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131-641: The series was conceived by a group that included former Bills owner Ralph Wilson , Ted Rogers of Rogers Communications and Larry Tanenbaum of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment . Although NFL exhibition games have been played in Canada since 1950 (and even before that, the American Football League of 1926 played a regular-season game in Toronto), it was not until the Bills Toronto Series that

262-570: A breeder and as an owner in France and the United States. He bred Santa Anita Derby winner Jim French , as well as two-year-old European superstar Arazi , winner of the 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and European Horse of the Year . Another horse, Outta Here, raced in the 2003 Kentucky Derby and finished in seventh place. Blackout (broadcasting) In broadcasting , the term blackout refers to

393-796: A 2012 poll by Sun Media found that the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots (a divisional rival of the Bills) were more popular than the Bills in Toronto. Apart from the NHL (which is the only major sports league with teams in both Buffalo and Toronto), teams from the two cities often host games in the other. The Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League played a preseason game at Buffalo's Civic Stadium in 1951. A similar arrangement saw

524-836: A bigger event than it already is". Before the 2000 election, Elections Canada moved to reduce the effects of the blackout and the influence of unauthorized knowledge of election results in Western ridings by altering the times that polls close, so that polls no longer close at the same local time throughout the country. Polls in Atlantic Canada close at 9 p.m. Atlantic (9:30 in Newfoundland ), polls from Alberta to Quebec close an hour later (9 p.m. Eastern , 8 p.m. Central and 7 p.m. Mountain ) and finally, polls in British Columbia close an hour after that (7 p.m. Pacific ). Historically,

655-466: A championship do me? All that means is everybody wants a raise." In 1989, after league commissioner Pete Rozelle announced his retirement, Wilson was on the six-member committee who was tasked with nominating potential candidates for the open position. Wilson's nominee, his former quarterback Jack Kemp, declined to pursue the post, as he had already taken a position in the U.S. Cabinet. (The job ultimately went to league attorney Paul Tagliabue .) After

786-467: A deeper dive of evaluation about the future" so that the team has "a more robust fan experience and try to create more of a home field advantage for us." Keith Pelley , President of Rogers Communications, said that "the plan is to postpone it for one year, regroup and determine what's the next best step". Pelley said that "there's no hiding the fact the series did not get off to a rosy start" and that "it's tough midway through to change that perception, hence

917-467: A domestic or international competition. A match which kicks off within the window may be joined in progress once the blackout window ends. This policy is ostensibly intended to encourage fans to attend football matches in-person, especially in lower divisions that compete with top-flight matches on television. The practice originated in the 1960s; Burnley chairman Bob Lord was opposed to television broadcasts of football matches — going as far as banning

1048-429: A local broadcaster. By contrast, some blackout policies, such as those of the U.S. National Football League and English association football (soccer), serve to encourage attendance to games by respectively requiring that a specific percentage of tickets be sold in order for a game to be televised in the home team's market, or by enforcing a blanket prohibition on any telecast of football matches (regardless of where it

1179-507: A move to help heighten the profile of the fledgling Thursday night games. For radio broadcasts, the NFL follows a nearly identical policy to MLB. There are no radio blackouts, but only each team's flagship station can carry local broadcasts during the conference championships or Super Bowl . All other markets must carry the NFL on Westwood One feed for those games. For all other weeks, within 75 miles of

1310-590: A number of free-to-air broadcasts (via Sky Sports ' sister channels Pick and Sky One , Amazon Prime Video and its sister service Twitch , and the BBC — which usually holds rights to free-to-air highlights programmes) were also aired. This arrangement continued into the first month of the 2020–21 Premier League . After an attempted pay-per-view scheme folded in November 2020, the Premier League returned to allocating

1441-593: A pay television service, to be simulcast by the state broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) on its DD National TV channel. Tata Sky (which is partially owned by the parent company of Star India , owner of the Star Sports networks) filed a lawsuit over the rule, arguing that these simulcasts devalued the exclusive broadcast rights because DD National is a must-carry channel. In 2017, the Supreme Court of India ruled that pay television services must black out DD National when it

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1572-597: A policy that formally forbade multichannel television providers from distributing telecasts of sporting events that had been blacked out by local broadcast television stations. Then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler considered such policies to be "obsolete". The policies are still enforced via contractual agreements between the NFL and its media partners. Per NFL policies, all games that are exclusively televised on pay television or streaming, including ESPN 's Monday Night Football and Amazon Prime Video ’s Thursday Night Football are syndicated to over-the-air broadcasters in

1703-459: A possible permanent move for the Bills to Toronto while discussing "high rates" for Series ticket prices. The deal Wilson struck with the Toronto group allows them to bid on and relocate other available NFL franchises up for sale. Rogers Communications reported a Series payment of CA$ 78 million to the Buffalo Bills in their Q1 2008 financial report, which, according to Forbes , is more than

1834-408: A pre-season game in 2015, was formally announced on January 29, 2013. Financial terms of the renewal agreement were not disclosed, but it was reported that Rogers paid roughly half of the $ 78 million the original deal cost. With the series entering its second phase, a perceived lack of interest amongst Toronto fans and the diminishing crowds attending games have been criticized. The first four years of

1965-632: A regular-season NFL game was played north of the border, on December 7, 2008. Regular season NFL games have been played outside the United States since 2005, with Fútbol Americano (a one-off regular season game in Mexico City ) and the 2007 debut of the NFL International Series , which has promoted regular-season games in London . Both of those events were separate from the Toronto Series, in that

2096-440: A result). Usually, but not always, when each network can show only one game each in a market, the two stations work out between themselves which will show an early game and which will show a late game. This only affects the primary market, and not markets in a 75-mile (121 km) radius, which always get a doubleheader each Sunday. For the NFL International Series , the network broadcasting an International Series game will not have

