<\/p>\n
The Bills and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment plan to announce a marketing relationship in Toronto on Tuesday, marking the start of the NFL team\u2019s most concerted effort to develop its Canadian fan base since its last regular season game there in 2013.<\/p>\n
The event, slated for 2pm ET at BMO Field, will include remarks from both organizations\u2019 top brass followed by a youth football clinic. Bills COO Pete Guelli<\/b>, MLSE President & CEO Keith Pelley<\/b> and Bills\/CFL legend Doug Flutie <\/b>will be there, along with new Bills LPs and retired Toronto sports greats<\/a> Vince Carter<\/b>, Tracy McGrady<\/b> and Jozy Altidore<\/b>. After speeches, the Bills will co-host a youth football clinic for 200 children with the Toronto Argonauts CFL team. <\/p>\n It\u2019s the culmination of lengthy strategic planning inside the Bills\u2019 organization to more fully develop southern Ontario, Guelli said. \u201cIt\u2019s the second largest media market in North America and part of our home territory,\u201d Guelli said. \u201cThere are reasons to put those two together. We think we\u2019ve transcended Buffalo with the quality of football we play.\u201d<\/p>\n The Argonauts\u2019 Oct. 4 game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will carry a Bills theme and a Toronto bar, Real Sports Bar & Grill, is on board as an official watch party destination for the Bills, Guelli said. They are also discussing a Bills-themed Raptors game, and the Bills have arranged a retail activation plan with Peace Collective, a Canadian clothing brand. <\/p>\n Alongside annual regular season games<\/a> at Rogers Centre from 2009-2013, the Bills at the time undertook similar fan development efforts in Toronto. But the context today is much different. With a new stadium under construction in Buffalo<\/a>, the Bills are no longer seen as a threat to relocate, and the 2021 creation of the NFL\u2019s Global Markets Program formalizes teams\u2019 rights outside the U.S.<\/p>\n For the Bills, Toronto has always been within the 75-mile radius determining a team\u2019s home marketing area, but in the past, some other teams and league executives questioned exactly what that meant in a foreign country. Now, with all 32 teams owning marketing rights in at least one foreign country, there is a clear framework for team fan development activities abroad. The Bills\u2019 inclusion in the new program allows them to expand outside of Toronto into the rest of Canada.<\/p>\n There are no announced plans to bring games back to Toronto. This effort, Guelli said, is a \u201cgrassroots approach\u201d with a \u201c365-activation calendar\u201d focused on connecting new and prospective fans with the high-powered Bills team led by MVP QB Josh Allen<\/b>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sportsbusinessjournal.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Bills and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment plan to announce a marketing relationship in Toronto on Tuesday, marking the start of the NFL team\u2019s most concerted effort to develop its Canadian fan base since its last regular season game there in 2013. The event, slated for 2pm ET at BMO Field, will include remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[367631],"class_list":["post-2010622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bills"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}