Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors have had several star players in history demand to be traded away or leave outright . More importantly , players that have previously been convicted of crimes can be banned from either the United States or Canada , which would affect roster moves ( for instance , the 2011 Bills Toronto Series game was originally rumored to be against the Philadelphia Eagles before it was realized that Eagles quarterback Michael Vick , a convicted felon , would not have been allowed into Canada to play the game ) . Ted Rogers , the man responsible for leasing the Bills from Ralph Wilson for the Toronto Series and considered a leading contender for landing a Toronto NFL franchise , died in December 2008 at the age of 75 . The lease was transferred to Rogers ' company , Rogers Communications , in which Rogers had held a majority stake . Corporate ownership is forbidden under the league ' s ownership policy , which would not allow the company to buy the team outright .