2227-523: A team's stadium, only stations the team or its flagship station contracts with can carry those games, regardless if the team is home or away. Thus, any competing station that carries Westwood One broadcasts cannot air those games. Like MLB, the NFL makes local broadcasts (except for those of the Tennessee Titans ) available on NFL's Game Pass service and Sirius Satellite Radio ; as a result, radio stations that carry NFL games, from any source, and stream on

2358-420: A technicality, Rogers Communications (the team's lessee) owned all tickets to those games and resold them to potential fans. Even when Rogers failed to sell all of the tickets, they were still technically defined to be sellouts by the league since Rogers was said to have "bought" the tickets. The technicality came into play for both Toronto Series preseason games, and again for the last two regular season games of

2489-503: Is airing such events in order to protect the pay TV broadcaster, restricting availability of DD's simulcasts of such events to terrestrial television and DD Free Dish . UEFA Article 48.2 and the major association football leagues of the United Kingdom enforce a blackout on all television broadcasts of football between 2:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. on Saturday matchdays. This applies to all matches, regardless of whether they are

2620-503: Is being played) during specific windows. The term is also used in relation to situations where programming is removed or replaced on international feeds of a television service, because the broadcaster does not hold the territorial rights to air the programs outside of their home country. Perhaps the most notable non-sports-related blackout in television was the blackout of Canadian federal election coverage. Because there are six time zones across Canada, polls close in different parts of

2751-618: Is in Milwaukee, and the Packers played part of their home schedule in Milwaukee from 1953 through 1994. However, this policy has never been implemented in the Packers' case, as they have sold out every home game in Green Bay since 1960 and have a decades-long season-ticket waiting list (games in Milwaukee also sold out during this period). The second exception was for the Bills Toronto Series ; by

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2882-523: Is part of the New York City media market)—which had both acquired the local rights to the game. Although NFL Network would later become more established, in 2014 the NFL began to sub-license the right to produce the Thursday Night Football telecasts, and air selected games from the package in simulcast with NFL Network, to a broadcast television rightsholder (initially CBS ). This was part of

3013-546: Is shared by the Jets, Flames, and Oilers. Until the 2014–15 season, all French-language broadcasts of the Montreal Canadiens were available nationally on RDS, which was previously the national French-language rightsholder of the NHL in Canada. As RDS was, until 2011, the only French-language cable sports channel in Canada, the team forwent a separate regional rights deal and allowed all of its games to be broadcast as part of

3144-571: Is similarly structured, with the Ottawa Senators on TSN5 (East), Maple Leafs on TSN4 (Ontario), and Jets on TSN3 (Manitoba and Saskatchewan). The Montreal Canadiens were added in 2017 on TSN2 (which was originally promoted as being a secondary national channel). The Canadiens and Senators share the same market, which includes parts of Eastern Ontario (primarily the Ottawa Valley ), and the entirety of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, while Saskatchewan

3275-623: Is the third, and William Clay Ford Sr. , Wilson's neighbor, who owned the Detroit Lions from 1961 to 2014, is the fourth). The Hall of Fame game on Sunday, August 9, was a kickoff to the 2009 season, which would have been the 50th season of play for the AFL, if the NFL had not merged with it. Wilson was officially inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, August 8, 2009, with ESPN icon Chris Berman acting as his "presenter". Wilson

3406-528: The 2004 NFL season , where a Tennessee Titans / Miami Dolphins game in week 1—which had been moved up to Saturday, September 11, due to Hurricane Ivan ; presumably to comply with the Act, the game was only broadcast locally, and blacked out on NFL Sunday Ticket . To encourage local attendance, the live television broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 is blacked out on the Indianapolis affiliate of its broadcaster if

3537-596: The 2016 season (a season that included the return of the Rams to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as an interim home until the completion of SoFi Stadium ; the Coliseum has had long-standing issues with NFL sell-outs); commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the league needed to further investigate the impact of removing the blackout rules before such a change is made permanent. The suspension quietly continued into

3668-596: The 2017 NFL season as well, which saw the San Diego Chargers also relocate to Los Angeles, temporarily using the 27,000-seat, soccer-specific Dignity Health Sports Park (known as StubHub Center before 2019) as an interim venue until the completion of SoFi Stadium for the 2020 season , which is shared with the Rams. The suspension came a year after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ended

3799-730: The BBC from televising Match of the Day from Turf Moor for a time. He pushed the Football League to adopt this stance as an organization-wide policy; it has since been adopted by The Football Association and the current Premier League , which broke away from the Football League in 1992 to become the highest level of club football in England. Affected matches can still be broadcast internationally, hence more Premier League matches can be shown outside

3930-588: The Buffalo Braves play a total of 16 regular season games at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto from 1971 to 1975, while the Toronto Raptors played a preseason game at Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo in 1996 and had a second game scheduled for 1998 that was cancelled due to the 1998–99 NBA lockout . The Raptors have discussed the possibility of playing additional preseason and regular season games in Buffalo, while

4061-546: The National Hockey League have very similar blackout rules. Unlike the National Football League , the blackout of games has nothing to do with attendance, but instead is implemented to protect broadcasters with contracts to air games. Unless one of MLB's national partners hold exclusive rights to a certain regular season game (such as ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball or Apple TV+’s Friday Night Baseball ),

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4192-718: The Toronto Blue Jays have considered playing an exhibition game in Buffalo, which is home to their Triple-A affiliate the Buffalo Bisons , having previously played the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game at War Memorial Stadium in 1987. In 1974, the Toronto-Buffalo Royals of World Team Tennis (WTT) simultaneously called both cities home, playing half their home matches at the CNE Coliseum in Toronto and

4323-601: The U.S. Navy and served in the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters . After the war ended, he took over his father's insurance business and invested in Michigan area mines and factories. He eventually purchased several manufacturing outlets, construction firms, television and radio stations, and founded Ralph Wilson Industries. Wilson got wind of Lamar Hunt 's plans for a new league, the American Football League, to challenge

