I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

[BillsImpossible]

I can realistically imagine hearing NFL bigwigs talking to each other 1 year ago saying, "Nobody in Buffalo has the money to buy the Bills after Wilson dies, only a Unicorn can save the team from moving to a more lucrative market that will help expand our market share of the sports industry. Don't worry boys, we've got Bon Jovi on our side and Buffalo is living on a prayer."

I don't think the NFL thought Terry Pegula would ever step up to the plate and hit a home run like he just did.

Terry Pegula played coy after buying the Buffalo Sabres, and only very recently did he sell land for $1.7 billion.

After Pegula sold that land, I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL's money masters took a giant collective crap in their pants.

"Oh no he didn't."

Oh yes he did.

$1.3 billion Buffalo Bills.

The NFL never saw Pegula coming. They thought they had Buffalo in the bag, but got left holding it.

Why has the NFL been pushing for a team in Toronto since 2006?

Because the NFL is enamored by numbers.

Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.

Speaking of bacon, I'm going to make a BLT tonight with a slice of American cheese.

Priceless.

http://www.worldpopulationstatistics.com/ontario-population/

Based on the estimates made using population census data and historical population growth statistics, the population of Ontario as of the year 2013 is 13,472,400.

[Skooby]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

If it meant that much, they'd give Toronto an expansion team.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

Nobody in Buffalo has the money to buy the Bills after Wilson dies

Well they were right. Nobody in Buffalo does have that money, we've lucked into a crazy rich guy who loves Buffalo.

[YardRat]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't know why some are fretting about having 'only' three bidders. Three parties that were interested enough to plop down initial offers of over a billion is just fine by me. Sure, there were a lot more alleged interested prties, but the reality probably is many were either scared away over the no-relocation language, or wet their pants when they got a whiff of what somebody like Pegs was going to put on the table. Obviously there were a lot of people that wanted to move the team, or thought they were going to get an $850mil dollar steal.

[swiper]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't know why some are fretting about having 'only' three bidders. Three parties that were interested enough to plop down initial offers of over a billion is just fine by me. Sure, there were a lot more alleged interested prties, but the reality probably is many were either scared away over the no-relocation language, or wet their pants when they got a whiff of what somebody like Pegs was going to put on the table. Obviously there were a lot of people that wanted to move the team, or thought they were going to get an $850mil dollar steal.

Count me in as a 'fretter', at least initially. Now I'm not. I agree with you. We were told by the media of all this interest, then it boiled down to three - or at least that is what we're being told. (I think you have to leave the door open to some surprises). But I agree that most of the interested parties likely wanted to move the team. When they found out how hard that would be they backed off. And absolutely three is better than none. I think this will work out just fine.

[Albany,n.y.]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't buy any of this nonsense that the NFL bigwigs want the Bills out of Buffalo.

[sudzy]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't buy any of this nonsense that the NFL bigwigs want the Bills out of Buffalo.

I think most owners would like to keep the Bills in Buffalo. Jerry Jones is the only one that has made commits that the Bills maybe should be moved.

[Thurmal]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't buy any of this nonsense that the NFL bigwigs want the Bills out of Buffalo.

That scumbag Roger Goodell would love to see them move to LA, Toronto, London, wherever.

[Albany,n.y.]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

That scumbag Roger Goodell would love to see them move to LA, Toronto, London, wherever.

Where's your evidence?
These "The NFL hates Buffalo" threads are and have been ridiculous.
Here's a timeline of things I've seen Bills fans say without any regard to actual facts:

Ralph is getting old, when he dies the NFL will surely want to sell the team to someone who will move the team to LA or Toronto.
Ralph has no succession plan.
The lease is almost up, the Bills will be gone in 2013.
The lease says they can pay a penalty & leave, they're gone as soon as the new owner buys the team.
Bon Jovi's moving the team to Toronto (in spite of the fact he doesn't own it and probably never will)

...and the dumbest thing I've seen (from the comment section of Bucky Gleason's Pegula article)-"I also mentioned before that the left leaning federal government might just put some pressure on the NFL to steer away from Pegula based on their hatred for the idea of America to be self sufficient for our energy needs."

