No details on talks status as NFL keeps Buffalo Bills Toronto series on agenda of next moot-NFL News
The office of the American professional football league regulators, National Football League (NFL), has declined to comment on the status of talks with Rogers Communications about the extension of the deal for Buffalo Bills Toronto series.
Bills, under a five-year deal with Rogers signed in 2008, play regular and preseason games in the Canadian city.
The deal is set to expire this year and the NFL is aiming for its extension to more seasons in the future.
Michael Signora, a spokesman for the league office, confirmed that the issue of Bills series remains on the agenda of next NFL meeting, due to be held this month (May 2012), but he refrained from disclosing details of the negotiations process.
The confirmation of the discussion on the issue at the next meeting had come in an email that the spokesman wrote on Tuesday, May 15, which was made available to a couple of media outlets.
Although Signora has not hinted anything around the possibility of a deadlock or failure of talks, the possibility of a setback is always there.
Yet all the stakeholders including the Rogers Communications have expressed optimism that a breakthrough will occur in the process.
Rogers Communications released a statement on Tuesday in which their media president, Keith Pelley, expressed confidence about reaching an agreement on the series extension.
He said:
"Discussions are ongoing with the Buffalo Bills about extending the Bills Toronto Series deal. While I am cautiously optimistic, we have nothing to announce at this time."
In spite of confirmation of continuation of the talks by all stakeholders, separately, none of them have shown willingness to speculate its outcome and timeline.
Since there is no information around the discussions taken place so far, it is very difficult to determine details of the outcome.
Some independent analysts see it to be a deal similar to the previous one: it will be for about five years and feature three preseason and one regular season games.
However, there is a reduction expected in the payout of $78 million that the team had received under their previous deal.
With NFL International Committee meeting this month to push forward the case, the Bills are keeping their fingers crossed.
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