4454-886: The federal election in 2004 . However, Elections Canada appealed, and Bryan lost his case before the British Columbia Court of Appeal . Bryan further appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada , but in a ruling made on March 15, 2007 ( R. v. Bryan ), in a 5–4 ruling, the Court ruled that Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act is constitutional and justified under section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . Stephen Harper , who later became Prime Minister, labelled Elections Canada "jackasses" and tried to raise money for Bryan. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also supported Bryan, hoping to "make election night

4585-528: The 1990s, Wilson maintained a small, but very valuable, art collection, including works by Claude Monet , Édouard Manet and Alfred Sisley ; this collection was valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Wilson was a 1992 inductee of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. He was a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason . Wilson broke his hip in a fall at his home in July 2011, causing him to miss

4716-496: The 2021 baseball season, locking the Rogers Centre permanently into a baseball configuration. As BMO Field can only be expanded to 40,000 seats (with 10,000 of them temporary), 10,000 seats under the NFL's minimum capacity, and with the Bills approved to build a new stadium , a renewal of the series is unlikely for the foreseeable future. The Bills played two games (one pre-season) in 2008 at Rogers Centre. The pre-season opponent

4847-520: The 2021-22 season, but became subject to blackouts the following season. In some cases, national games are scheduled in windows where no other games involving U.S. teams are being played. NHL Network still carries non-exclusive national games, most of which are simulcast from one of the regional broadcasts or a Canadian national broadcast . All games in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs are non-exclusive national games (though with no blackouts of

4978-462: The 500 officially began in 1986 : Prior to 1986, ABC had aired an edited broadcast of the race in prime time. Until 2001, the same blackout policy applied to the Brickyard 400 , a NASCAR Cup Series event also held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ; at the time, television rights to NASCAR events were sold by the owners of their respective tracks, and IMS had packaged the 400 with ABC's rights to

5109-506: The 85% threshold; the seats comprised sections of " Mount Davis ", an extended upper deck that had originally been built as part of the Raiders' 1995 return to Oakland. Under NFL rules, the stadium had to remain in this configuration for the entirety of the season. In the 2015 NFL season , the league, after no games were blacked out at all in the 2014 season , voted to "suspend" the blackout policy as an experiment. The suspension continued into

5240-487: The Bills Toronto Series also announced a ticket price reduction plan, cutting prices by an average of 17% and offering more than 11,000 tickets for less than C$ 99. Rogers Communications offered partial refunds to ticketholders who had purchased seats in 2008 and who were affected by the price reduction. The preseason game, which took place August 19, featured the Bills hosting the Indianapolis Colts . The Bills defeated

5371-538: The Bills playing the Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI . It marked the only time in the Toronto Series that attendance rose over the previous season, with the game seeing a slight increase from 50,746 to 51,579, significantly below the team's average of 69,282 that year. After this game, the attendance numbers dropped markedly over the next two seasons, dropping below 40,000 in 2013, contributing to the team's decision to postpone

Bills Toronto Series - Misplaced Pages Continue

5502-560: The Bills' home opener for the first time in franchise history. The injury resulted in him needing to use a wheelchair. He issued a statement saying that he was undergoing physical therapy and hoped to attend at least one game during the season. Wilson also stated that he was "very surprised" by the team's 41–7 victory over Kansas City in Week 1. He was hospitalized in August and early September 2012 with an unspecified infection and missed attending games in

5633-450: The Bills. Following the death of Wilson in late March 2014, Edward Rogers III and Larry Tanenbaum , board members of Toronto-based sports conglomerate Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment , teamed with Jon Bon Jovi to submit a bid to purchase the team, with the expectation that they would relocate it to Toronto on a full-time basis. However, the team was ultimately sold to Kim and Terrence Pegula , who announced their intent to keep

5764-489: The Buffalo Bills officially became the seventh AFL team. Wilson made professional football a resounding success in a "small market", signing such stars as Cookie Gilchrist , Jack Kemp , and Tom Sestak and Hall of Famers Billy Shaw and O. J. Simpson . He was a guiding force in AFL policies that ensured success, such as gate and television revenue sharing. As one of only three AFL owners to be on relatively solid financial ground (along with Hunt and Bud Adams ), Wilson lent

5895-719: The Colts 34–21. For the first time, the 2010 regular-season Toronto game took place during the 2010 CFL season and not after it; it was played on November 7, the last week of the CFL's regular season, with a 1:00 p.m. start (the Toronto Argonauts played the Montreal Alouettes in Montreal on the same day, but with a 4:00 p.m. start). The Bills faced the Chicago Bears , marking

6026-583: The Internet are prohibited from streaming games online outside of their DMA, although it seems this provision is loosely enforced in some cases; WBBM in Chicago and WWL (AM) in New Orleans regularly air live broadcasts of their teams' games over their Internet stream, as does WTMJ in Milwaukee with the Packers, though both stations went to a desktop-only streaming policy in 2015 due to the introduction of GamePass and

6157-492: The NFL gives us the word." In October 2007, Bills owner Ralph Wilson petitioned NFL owners to allow his team to play one "home" game per year (over five years) in Canada. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell approved the plan, which also allowed the Bills to play a pre-season "home" game at Rogers Centre every other year of the Series (2008, 2010, 2012) for a total of eight games in Toronto. In February 2008, Wilson avoided questions about

6288-516: The NFL, any broadcaster that has a signal that hits any area within a 75 miles (121 km) radius of an NFL stadium may only broadcast a game if that game is a road game (also known as an away game), or if the game sells out 72 hours or more before the start time for the game. If sold out in less than 72 hours, or is close to being sold out by the deadline, the team can sometimes request a time extension. Furthermore, broadcasters with NFL contracts are required to show their markets' road games, even if

6419-553: The NFL. He tried to put together a team in Miami , but was turned down. His next choice was Buffalo, where the AFL's first choice of owner, Pat McGroder , had declined to start a team. In September 1959, Wilson sent Hunt a telegram with the words, "Count me in with Buffalo.” He named his new team the Bills, after a previous team that had played in the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949. On October 28, 1959,

