Yahoo takes Wilson's head off...

[Tatonka]

27. Buffalo Bills – Ralph Wilson: A few months shy of his 90th birthday, Wilson should be in a celebratory mood. Largely because of his *****ing, moaning and general grumpiness, Wilson was essentially handed the keys to a monster market, in the form of a deal to play eight games in Toronto over the next five years – one which guarantees his franchise $78 million. “We’ll see if the guy stops whining and complaining now,” one owner says. “Toronto, if you put it in the U.S., would be the fourth-largest city. If Jerry Jones staked a claim to Mexico City, or Robert Kraft did it with Montreal, or Paul Allen wanted to play one game a year in Vancouver, we’d never approve it. Ralph was given a special accommodation because we’re sick of hearing him cry about being in a small market.” Back when he co-founded the AFL, Wilson was considered an innovator. Now he comes off as selfish and stodgy and looking for handouts. It’s also telling that, rather than selling the naming rights, he continues to play his non-Toronto home games in Ralph Wilson Stadium. What a team player.

to the article.. (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AhEzqQ9d93Z6ZOI11UjjMqI5nYcB?slug=ms-ownersrankingspartone072208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)

[Mitchy moo]

RW's also the man who kept the Bills in Buffalo for nearly 50 years and they never moved away. Squeaky wheel gets.....

[Dr. Pepper]

Yeah whatever it takes to keep the team in Buffalo I guess.

[ParanoidAndroid]

I can think of other reasons to rank him low, but doing what ever he has to do to make the Bills more valuable does not make him a bad owner.

[mybills]

"*****ing, moaning and general grumpiness" sounds more like (? zoner) :couch:

[casdhf]

That is full of flaws.

[Night Train]

:drama:

[gil]

I wonder who the anonymously quoted owner was - my money's on Jones, but Kraft or Snyder wouldn't be too off the mark either I reckon

[chernobylwraiths]

Hmm, Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft and Paul Allen mentioned? Which owner of the "new guard" wasn't mentioned who is only looking for money? Might the quote come from Snyder?

[DrGraves]

exagerated but true stuff

[Bill Brasky]

"If Jerry Jones staked a claim to Mexico City, or Robert Kraft did it with Montreal, or Paul Allen wanted to play one game a year in Vancouver, we’d never approve it. Ralph was given a special accommodation because we’re sick of hearing him cry about being in a small market.”

It's a safe bet these quotes came from Snyder. What's worse, is Ralph's "*****ing" has most likely put Buffalo in a very bad spot here. These big money guys are essentially aiming towards what will ultimately happen - a league of 5-10 big market teams, while the rest fend for themselves elsewhere. Enjoy the NFL - as we know it - while it lasts. With these greedy assclowns more or less running the show, the small markets will be first to go.

[chernobylwraiths]

"If Jerry Jones staked a claim to Mexico City, or Robert Kraft did it with Montreal, or Paul Allen wanted to play one game a year in Vancouver, we’d never approve it. Ralph was given a special accommodation because we’re sick of hearing him cry about being in a small market.”

It's a safe bet these quotes came from Snyder. What's worse, is Ralph's "*****ing" has most likely put Buffalo in a very bad spot here. These big money guys are essentially aiming towards what will ultimately happen - a league of 5-10 big market teams, while the rest fend for themselves elsewhere. Enjoy the NFL - as we know it - while it lasts. With these greedy assclowns more or less running the show, the small markets will be first to go.

They should just look at baseball and see that it doesn't work too well.

[trapezeus]

doesn't work for the small teams in baseball, but for the yankees, redsox, they seem to really loving the fact that they have the cash to spend on huge payrolls and to be put in a position to win year after year.

Synders and Jones don't care about long term. Plus, with their meddlesome ways, they find a way to keep messing up the winning part. and they still don't care.

[Bill Brasky]

They should just look at baseball and see that it doesn't work too well.sure it does.... for the 5 teams that "matter". who cares about the rest, right?

[jamze132]

doesn't work for the small teams in baseball, but for the yankees, redsox, they seem to really loving the fact that they have the cash to spend on huge payrolls and to be put in a position to win year after year.

Synders and Jones don't care about long term. Plus, with their meddlesome ways, they find a way to keep messing up the winning part. and they still don't care.
The Florida Marlins consistently have one of the smallest payrolls in MLB and they have two WS championships and are currently 1 game out of 1st place.

It's not the norm, but it CAN happen.

[ddaryl]

and yet Ralph has been 100% correct in his whining and *****iness...

