Go North, Bills, Go North!

Yesterday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the Buffalo Bills will play a regular season game in Toronto in each of the next five seasons. The team will be the first in the league to play a game outside the U.S. on an annual basis. The Bills will also play three pre-season games, one every other year, starting this summer. Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats season-ticket holders will have first crack at the tickets, with an expected average price of $250 per ticket. Buyers will also have to buy tickets to all eight games to be played in the city through 2012. Currently at Ralph Wilson Stadium, a ticket costs about $46.

The games will be played at the Rogers Centre, which features a retractable roof and is home to the Blue Jays and Argonauts. Buffalo is only a 90-minute drive from Toronto, allowing the team to count the city as part of their territory and attract a sizeable 15,000 Canadians to their home games. Ted Rogers, who owns the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre, has partnered with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Chairman Larry Tannenbaum to lead the effort to bring NFL football to the country. Whether it's the Bills, whose current owner is 89, remains to be seen.