6550-648: The Ontario and Pacific feeds are designated to the Toronto Maple Leafs , and Vancouver Canucks respectively, while Sportsnet West and its corresponding market (which includes all of Alberta and Saskatchewan ) is shared by the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames . Although West is also the main feed for Manitoba , Flames and Oilers games are blacked out there to protect the Winnipeg Jets . As of August 2014, TSN

6681-405: The Premier League briefly restricted MENA region rightsholder beIN Sports to one 3 p.m. match per week on television only. Critics, including Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union Juliane Kokott , have argued that 3 p.m. blackouts are outdated, as its purpose is hindered — especially within the Premier League — by the high demand for the few tickets available to

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6812-440: The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, which funds charitable causes in the Buffalo and Detroit areas, in accordance with Wilson's instructions for the money set forth prior to his death. The donation amounted to $ 1.2 billion and would be given away over the next two decades. The organization was overseen for a few months by his niece Mary Owen until its sale to the Pegulas was completed on October 8, 2014. On January 31, 2009, Wilson

6943-579: The Stanley Cup Finals (should a team make it to that point in the playoffs) can also be carried on all affiliates of that team's radio network with no restrictions. Prior to the 1998-99 NBA lockout , the NBA and the WNBA used to black out nationally televised games on cable television within 35 miles (56 km) of the home team's market; however, these are now restricted to games on NBA TV , WatchESPN and other streaming providers. The NFL has engaged in various blackout policies to protect both local ticket sales, and local rightsholders of specific games. In

7074-432: The Sunday after President John F. Kennedy 's assassination; NFL games were played as scheduled. Wilson was most concerned about his team's financial solvency and was largely indifferent to the Bills' on-field success; O. J. Simpson later noted of his contract negotiations with the Bills that when Simpson's agent told Wilson of Simpson's potential to make the team a championship contender, Wilson shot back "What good would

7205-483: The Toronto Series was orchestrated by an individual team while the other regular season games were orchestrated by the league. Toronto is about 60 miles (97 km) by air from Buffalo and 86 miles (138 km) by car via the Queen Elizabeth Way . Much of southern Ontario is within the Bills' marketing territory as defined by the NFL. About 10,000 to 15,000 attendees (15-20% of the total) of Bills' home games at Ralph Wilson Stadium come from southern Ontario. However,

7336-409: The Toronto games include the perception that Rogers Centre is less raucous than Orchard Park and that the city is a neutral site rather than a home game . Bills CEO Russ Brandon has suggested that the team deserves some of the blame for this, as the Bills have not had a competitive team since the series was launched. Poor turf has been noted in the Rogers Centre. Also, the playing of the games late in

7467-483: The United Kingdom by other rightsholders than within. This intricacy created a " grey market " for obtaining the broadcasts from alternative sources, such as foreign satellite providers or unofficial online streaming services. The Premier League and other stakeholders have historically considered this practice to be a violation of the copyright of the broadcasts. In 2014, for taking inadequate steps to prevent unauthorized retransmissions from its streaming broadcasts online,

7598-524: The absorption of the NFL Audio Pass streaming system into Game Pass. Since the 2022-23 season, WXTB (the Bucs' flagship station) blacks out coverage on all devices unless in the station's coverage area, likely due to the launch of NFL+. In order to protect high school and college football , the federal Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 cancels antitrust protection for television broadcasts of any professional football game on Friday evenings or Saturdays by television stations within 75 miles (121 km) of

7729-427: The additional game would "stress-test the Buffalo market". On March 5, 2014, the Bills and Rogers released a joint statement which announced that they had "postponed for one year the scheduled 2014 regular season game at Rogers Centre" and that they would "use this time to collectively evaluate opportunities and build on the foundation to enhance future games." Brandon described it as "a one-year postponement to go into

7860-446: The authorities. Bryan was charged before the Provincial Court of British Columbia , but fought the charges as unconstitutional under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , which protects freedom of expression and freedom of association . Bryan's victory before the British Columbia Supreme Court meant that voters in British Columbia and the rest of Canada legally learned of election results in other ridings during

7991-405: The blackout period encourages illegal streaming. A representative of La Liga has backed Eleven Sports' position. In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic , UEFA authorised the suspension of the blackout rule for the remainder of the season. Upon the resumption of the 2019–20 Premier League , all matches were shown on domestic television due to them being played behind closed doors , while

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8122-454: The cable operators and NFL. On December 19, 2007, Joe Courtney and other members of the Connecticut Congressional Delegation wrote to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to try to have the NFL allow wider broadcast access to the game. Consequently, on December 26, the NFL announced that the game would be simulcast nationally on CBS and NBC , in addition to WCVB-TV ( ABC ) in Boston and WWOR-TV ( MyNetworkTV ) in Secaucus, New Jersey (which

8253-421: The closest over-the-air signal carrying the game, or 56 kilometres (35 miles) of the stadium for cable broadcasts (and, for the Saskatchewan Roughriders , the entirety of the province ). The policy received significant criticism in 2002 when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats enforced a blackout on a game against the Toronto Argonauts that had playoff implications; the range of the blackout was considered too wide for

8384-418: The country at different times. Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act outlawed disseminating election results from other ridings in constituencies where polls were still open, ostensibly to prevent the results from the East from influencing voters in western ridings . However, in the federal election in 2000 , Paul Charles Bryan published results from Atlantic Canada online despite being told not to by

8515-415: The entire 2012 season. In April 2013, Wilson was reported as "doing really well," with a statement that he hoped to make the 2013 home opener. Wilson died at his home on March 25, 2014, of natural causes at the age of 95. His estate held the franchise in trust until its sale to Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula in September 2014. The proceeds from the sale were used to form an endowment for

8646-411: The field and a series of highly unpopular managerial decisions. He was eventually presented with the ring on November 1. Wilson donated US$ 2.5 million to the construction of a "Pro Football Research and Preservation Center" at the Hall of Fame; the facility was named in Wilson's honor on August 13, 2012. Wilson was also involved for a number of years in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing both as