Seems to me its other owners who are being proven wrong and don't like to admit it.

and if Ralph's whining is what got the NFL owners to apporve his Toronto deal, then Ralph is the one who is working the league to his favor, and the other owners are getting played.

I'm going to love it when teams liek Dallas and others start feeling the reality they are creatring for themsleves.

[Bert102176]

I'm not one of RW's fans but this article is BS he has kept this team here and he did a great job earlier in his life just I think it's time he sells to someone or a group that will keep the team here

[Novacane]

The writer sounds like a total a-hole and I don't say that because he rips on Ralph. If you read his entire article he rips on all the owners on his 17-32 list. Sounds like a self rightous little ***** to me.

[chernobylwraiths]

The Florida Marlins consistently have one of the smallest payrolls in MLB and they have two WS championships and are currently 1 game out of 1st place.

It's not the norm, but it CAN happen.

Their first WS was bought. That team had some stars and a high salary. The year after they won it, he sold all the good players off. Plus, the marlins seem to have a difficult time selling tickets, even when the team is good. Doesn't sound successful to me.

[jamze132]

Their first WS was bought. That team had some stars and a high salary. The year after they won it, he sold all the good players off. Plus, the marlins seem to have a difficult time selling tickets, even when the team is good. Doesn't sound successful to me.
For one, I'm not a Marlins fan so I'm not really trying to defend them. I'm just pointing out that they are currently 1 game out of first place this late in the season with one of the smallest payrolls from the modern era.

And wanna know why they don't sell many tickets? They have been trying to acquire their OWN stadium for years now. If it happens, you will see attendance and revenue rise.

They do however have one hell of a GM who has somehow acquired all their current talent whether it be through the draft or trades.

[Dujek]

The person who wrote this article is an ******* of the highest order, who hasn't checked out his facts. Most glaringly the fact that he rips on Randy Lerner for spending too much time in London with Aston Villa. Who are based in Birmingham. Idiot.

[Historian]

Thank God the season is starting, because these articles and ranking lists are getting stupider by the day.

And to be honest, the author should be asking Why isn't Jones playing a game in Mexico City, or Kraft in Montreal?

I think he's pissed that 'senile' old Ralph thought of it first.

[trapezeus]

if you look at the rest of Silver's list, he gave the top earning owners high marks and low marks for the bottom ones. TO be fair, i like silver's articles for the most part. The bidwells and Mike brown are two really bad owners. The other bottom ones were made as villians for having to actually run a business as opposed to a treasury. Only 4 or 5 teams are really driving the revenue growth. There are only a handful of cities in america that can support Corporate boxes and high priced seats. and the NFL is in them. if they want to contract the league and price it even higher, that's their choice. But currently, we need all 32 teams and have to accept that different areas have different customers. If the top owners want to horde their money, let the league's parity fall in line wiht baseball and have the weaker teams just lose interest and have half full stadiums, that's their choice. Just don't come knocking for handouts when the best run league starts to look like the least interesting league. Those top owners are good for their teams,but they aren't good for the league. Silver should have addressed that in some way.

Some of the towns like buffalo, greenbay, etc, have incredible football fans. they show up for every game and make the game as big as it is. They have all the memorabilia, they live and die with the team. I don't know how you quantify that value, but it's a big reason that the NFL owns sunday.

The big markets have companies buying suites and seats and that drives their revenue up but actual fans would rather sit at home and watch the games because that's how they grew up. At least in NYC, very few "big" jets or giants fans have been to a game. And if they have it's like less than 3 games.

You need these crazy die hard towns along with the rich ones to keep up the image that the NFL is important to every american man. the more they start to make stadiums and seats a high priced ticket out of reach, people will start doing other things. And since a large chunk of us are middle class people who have budgets to live with, we'll ditch the game if we have to make ends meet.

Laugh at it now, but 10 years ago if you said people would start changing their driving habits because of $4 a gallon, people would have said, "your crazy, american's love their cars." But once you start pricing stuff out of the every day guy's budget, they happily find a new thing. It's happened to baseball, it's happened to the NBA and it can easily happen to the NFL depending on how they handle this next CBA.

So to wrap it up, i don't think this offers people a good glimpse at what a good owner is.

[raphael120]

I wouldn't mind Ralph *****ing and whining if it wasn't for the fact that it was HIS fault that this team's been abysmal the past 9 seasons. It's what happens when youre stingy when it comes to hiring coaches, bringing in talent. He seems to have changed his tune recently, he's spending money now, but lets hope the coaches he has saying who we shouold throw money at are right.

[mybills]

:rofl: @ your sig pic, Raph!