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TORONTO — In the words of one Buffalo Bills fan, this was "tailgate lite."
Before fans crammed into the Roger Centre to watch an NFL exhibition game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the first of eight NFL dates in Toronto over a five-year period, hundreds of fans crowded into some empty real estate space in downtown Toronto for a little pre-game festivities.
The smell of grilled hamburgers and beer wafted through a closed-off city block full of fans decked in both Bills and Steelers paraphernalia.
While the mood was exuberant and sudsy, some in attendance lamented Toronto's inability to mimic the football-tossing, eat-for-free, pull-up-and-park atmosphere found in football stadiums like the Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium.
Fans attend a tailgate party before the Buffalo Bills play the Pittsburgh Steelers in an exhibition NFL football game in Toronto, on Thursday night. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)
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"In Canada, we're a little more conservative," said Domenic Dibratto, 51, wearing a blue Buffalo shirt and motioning to the wall of security guards checking identification at the tailgate party's entrance. Nearby, Toronto police officers also patrolled the area.
"There's a lot of structure here," he said.
At a U.S. tailgate party, he said, you'd be able to pull up to a stadium's parking lot and start grilling your own pork ribs and drinking your own beer.
And to get into the stadium last night, Dibratto and his son Mike had to pay about $210 for two 500-level tickets for a pre-season game.
"But you come for the atmosphere," the older Dibratto said.
That atmosphere Thursday included a healthy dose of Steelers fans as well. Wayne Dolimount, 52, painted his entire face in Steelers black and gold — each handle-bar of his moustache a different colour — and he removed his hat to reveal the Steelers logo painted on his bald head.
"The NFL has a lot of glitz, and that works," he said, standing next to his two sons and a friend.
Dolimount said he used follow the Toronto Argonauts and the CFL but lost interest as the league's popularity and financial stability waxed and waned.
"Would I pay $255 to see the Argos? Not likely," he said with a laugh.
Meanwhile, Kristen Murphy and Scott McDonald, Bills fans who designed their own T-shirts for the festivities, welcomed the chance for Toronto to get closer to getting its own NFL team — even if that means some growing pains in finding its stride as an NFL host.
"It's tailgate lite," McDonald said.
Added Murphy: "There's something unnatural about tailgating in the summer."
As the clock ticked closer to the 7:30 kick-off, packs of fans exited the tailgate party and made their way to the Rogers Centre, adding to the downtown core's traffic jams caused by the party's road closures.
Throughout the event, a live rock band played covers of bands such as Metallica and Guns N' Roses as people caroused on patio chairs.
Daryle Brocanier, named by his father after former Bills quarterback Daryle Lamonica, sat at one of the chairs wearing an enormous blue fur hat with silver horns.
A lifelong Bills fan, he's had a hard time believing that his time might end up moving to Toronto, where he says it will only disappear into the pool of the other major sports second to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"It's so much more of an experience when you're there," he said.