8777-471: The financial benefits of the series by saying that it has "taken a game out of the [Buffalo] market that has essentially taken 70,000 seats out of our market, and we've truly only sold out two of our home games". He went on to say "we've manufactured sellouts in the other four or five. We're trying to find ways to obviously keep this team viable and we've done a very good job, and this [Toronto] series has obviously contributed to that." Brandon has also said that

8908-467: The financially troubled Oakland Raiders $ 400,000 and was also willing to lend money to Billy Sullivan of the New England Patriots . Wilson helped keep those franchises afloat, likely saving the entire league from folding (the AFL was unique among professional football leagues in that not a single AFL franchise folded in its history). In November 1963, Wilson along with then Raiders general manager Al Davis lobbied successfully to have AFL games postponed

9039-445: The first 15 minutes of a Serie A match that saw Cristiano Ronaldo 's on-field debut for Juventus , streaming service Eleven Sports UK & Ireland began to defy the ban and show selected Serie A and La Liga matches during this period. On 17 October 2018, Eleven announced that it would cease its telecasts of 3 p.m. kickoffs, but argued that the rule was outdated because only the UK and Montenegro have such blackout rules, and that

9170-425: The first time a team from the NFC appeared in the series. As part of the NFL Television Contract the game was broadcast by Fox for the first time and not CBS . The Bills relinquished a five-point mid-fourth-quarter lead, falling 22–19 to the Bears. The Bills played host to the Washington Redskins for the 2011 Toronto Series on Sunday, October 30, at 4:05 p.m. The Bills, in their first regular-season win in

9301-483: The founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills , a team in the National Football League (NFL). He was one of the founding owners of the American Football League (AFL), the league with which the NFL merged in 1970, and was the last of the original AFL owners to own his team. At the time of his death he was the oldest owner in the NFL, at age 95. His 54 years of ownership was the third longest tenure by one owner in league history behind George Halas and Art Rooney . Wilson

9432-587: The game blacked out for the team's markets as the game is played outside of the United States; however, some blackout regulations do apply. There have been two exceptions to the rule, of which one has never been implemented and the other no longer applies. The first is for the Green Bay Packers , which have two overlapping 75-mile blackout zones – one surrounding the team's stadium in Green Bay and another surrounding Milwaukee . The team's radio flagship station

9563-458: The game to overtime. Another Bills fumble in overtime set up Matt Bryant 's winning field goal for Atlanta. Halftime entertainment was provided by the Beach Boys . Fewer than 40,000 fans attended the game, the smallest crowd of the series. Ralph Wilson Ralph Cookerly Wilson Jr. (October 17, 1918 – March 25, 2014) was an American businessman and sports executive. He was best known as

9694-421: The game. Other teams elect to close off sections of their stadium, but cannot sell these tickets for any game that season if they choose to do so. As a result, if the home team's game is a Sunday day game, both networks can air only one game each in that market (until 2000, this rule applied whether or not the game was blacked out; however, this was changed because some markets virtually never aired doubleheaders as

9825-548: The game. Ticket prices for the Series were announced in May, and averaged C$ 183 per seat. In Buffalo, Bills tickets averaged C$ 51 per seat. The Dolphins became the first team to play both an International Series and Toronto Series game from both games' inception. The Bills lost to the New York Jets , 19–13, in front of 51,567 under the roof at Rogers Centre on December 3. There was no pre-season game at Rogers Centre in 2009. In 2009,

9956-455: The increased use of social media. The blackout rule was officially repealed in October 2015, prior to the 2015 Canadian federal election . The Canadian Football League 's constitution does provide the option for teams to black out games in their home markets in order to encourage attendance; at one point, the CFL required games to be blacked out within a radius of 120 kilometres (75 miles) around

10087-490: The league's current contract with TSN (which began in 2014) does allow for blackouts, they have been seldom-used, if not at all. As in the U.S., National Hockey League games that are not scheduled as national telecasts by Sportsnet or TVA Sports are broadcast by regional feeds of either Sportsnet, TSN , or RDS (French), and are blacked out for viewers outside the team's home market. Sportsnet's four regional feeds correspond with each of its NHL teams' designated markets;

10218-529: The league. Four teams, the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns , the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers , opted out of the new rules, as it would require the teams to pay a higher percentage of gate fees to the NFL's revenue fund. In the 2013 NFL season , the Oakland Raiders began to artificially limit the capacity of Oakland Coliseum by 11,000 in order to improve their chances of meeting

10349-584: The local broadcaster of a game has priority over a national broadcaster, and the national broadcast would be blacked out in markets where a local broadcaster is also showing coverage. The blackout rules do not apply during the postseason, as there are no regional television broadcasts. The NHL utilizes a similar policy of exclusive and non-exclusive national games; with the new broadcast deals enacted with 2021–22 season , all regular season games carried by ABC, ESPN, and ESPN+ are exclusive national broadcasts. All TNT games were exclusive national broadcasts during

10480-575: The local radio networks of the two participating ballclubs in the World Series were not allowed to air games, forcing flagship stations, if they wanted to carry the Series, to simulcast the network broadcast. As an example, while Boston Red Sox radio flagship WHDH and St. Louis Cardinals flagship station KMOX both broadcast the 1967 World Series , both stations had to simulcast the NBC Radio broadcast along with Boston's WCOP and St. Louis's KSD ,

10611-410: The major broadcast networks in Canada secure exclusive rights to them and prevent Internet television aggregators, one notable example being Hulu , from distributing them in Canada. The National Football League , for example, sold worldwide Internet broadcast rights to a package of its Thursday Night Football games during the 2016 season to Twitter ; however, Rogers Media forced Twitter to block

10742-475: The market. Under the league's 2008–2013 contract with TSN , teams were given a cap on the number of blackouts they could impose per-season (with the number varying by media and CFL reports, ranging from 2 for Hamilton and Toronto, and 5 for teams in Western Canada), and final decisions were assigned to the league if at least 90% of tickets were sold out within 48 hours of the game. Although the CFL stated that

