Bills should be wary of handouts

[gochiefs]

http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/2007/03/bills-wary-handouts300307.html

The good news about the NFL's new revenue sharing plan is that Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson will have more pocket money to tip his chauffeurs and servants. Unfortunately, this is cash that could have been spent getting the Bills to the playoffs or retaining Takeo Spikes, but he would rather pretend he couldn't afford it.

While some news outlets in Buffalo are doing the job of the team's public relations department by portraying the new deal as necessary for the franchise's survival instead of advocating that Wilson tries to make more money himself, it's more accurate to see that things aren't that dire for the Bills.

Some Bills fans get upset at any notion contrary to the belief that the owner, after spending the day saving the team, uses any free time left to rescue babies and war widows from fires, but they need to know it's OK to criticize Wilson. You can still embrace a local business and think it could be improved, whether it be the product it offers or in getting its owner to stop complaining and start compensating talented employees.

[gochiefs]

What do you folks think? Is Ralph really that protected among Bills fans? I found this article quite revealing as an outsider and wanted to get your opinions.

[Night Train]

I bet Ralph buys a new Taurus. One with a radio !

[lightningbolt444]

i accually think it is the opposite look at 95% of posters on hear at some point they have called Ralph out for being cheap. he also has got to be one of the dumbest owners to refuse to sell the naming rights now does he forget the bills were one of the first teams to sell the rights to their stadium and ralph a few million is 2 or 3 million lets look at the carolina panthers 7 million a year untill 2024!!!!! Thats 119 million Ralph but hey whats a 100 million + these days anyway at least you can say to your tennis buddies hey i have a 75k seat stadium named after me . Its time to smartin up for Ralph. I dunno if its his old age or what but if he wants to say the bills arnt making any money blah blah which we all know isnt true, he needs to take all money making options and use them to his advantage then ill listen. Until then i just want to know what buffalo or someone for that matter has to do to show Ralph how sweet of a deal he has in Buffalo we pay for his stadium and have a large large fan base thus selling a lot of seats this past year may be an exception while he still gives us a mediorcre team year in and year out.

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

I think the Spikes cut was more out of lack of confidence he has made it back to a 4.5 million dollar player.

[User Manuel]

I agree Ghost. The problem is this in the NFL today isnt salaries, per se, it is the amortization of signing bonuses. The Bills can pay any salary in the league for any player. What the definiciencies in revenue sharing does is it allows teams like Dallas, San Fran, Giants, pick your bigger team to hand out signing bonuses that are gigantic. What Ralph has taken the stand against is signing a gut to a 8 year 80 million dollar contract that pays him 25 million in the first year.

Operating losses come in real dollars on a year to year basis. If Ralph had matched the contract for clements the year to year salary wouldn't have been the issue, it would have been the payout to Clements of 25 million that equals 1/4 of this years cap. That is what he is complaining about. Revenue sharing does two things. It gives Ralph some capital to compete in the area of signing bonuses and also it takes away some of the excess cash these other teams can freely spend.

This is where competitive balance is disrupted.

As for Spikes. I think it came down to production v. pay. Spikes is just not that good right now, maybe he will improve this year, but he was effectively our 3rd or 4th best LB last year.

As for McGahee, Fletcher and Clements I could only argue that Fletcher gave anywhere near the production worth what he was being paid/asking for. The worst thing about Spikes, Fletcher and Mcgahee is that they were horribly undisciplined players on top of it. How many incorrect drops in pass coverage did Fletcher have to make, or stupid penalties. Spikes constantly ran himself out of position before he got hurt and Willis, well, we have said enough.

I agree with taking Ralph to task for his hiring of TD, though I loved it when he did it. Bottom line is this, imo. Marv seems to have a definitive plan to hand this team over to Losman, Schobel, Crowell etc and build through the draft and judicious Free agent signings in area of deep need. His first draft was very good. His first free agent class, so-so, but better on the lower tier players. I am going to trust in Marvs philosophy and see. Frankly, as good as we have thought Spikes, et al, were, they have won nothing.

[Stewie]

I think the article made some decent points but... how is Ralph going to improve the Buffalo economy or get rid of the county sales tax? Is the writer really saying the insistence and implementation of the salary cap was a bad idea? Should Ralph be singled out for getting the state/city to build him or renovate a stadium when every other NFL owner does the same? Is he a bad owner for letting his GM make coaching decisions, or did he just hire the wrong GM? Have Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones et al really "maximized their prosperity?" Or do they just happen to have teams in highly populated, prosperous areas of the country? Is it Ralphs fault the team is 0 for the century for the playoffs? Did Ralph lay an egg against pittsburgh scrubs? Did Ralph ignore the offensive line the whole time? Did Ralph let Pat Williams and Sam Adams leave?

I realize the buck stops at the owner, but lets not jump all over Ralph for every single bad thing that has happened to this franchise.

And finally, for the writer to say "it makes no sense to move a business that is already profitable.." clues me into the fact that he has absolutely ZERO business sense. Of course you move a profitable business, if your destination will make it worth more, or more profitable, or both. Duh.

[Gunzlingr]

What the hell have you been up, GC?

[TigerJ]

I submitted a comment to that article. I agreed that Wilson should do the little things like sell naming rights to enhance revenue. I stated that local govenment has been guilty of mismanagement for decades and that the state has done the region no favors. I agreed with PaulB that Ralph Wilson doesn't have control over what the state and county do. In the end, I stated that the NFL has to have revenue sharing or it will end up like baseball, with a handful of elite teams for whom the rest of the league functions as a farm system.