T.O. has 378 yards receiving and two TDs in Buffalo's last three games.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO -- T.O. has given Toronto a ringing endorsement as an NFL city.

Flamboyant receiver Terrell Owens and his Buffalo Bills teammates held their final walkthrough at Rogers Centre on Wednesday in preparation for their game Thursday night against their AFC East rivals, the New York Jets. The contest will be Owens' first in Canada but the third of eight -- five regular season, three exhibition -- Buffalo will play in Toronto through 2012.

"Definitely," Owens said when asked if Toronto could support an NFL franchise. "I think once the team is established in Toronto I'm sure the fans would gravitate to the team and support it.

"Winning obviously gets people into the seats. It's all about how you market the team and the NFL is marketing the game. I'm not sure what to expect. This is my first time here and it's going to be an experience for me probably as well as some of the other guys. I'm hoping that we can get a lot of those Toronto fans to root for the Bills."

The Bills are looking for their first win in Toronto. They dropped an exhibition contest to Pittsburgh in August 2008 before losing 16-3 to Miami in December in the first regular-season game of the Toronto series.

Naturally, Owens sees himself as the perfect pitchman to make the NFL work in Toronto.

"Anything is up for an experiment," he said. "I think it could happen, I think it could flourish with the right type of marketing and right type of players here in a city like Toronto ... like myself."

Owens, who turns 36 on Monday, heads into Thursday's game on a roll, having accumulated 378 yards receiving and two touchdowns in Buffalo's last three games.

Yet even with the presence of Owens, two Canadian players and a head coach who grew up in Toronto, the Bills-Jets game has flown under the radar this year.

The contest has been announced as a sellout, yet tickets ranging in price from $99 to $275 are still available on the Bills in Toronto website. But other online ticket agencies were listing tickets as low as $30 for seats in the 500 level to $388 for those in the lower bowl of the 100 level between the 10- and 25-yard lines.

There have been some TV ads promoting the game but little buzz has been generated. That certainly wouldn't be the case if the game was being played in western New York, where 80,000 rabid football fans would cram into Ralph Wilson Stadium to cheer their team on against a conference rival.

"This is a situation where the league is really trying to expand the NFL internationally and so this is a stepping stone for it," Owens said. "Again, American football is not the most popular sport here in Canada so that's to be expected.

"But again, I'm sure if we were to play more games here and get all the fans involved and if Canadians knew more about American football then I'm sure they would come out and support it. But this is a stepping stone and a starting point for us."

That certainly wasn't the case in October 2007 when news broke that Rogers Communications had paid US$78 million to stage the eight games in Toronto. The expectation was the tickets would sell, regardless of price, which in turn helped fuel speculation on both sides of the border the contests were the first steps in the Bills relocating to southern Ontario.

The Bills in Toronto series -- the moniker given to the games -- also sent shockwaves through the CFL as league officials were concerned about the impact NFL games would have not only on the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats but league as a whole.

The Ticats chose to have nothing to do with the Bills in Toronto series whereas the Argos ownership agreed to give their season-ticket holders first crack as also securing tickets to see Buffalo play.

But high ticket prices -- an average of $183 per seat -- took much of the lustre off the series in Toronto, especially when the average ticket price for a Bills home game in Orchard Park, N.Y., is $51.

So, too, was the NFL experience in Toronto. The inability for fans to take part in tailgating combined with the Rogers Centre roof being closed took much of the home-field feel away for many Bills fans because playing indoors meant the normally cold and windy December conditions at Ralph Wilson Stadium wouldn't impact the game against a warm-weather team like Miami.

Also, there were also thousands of empty seats for Buffalo's exhibition game against Pittsburgh.

This year, Bills in Toronto series organizers cut ticket prices by an average of 17 per cent and offered more than 11,000 tickets for less than $99. Last year, only 4,700 tickets were under $99.

Rogers Communications also offered partial refunds to those who had bought seats in 2008 and were affected by the price reduction.

Trouble is, this year's game hardly elicits great excitement.

New York (5-6) is tied with Miami (5-6) for second in the AFC East, two games behind the front-running New England Patriots. The Bills (4-7) are in the division basement.

But the two teams are coming off wins. The Jets beat the Carolina Panthers 17-6 on Sunday while Buffalo dispatched Miami 31-14.

Buffalo and New York met earlier this season, with the Bills winning 16-13 in overtime Oct. 18.

Thursday night's game will involve two Canadian players, with third-year defensive end Corey Mace of Port Moody, B.C., suiting up for Buffalo and rookie linebacker Jamaal Westerman of Brampton, Ont., in uniform with the Jets.

Also, Rex Ryan, New York's colourful rookie head coach, spent 12 years growing up in Toronto (1965-77).

The Jets will play their first regular-season game in Canada and just their second game overall. New York beat Cleveland 11-7 in a pre-season game at Montreal's Olympic Stadium in 1988.

The six-foot-three, 287-pound Mace will make his third appearance at Rogers Centre, dressing for last season's games. Many Bills players complained last year's contest didn't have the feel of a home game, especially considering the vast number of spectators who were clad in Dolphins' colours. But Mace says that's not the club's focus heading into Thursday night's showdown.

"We're focused on one goal and that's beating the New York Jets," Mace said. "We'd love to hear it and hear them razzing when (Jets) on offence, especially us defensive guys.

"Either way, we're really focused and zoning in on what our job is."

Mace, 23, registered his first career interception in last week's win over Miami and joked with reporters about whether he would've preferred to register the career milestone before a Canadian crowd.

"To me, it's just real special being able to be in the NFL as a Canadian and come back to home soil," he said. "A lot of guys get to go back and play in their home towns but being from Canada you would never have thought that until last year.

"I've been here for all three games and am very fortunate."

NOTES -- Five of Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez's 17 interceptions this season have come against Buffalo ... Owens needs nine catches to become the sixth player in league history to register 1,000 career receptions ... Buffalo cornerback Terrence McGee is questionable for Thursday's game due to a knee injury that has forced him to miss the last three games. Starting offensive tackle Demetrius Bell won't play for the third straight game also because of a knee injury.