10873-532: The markets of the teams involved, and blacked out on the cable channel in defense of the local simulcast. The local market for these rights is defined as any station within the 75-mile (121 km) radius of a team's respective stadium. This policy attracted controversy in December 2007, when Hartford, Connecticut CBS affiliate WFSB was refused permission to air the local simulcast of a New England Patriots-New York Giants game on December 29, 2007. The game, which

11004-414: The match, with the Bills holding on 31–24 late in the fourth quarter. A pass interference call against the Bills allowed Atlanta a touchdown from the one-yard line with 1:28 remaining. With 28 seconds remaining Bills' quarterback EJ Manuel completed a pass to Stevie Johnson , which likely would have set up a game-winning field goal. However, Johnson fumbled on the play and Atlanta recovered the ball to send

11135-428: The matches to the four broadcasters through at least the end of 2020. In 2023, the Premier League sought a rare private prosecution against members of a fraud "gang" who sold £10-a-month subscriptions to retransmitted games. The illegal streams brought in more than £7m in revenue from more than 50,000 subscribers, with five members receiving jail sentences between three and eleven years. Major League Baseball and

11266-522: The national broadcaster), after which they are exclusive to ESPN, TNT, or TBS. Out-of-market games can be viewed using the subscription-based MLB Extra Innings , MLB.tv , and NHL Center Ice services, as well as ESPN+ for the NHL. In-market games are blacked out from all four services to protect local broadcasters, and they do not offer nationally televised games (except for NHL games exclusively carried or simulcast by ESPN+). In Major League Baseball, there are no radio blackouts. However, for many years,

11397-466: The national package. As of the 2014–15 season, Quebecor Media and TVA Sports is the national French rightsholder as part of a sub-licensing agreement with Rogers Communications . RDS negotiated a 12-year deal with the team for regional rights to the Canadiens: games are now blacked out for viewers outside Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and parts of Eastern Ontario. Out-of-market games can be viewed using

11528-530: The nominal NBC Radio affiliates in those cities. This changed after 1980 , as fans of the Philadelphia Phillies were angry that they could not hear their popular broadcasting team of Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn call the team's appearance in that year's World Series. Their complaints led to a provision in Major League Baseball's next broadcasting contract permitting the radio flagships of

11659-780: The non-airing of television or radio programming in a certain media market . It is particularly prevalent in the broadcasting of sports events , although other television or radio programs may be blacked out as well. Most blackout policies serve to protect local broadcasters (primarily regional sports networks ) from competition by "out-of-market" networks that carry different teams, by only allowing viewers to watch non-national telecasts of teams within their designated markets (with television providers blacking out regional telecasts of teams that are outside their market; in turn, encouraging viewers to purchase subscription-based out-of-market sports packages ), and by allowing teams to black out national telecasts of games that are also being shown by

11790-494: The only NFL games not subject to the league's blackout restrictions. For instance, the 2010 Toronto Series preseason game had nearly 15,000 available seats but was still seen on television within the stadium's blackout zone. All of the Bills Toronto Series games have aired either at 4 p.m. or during Thursday Night Football; Rogers owns the Canadian television rights to NFL games aired in those time slots (whereas rival Bell Media owns

11921-403: The original naming rights deal on the Bills' current stadium expired in 1998, the facility's name was changed from Rich Stadium to Ralph Wilson Stadium; it would not receive a new naming rights deal until 2016, after his death and the subsequent sale of the team. According to an article on msn.com, Wilson, described as "stubborn", turned down numerous naming rights deals for the stadium. Wilson

12052-525: The other half at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium . The franchise was originally granted to Toronto to begin play in WTT's inaugural 1974 season, but management decided to play in both cities. The Royals were sold and moved to Hartford, Connecticut following the 1974 season, but folded on February 1, 1975, without ever playing another match. Rogers Centre's American football-specific capacity of 53,506

12183-434: The other) to oppose the league's former (pre-2011) collective bargaining agreement. (Wilson and Brown were commended for their foresight when the agreement later led to the 2011 NFL Lockout .) He also negotiated a deal to have his team play home games in Toronto from 2008 until 2014. Wilson retired from the position of president in 2001, giving operational control to general manager Tom Donahoe ; Wilson retook control of

12314-438: The participating ballclubs to produce and air their own Series broadcasts locally. Since then, only the flagship stations of the two participating ballclubs can originate coverage (though their broadcasts, as well as the national English and Spanish broadcasts, are also available out of market via subscription-based packages on such platforms as MLB.com , Sirius XM , and TuneIn ). Flagship stations are required to make mention of

12445-476: The point of only mentioning the national coverage existed on their station through promos in national ESPN Radio programming). Additionally, radio stations (including flagships) may not include MLB games in the live Internet streams of their station programming. MLB itself offers radio feeds as a pay service via the league and team websites, along with being a part of the monthly premium fee service from streaming provider TuneIn . Some stations will simply stream

12576-410: The practical enforceability of the rule, but also its very intelligibility and usefulness in a world where the distinction between private communication and public transmission is quickly eroding. The time has come for Parliament to consider revoking the current rule." On January 13, 2012, it was announced that the federal government would introduce legislation that would repeal the blackout rule, citing

12707-455: The presenting sponsor of the national ESPN Radio broadcasts as also sponsoring the team's own broadcasts during the World Series (as of 2016 this is AutoZone ). All other network affiliates of the two clubs must carry the feed from MLB's national partner (currently ESPN Radio). Should another ESPN Radio affiliate exist in the same market, that station can claim exclusivity, forcing a blackout of

12838-408: The public, and that there was little evidence that television broadcasts actually affected attendance. To preserve the value of its domestic broadcast rights and allow more games to be televised, the Premier League has added more matches in windows outside of Saturday afternoons, such as weekdays and Sundays — including the final matchday of the season . In 2018, after complying by blacking out

