There is a NFL relocation fee & it looks to be between $250 - $500 Million...

[Mitchy moo]

Oh my god this really puts a cramp on any team moving easily. Lots of beers sales / ticket sales needed to make up $500 Million.


The $2 billion problem
Washington Post reporter Les Carpenter wrote an interesting article on the NFL trying to return to Los Angeles, interviewing numerous Southern California movers and shakers.

The bottom line is that the proposition isn't going to be cheap. Carpenter's estimate that the cost could reach $2 billion is in line with what numerous NFL owners and executives told Yahoo! Sports when asked during training camp.
That price includes purchasing a team from a current owner (anywhere from $750 million to $1 billion), stadium costs (a recent NFL-commissioned estimate put the price for the stadium at $815 million at either an Orange County site or at the L.A. Coliseum) and the relocation fee that a team would be charged (anywhere from $250 million to $500 million).

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=jc-nflnotes090906&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[gr8slayer]

Good find Skooby, sadly there are people out there than will pay it.

[Mitchy moo]

Good find Skooby, sadly there are people out there than will pay it.

On top of a new stadium & the fee to buy the team?? Your looking at ~$2 Billion, that just looks like alot of change. Your staring at $100 M in interest @ 5% without doing anything else with your money and it's going to be tough for any normal team to make alot more than $100 Million in profit individually per year. You also have to look at how the Raiders lost their butt by moving and it really makes you wonder if the money isn't better spent locally in Buffalo in a new location and expanding the market. Sort of like the plan that RW, just without clarification about a new long term owner and a new stadium location.

I personally think RW is playing his final cards in getting NY state to commit major funding for a new stadium to keep the Bills in WNY. This also makes the team a more viable purchase for another party and gives them of a better potential for good revenue, which at the current venue seems to not be possible. There is also a possibility that the state can give income credits to the stadium and grants for improving current land that sits idol and useless for many years. Giving someone money to build and a free 30 year ticket from extra fees and getting to collect revenues with less than normal expenses would obvious make things much more attractive.

[gr8slayer]

Yeah but you have to remember that the $2,000,000,000 isn't out of pocket. There are multiple investors, loans, etc..... Moving a team has been done twice recently without much of an issue.

[Mitchy moo]

On top of a new stadium & the fee to buy the team?? Your looking at ~$2 Billion, that just looks like alot of change. Your staring at $100 M in interest @ 5% without doing anything else with your money and it's going to be tough for any normal team to make alot more than $100 Million in profit individually per year. You also have to look at how the Raiders lost their butt by moving and it really makes you wonder if the money isn't better spent locally in Buffalo in a new location and expanding the market. Sort of like the plan that RW, just without clarification about a new long term owner and a new stadium location.

I personally think RW is playing his final cards in getting NY state to commit major funding for a new stadium to keep the Bills in WNY. This also makes the team a more viable purchase for another party and gives them of a better potential for good revenue, which at the current venue seems to not be possible. There is also a possibility that the state can give income credits to the stadium and grants for improving current land that sits idol and useless for many years. Giving someone money to build and a free 30 year ticket from extra fees and getting to collect revenues with less than normal expenses would obvious make things much more attractive.

Plan on a major waterfront development taking place if the stadium goes in near there and all the services to help with it. The summer will bring people in for tourism and the winter brings the fans in to watch games. I personally believe that even in Buffalo that it will become a distinctive who has money and who doesn't for a normal ticket holder, that's about the only downside. That's really the way the league wants it and unfortunately it's going to have to go that way. Going to the game is going to be out of reach for more and more people as time goes on and the prices will go up.

I also think that with the canadian market will come canadian TV revenues and new income for the NFL which obviously would be Buffalo related. It isn't like there is many other teams closer to Canada than Buffalo and if you think about it the leafs fans literally takeover HSBC during hockey season. There isn't nothing to say that they will not help fill all the luxury boxes as well, lord knows they spend a ridiculous amounts to get into the games. I think nearly everyone on here who has sold tickets to a leaf fan has shafted them, so we're all guilty.

Let's stuff them in a luxury box and get them behind our team for a common goal, keeping our Bills home.

[Buffatexas]

Yeah but you have to remember that the $2,000,000,000 isn't out of pocket. There are multiple investors, loans, etc..... Moving a team has been done twice recently without much of an issue.


If I am not mistaken the move from Cleveland to Baltimore only ran Modell 29 mil in relocation fees, that is a far stretch from 200-500 million.

[gr8slayer]

If I am not mistaken the move from Cleveland to Baltimore only ran Modell 29 mil in relocation fees, that is a far stretch from 200-500 million.
Where are you getting that figure? I've been looking everywhere for it and can't find it.

