Year Two of the Bills in Toronto experiment kicks off in the Rogers Centre tonight, in a game that’s sold out in name only.

Yes, the Buffalo Bills-New York Jets game officially is sold out and will be shown on local television. But plenty of cheap, discounted tickets still were available Wednesday.

Tickets in the two cheapest price ranges — $99 and $155 (Canadian) — could be purchased late Wednesday through the Bills in Toronto Web site. Tickets are even cheaper on Internet ticket sites.

On

www.tickethold.com

, there were 10 tickets available for under $40 (U. S.) apiece late Wednesday morning. Even with the U. S. dollar being worth about $1.05 Canadian, that’s still less than half the face value. There also were 43 tickets available for well under the $99 face value of the cheapest seat. And ticket prices seemed to be tumbling. On some tickets, the offered price was crossed out and replaced with lower figures, such as a $55 asking price lowered to $50, $84 to $70 and $120 to $100.

This is one ice-cold ticket on the black market.

Rogers Communications has paid $78 million to the Bills to stage five regular-season and three preseason games in Toronto from 2008 through 2012.

The tumbling ticket market wasn’t the only battering tonight’s game has taken in the public eye.

Toronto newspaper reporters and columnists Wednesday had a field day with the game’s difficulty in stirring the emotions of Torontoarea sports fans.

“There’s no arguing with the fact this has been a sports marketing disaster of epic proportions,” Globe and Mail columnist Stephen Brunt wrote Wednesday.

And the headline above a Toronto Sun column by Ken Fidlin read “Bills-in-Toronto Experiment DOA.”

Organizers of the Bills games in Toronto vehemently disagree, citing some of the challenges in selling out the games.

“We have to continue to look at this arrangement under the light that this has never been done before,” said Adrian Montgomery, Rogers Communications’ general manager of the Bills in Toronto series. “We have another team, from another city, from another country, playing games here. It’s never been done before, and we’ve certainly learned that it’s not without its challenges. Obviously, there’s a learning process that goes along with that.”

Montgomery said he expects the Rogers Centre to be “electric” tonight, as Toronto fans have become more familiar with the Bills, and the team has spent more time getting known in the community.

And, he added, the game’s great marketing slogan has turned to reality: “T. O. is in TO.”

Still, there’s no shortage of theories about the reasons behind the Bills-Jets ticket being a tough sell:

The attractiveness of the two teams: The Bills are on the brink of being eliminated from the playoffs for the 10th straight year, and the Jets had lost six of their last seven games before last weekend.

Neither team has a marquee ticket-selling star, other than perhaps the Bills’ Terrell Owens.

The proximity of Buffalo: The National Football League, while extremely popular in the Toronto area, is not some distant curiosity. Bills officials have estimated that some 15 percent to 20 percent of their fans come from Southern Ontario for each game; that’s roughly 10,000 to 15,000 fans.

The lack of passionate rooting interest for the Bills: Toronto fans can’t be expected to embrace the Bills the way they have the teams that wear “Toronto” on their jerseys.

Canadians who love the NFL don’t have to be Bills fans to love the sport and the league.

The atmosphere: Maybe it’s the lack of widespread alcohol- fueled tailgating. Or the more polite nature of the Canadian sports fan. Or the lack of passionate rooting.

Whatever the reason, the atmosphere hasn’t seem charged for the two previous Bills games, according to multiple reports.

Loyalty to the Canadian Football League: Buffalo News interviews with Toronto-area residents before last season’s two Bills games in Toronto revealed somewhat of a backlash to the series from fans loyal to their Toronto Argonauts and the CFL.