12969-527: The race is not a sellout. Since 1992 , the station that airs the race in the Indianapolis market ( ABC affiliate WRTV from 1986 to 2018, NBC affiliate WTHR from 2019 to 2024, and Fox affiliate WXIN from 2025 onwards) carries the network's prime time programming in the race's timeslot under special dispensation from the network and airs the race on tape delay in prime time. The blackout has only been lifted four times since live flag-to-flag coverage of

13100-466: The reason why we thought it would be a best to take a year off then re-launch it once we've thought that through." According to Pelley, the contract between the Bills and Rogers is "not nullified" and is still in force. The games were planned to be resumed in 2015, though more negotiations between the parties on the series were scheduled. Pelley also raised the possibility that the series would be replaced by an NFL International Series game not featuring

13231-501: The results of the election are often not decisively known until more than an hour after polls close in the Eastern Time Zone, but are usually known within two hours of these polls closing. Provincial elections are not subject to blackout restrictions – in provinces that have two time zones, the vast majority of the population lives in one time zone or the other. Election laws in these provinces stipulate that all polls are to close at

13362-413: The rights to all other NFL games). In September 2006, Tanenbaum and Rogers held a news conference, where the two men discussed bringing an NFL franchise to Toronto. Neither specified whether a potential Toronto team would be a new franchise or a team moved from another city. Tanenbaum was quoted as saying, "I'm highly interested in an NFL team and Ted is, too. We hope to pursue it more rigorously as soon as

13493-442: The same time – this time invariably being 8:00 p.m. (or 9:00 p.m. in Ontario beginning with the 2007 provincial election ) in the time zone of the majority. On August 17, 2011, Elections Canada Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand suggested improvements of the voting system to Parliament; among them were a proposal to remove the blackout rule. Mayrand argued that "the growing use of social media puts in question not only

13624-447: The season meant the Bills lost the advantage of being acclimatized to playing in cold, wintery conditions that visiting teams are unused to. Brandon has noted one success: attendance by Canadian fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium had increased from 11% to 20% at the time of the renewal agreement. Brandon has said that "Southern Ontario and the Toronto market and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) are now

13755-464: The secondary markets have substantial fanbases for other teams (like in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , officially a Baltimore Ravens secondary market, but home to many Pittsburgh Steelers fans ). Sometimes if a game is within a few hundred tickets of selling out, a broadcaster with rights to show the nearly sold-out game will buy the remaining tickets (and give them to local charities) so it can broadcast

13886-401: The series "has not translated into enough wins for us there". The Bills record in the Toronto series has been 1 win and 5 losses. When asked if the Bills were able to void the final years of the contract, Brandon responded that he was "going to look at everything". Reports have suggested that the series can only be ended with the mutual consent of both parties. However, Brandon also emphasized

14017-514: The series at the end of that year. The pre-season game originally scheduled for the fifth year of the series was cancelled, as home games for the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Argonauts and a Bruce Springsteen concert conflicted with the NFL pre-season. The lone available weekend on the Rogers Centre schedule coincided with the Bills' home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers (whom the Bills played in their 2008 preseason game); that game

14148-445: The series was presented as a simple business deal offering lucrative NFL content to Rogers and increased revenue to the Bills with no hint of possible team relocation. With the future of Bills continually in doubt, fan reaction in Buffalo to the Toronto series has ranged from "outright anger [to] begrudging acceptance" that the revenue provided helps the team. Many Buffalo fans refuse to attend games in Toronto. Specific fan objections to

14279-408: The series were widely suspected to have included large ticket giveaways ("'papering' the stadium") in order to increase attendance. A large attendance drop from about 50,000 to 40,000 occurred in 2012 as the practice wound down, while attendance fell even further during the first year of the new deal in 2013. Attendance concerns have led to a scaling back of strategic objectives. At the time of renewal,

14410-415: The series, defeated the Redskins 23–0, the first time Redskins coach Mike Shanahan had been shut out in his career. The game marked the peak of the Bills' fortunes that season, with the Bills reaching 5–2; a series of key injuries led to the team collapsing over the next several games to fall out of playoff contention for the twelfth straight year. This season also marked the 20th anniversary of

14541-509: The series. The Bills Toronto Series was cancelled after the 2013 season, largely due to the aforementioned lackluster attendance. In June 2012, NFL blackout regulations were revised in which, for the first time in NFL history, home games would no longer require a total sellout to be televised locally; instead, teams would be allowed to set a benchmark anywhere from 85 to 100 percent of the stadium's non-premium seats. Any seats sold beyond that benchmark are subject to heavier revenue sharing with

14672-529: The state of Massachusetts and fans of the Patriots team, wrote to the NFL as well as Comcast and Time Warner Cable , to request that the Patriots-Giants game be aired at least on basic cable in order to reach the highest possible number of television-viewing fans, citing the "potentially historic" nature of the game. Kerry clarified the next week that he did not intend to interrupt current negotiations between

14803-458: The station's regularly scheduled programming that is being pre-empted by the game. The NHL has no radio blackouts for local broadcasts, although NBC Sports Radio broadcasts are, similarly to some cable broadcasts, not carried within the local markets of participating teams. Internet streaming of radio calls from the NHL's team radio networks, unlike MLB, are allowed to be broadcast for free nationwide with no geoblocking. Also, unlike other leagues,

14934-511: The streams in Canada by virtue of its holding of terrestrial television rights in the country. Numerous organizations have attempted to establish workarounds that route Canadians' Internet traffic through the United States, workarounds that local broadcasters have opposed, with one, Bell Media , calling such practices "stealing", and that aggregators such as Netflix have actively fought against. Indian law requires all sporting events of "national importance", whose broadcast rights are owned by

15065-470: The subscription-based NHL Centre Ice and Sportsnet+; in-market games are blacked out from Centre Ice to protect local broadcasters, but Sportsnet+ does not black out in-market broadcasts of games televised by Sportsnet since it is a direct-to-consumer version of the Sportsnet channels themselves. Many programs carried on Internet television in other parts of the world are not available in Canada because