[Mitchy moo]

If I am not mistaken the move from Cleveland to Baltimore only ran Modell 29 mil in relocation fees, that is a far stretch from 200-500 million.

Yahoo maybe wrong as well but I do remember reading something about a large fee for moving a NFL team. A cannot say how much but I remember it being alot and it was to be equally divided amongst all the owners.

[YardRat]

Yahoo maybe wrong as well but I do remember reading something about a large fee for moving a NFL team. A cannot say how much but I remember it being alot and it was to be equally divided amongst all the owners.

Oh goody...not only does a city lose it's team, but the Three Stooges (Jones, Kraft, and Snyder) get to line their pockets with another 10-15mil.

What a great idea revenue sharing would be then, huh?

[Jan Reimers]

If we built a new waterfront stadium and named it after Ralph Wilson in perpetuity, maybe the old codger would sign an agreement with a local ownership group to sell it at a price certain (or the average of two neutral appraisals) upon his death.

[kernowboy]

People talk about Toronto, but the Rogers Centre is not viable at only 53,000, so would require huge expense to expand it, or a new stadium, which might only be used for 10games a year. There was talk of an Olympic Stadium if a bid was successful but we are talking 2020/24 there. It also took a hell of an effort to get BMO field built.

Looking at downtown Buffalo, a multipurpose type arena like the Alamo Dome would be perfect especially if adapted to have a sliding roof. With naming rights - which could be significant $10m a season over 15years and you have a third of the cost covered.

It could be used for Football (72,000), Hockey (up to 36,000) a college bowl game (72,000) concerts (50,000) and conventions.

And considering all the political considerations of having a football team in NYState, it is by far the cheapest option

[Buffatexas]

Where are you getting that figure? I've been looking everywhere for it and can't find it.


I recalled seeing it on espn or something a few weeks back. I googled it and here is what I found.

...Mr. Modell also must pay the NFL a relocation fee of $29 million -- $20 million upfront and $9 million to be paid over 15 years, sources said. Mr. Modell also agreed to forgo any share of an expansion fee if Cleveland is given a new team...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/bal-modell020996,0,1438541,full.story

[Mitchy moo]

I recalled seeing it on espn or something a few weeks back. I googled it and here is what I found.

...Mr. Modell also must pay the NFL a relocation fee of $29 million -- $20 million upfront and $9 million to be paid over 15 years, sources said. Mr. Modell also agreed to forgo any share of an expansion fee if Cleveland is given a new team...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/bal-modell020996,0,1438541,full.story

If I could only go back 11 years and do things over again, lol.

[Johnny Bugmenot]

"Relocation fee?"

Good God, they're just begging for a lawsuit.

[gr8slayer]

I recalled seeing it on espn or something a few weeks back. I googled it and here is what I found.

...Mr. Modell also must pay the NFL a relocation fee of $29 million -- $20 million upfront and $9 million to be paid over 15 years, sources said. Mr. Modell also agreed to forgo any share of an expansion fee if Cleveland is given a new team...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/bal-modell020996,0,1438541,full.story
I guess inflation is a ***** then huh? I still don't think the new prices will detour anyone from moving the team if they see an opportunity to make more money elsewhere.

[Mitchy moo]

I guess inflation is a ***** then huh? I still don't think the new prices will detour anyone from moving the team if they see an opportunity to make more money elsewhere.

$500 Million is alot to make up. Even $250 M is alot of beers and seats.

[HAMMER]

Besides hijacking material from TBD everyday, where do you get this stuff Skooby? 500 million, don't think so.

[Mitchy moo]

Besides hijacking material from TBD everyday, where do you get this stuff Skooby? 500 million, don't think so.

It's from Yahoo Hammer, why don't you read it first and then comment on it.

[RedEyE]

The article is describing the fees assessed when moving a team in Southern California. It would harldy be 250-500 million from Buffalo to Toronto. The Baltimore numbers are a little more accurate for that part of the region. Toronto is harldy Southern California.

[Mitchy moo]

The article is describing the fees assessed when moving a team in Southern California. It would harldy be 250-500 million from Buffalo to Toronto. The Baltimore numbers are a little more accurate for that part of the region. Toronto is harldy Southern California.

Why is that, is the distance a whole lot farther? Should a gallon of milk cost ~10-20 times more in CA as well ??

Where are you guys coming up with this stuff?? It's a freaking fee that is to be divided by the teams in the league. Can you imagine owning a team and getting charged $500 Million to move in in CA and seeing the Bills getting moved for $29 Million?? I'd be pretty P'Offed at that point if I owned the CA team.