15196-439: The team earned (in operating income) in 2006. The series set the record for the largest gate revenue for a single event in the history of the Rogers Centre, at C$ 8 million, although this was later surpassed by UFC 129 . On May 22, 2012, the league gave their approval for a five-year extension to the Bills Toronto Series through 2017 should the two sides reach an agreement. The deal, featuring one regular season game each year plus

15327-423: The team in Buffalo and end the Toronto Series in a November 2014 interview. On December 3, 2014, it was announced that the Bills and Rogers Communications had reached an agreement to cancel the Toronto Series. The Toronto Argonauts then moved to a reconfigured and expanded BMO Field in the 2016 CFL season , and the Rogers Centre was resurfaced with a permanent baseball turf attached to the stadium's floor before

15458-505: The team network affiliate from carrying the game, although this is rarely done as listener pushback against the ESPN Radio affiliate blocking the local play-by-play would likely be untenable (for instance in 2016 , ESPN Radio O&O WMVP in Chicago broadcast the national ESPN feed as expected, but made no move to block the official Cubs broadcaster WSCR from carrying local play-by-play, to

15589-635: The team's operations in 2006. Wilson again retired as team president, this time surrendering all control of the team's operations to Russ Brandon , on January 1, 2013. He continued to consult with Brandon on team and league operations up until his death. Wilson maintained a permanent residence in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan with his wife, Mary McLean, whom he met in 1989. He had three daughters from his first marriage to Janet McGregor Wilson, two of whom became involved in team business: Linda Wilson Bogdan (1948–2009), Pro Football's first female scout,

15720-400: The top secondary market of the Buffalo Bills". The Bills in Toronto has been widely held up as an effort at "regionalization" by the franchise. Following the first game of the renewal in 2013, Brandon brought the future of the series into question by stating that he intended to conduct a thorough review of the series. He described Toronto as a "challenged market" for the Bills and stated that

15851-559: The venue of a college or high school game, that had been announced in a general circulation newspaper prior to August 1 of the calendar year. This lasts from the second Friday in September through the second Friday in December. To comply with this law, the NFL largely avoids scheduling games on Saturdays altogether until the final weeks of the regular season (which begin in mid-December), which usually feature several Saturday double- or triple-headers. A notable effect of this law occurred in

15982-583: Was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with former Buffalo Bills defensive end Bruce Smith . The Hall of Fame game , played the day after the 2009 inductions, strayed from the usual AFC–NFC format and instead was contested by two original American Football League teams: the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans (formerly the Houston Oilers ). This matchup was announced after Wilson

16113-408: Was elected. Like Wilson, Titans owner Bud Adams was the only owner his team has ever had, and the two were the only living members of the " Foolish Club ", the founders of the original eight AFL teams. Wilson and Adams are two of only four men who have owned a professional football franchise continuously for fifty years ( George Halas , who owned the Chicago Bears from 1920 until his death in 1983,

16244-659: Was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009. Wilson grew up in Detroit, Michigan , the son of salesman Ralph Wilson Sr. and his wife Edith Cole. Choosing to go out of state to attend the University of Virginia (where he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity), Wilson returned to Michigan for graduate school at the University of Michigan Law School . He was a 1936 graduate of Detroit University School, now University Liggett School . Before Pearl Harbor , he enlisted in

16375-632: Was moved to Ralph Wilson Stadium and designated the team's annual "Kids Day." The Bills faced the Seattle Seahawks in their regular-season Toronto Series game on December 16, at 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox. In Canada this game was broadcast on Citytv. The Seahawks defeated the Bills 50–17. The half time performance was Psy who performed his hit " Gangnam Style ". The Bills hosted the Atlanta Falcons on December 1, 2013 at 4:05 p.m. They lost 34–31 in overtime. The lead see-sawed throughout

16506-502: Was one of the league's most outspoken owners, even near the end of his life. Wilson voted against the Cleveland Browns ' relocation to Baltimore in 1995. He publicly rebuked NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in an open letter in 1998 over league policy, which disallowed criticism of referees, after poor officiating had a direct impact on a Bills loss that season. He was one of two owners (the Cincinnati Bengals ' Mike Brown being

16637-430: Was part of the Thursday Night Football package on NFL Network, would see the Patriots attempt to become the first NFL team since 1972 and the expansion of the regular season to 16 games, to finish the regular season undefeated. At the time, NFL Network was available only on a sports tier of cable provider Comcast in the immediate viewing areas of the Patriots and Giants. Senator John Kerry and Rep. Ed Markey , both of

16768-465: Was scheduled to receive his Hall of Fame ring in a halftime ceremony during the Bills game against the Cleveland Browns on October 11, 2009. However, Wilson cancelled the event at the last moment, without notifying the press or fans, and no explanation was given. It was widely speculated that Wilson cancelled the event out of fear of being booed by Bills fans for the team's chronic poor performance on

16899-401: Was slightly lower than the number of seats for a stadium to be a viable venue for a permanent Toronto team, as all other NFL stadiums have at least 60,000 seats as of 2011 (the league has a minimum capacity requirement of 50,000). It is typically configured at 49,500 seats for Blue Jays baseball , though more were added for the 2008 Bills games for a total of 53,506. Toronto Series games were

17030-516: Was the Pittsburgh Steelers . The Bills defeated the Steelers 24–21 on August 14, 2008. In the regular season, the Bills played (and lost to) the Miami Dolphins 16–3 on December 7 in front of 52,134 in attendance. The Rogers Centre's roof was closed for the game, which meant the region's normally cold and windy December conditions with a gametime temperature of 16 °F (−9 °C) wouldn't influence

17161-544: Was the franchise's Corporate Vice President until her death. Another daughter, Christy Wilson Hofmann, served as a consultant in the area of merchandising. The third daughter, Edith Wilson (1951–2020) was never involved with the franchise. The highest ranking relative in the organization was Mary Owen, Wilson's niece, who served as Vice President of Strategic Planning until the team was sold. Wilson and his first wife divorced in 1970 after 26 years of marriage and shortly after their youngest daughter, Edith, turned 19. Beginning in

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