All the Negative Nancys will always find a way to be miserable & find some way to talk themselves into thinking that everyone hates Buffalo, wants to move the Bills or in the extreme, will say their political enemies don't want the most likely buyer to buy the team. It's always something but the bottom line is the negative conjectures are never supported when the facts come out. If the NNs were correct the Bills would have left WNY 40 years ago. Some of you are just masochists looking for your next whipping.

[Ingtar33]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

If it meant that much, they'd give Toronto an expansion team.

yep.

BillsImpossible doesn't really grasp what the NFL is if he thinks the owners sit around imagining Bon Jovi as one of them. The NFL is just a giant lucrative rich man's club. They're interested only in who will fit in with the rest of the guys. The only thing that irritated them about buffalo was you could count on Ralph Wilson to say no to any change the league wanted to employ. So their only dream about ownership in buffalo is finding a billionaire who wants to get along with the clique. Sure they can make money from a popular team in Toronto... more money they they would make from a popular team in buffalo... but that cash gets split 32 ways... so it's not enough money to really factor into their thought process.

They actually make quite a bit of money from expansion... expanding the league +2 teams, one to LA and one to Toronto would make them a fortune. But again... we're talking about people for whom billions of dollars is in the profit margins of their annual portfolio... so again... it's apparently not enough money to get the league to expand to LA or Toronto because those options aren't on the table.

No... the only interest the league has in this whole mess, is that the team get sold ABOVE market value. Because teams get sold so rarely, the "market" value is more hypothetical then real... so the more the team is sold for the more "everyone's" team is worth... and THAT my friend is all they really care about.

[Fletch]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

yep.

BillsImpossible doesn't really grasp what the NFL is if he thinks the owners sit around imagining Bon Jovi as one of them. The NFL is just a giant lucrative rich man's club. They're interested only in who will fit in with the rest of the guys. The only thing that irritated them about buffalo was you could count on Ralph Wilson to say no to any change the league wanted to employ. So their only dream about ownership in buffalo is finding a billionaire who wants to get along with the clique. Sure they can make money from a popular team in Toronto... more money they they would make from a popular team in buffalo... but that cash gets split 32 ways... so it's not enough money to really factor into their thought process.

Actually, only some of the revenues are shared, much of which is locally generated goes to the team.

According to this link http://harvardsportsanalysis.files.w...l-lockout.pdf;

60% is shared and what is not shared is ...

"Only 40 percent of the Packers’ revenues are locally generated. The sources of this local revenue include home ticket receipts, private boxes, parking, concessions, and local marketing, sponsorships, and media deals"

Agree with your assessment of the NFL club environment.

[stuckincincy]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

yep.

BillsImpossible doesn't really grasp what the NFL is if he thinks the owners sit around imagining Bon Jovi as one of them. The NFL is just a giant lucrative rich man's club. They're interested only in who will fit in with the rest of the guys. The only thing that irritated them about buffalo was you could count on Ralph Wilson to say no to any change the league wanted to employ. So their only dream about ownership in buffalo is finding a billionaire who wants to get along with the clique. Sure they can make money from a popular team in Toronto... more money they they would make from a popular team in buffalo... but that cash gets split 32 ways... so it's not enough money to really factor into their thought process.

They actually make quite a bit of money from expansion... expanding the league +2 teams, one to LA and one to Toronto would make them a fortune. But again... we're talking about people for whom billions of dollars is in the profit margins of their annual portfolio... so again... it's apparently not enough money to get the league to expand to LA or Toronto because those options aren't on the table.

No... the only interest the league has in this whole mess, is that the team get sold ABOVE market value. Because teams get sold so rarely, the "market" value is more hypothetical then real... so the more the team is sold for the more "everyone's" team is worth... and THAT my friend is all they really care about.

"and THAT my friend is all they really care about."

Which is why the last time I attended an NFL game was in 1986, in PGH. Drunken brawls, even back then. Never bought a single trinket. I follow it, watch games, enjoy the banter, and pay for that via the cut out of my hide that the cable company extracts for sports programming and a sales tax increase in the county I live in, savaged by stadium bond repayments to give a local businessman essentially a free building to pile up profits.

[Fletch]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't know why some are fretting about having 'only' three bidders. Three parties that were interested enough to plop down initial offers of over a billion is just fine by me. Sure, there were a lot more alleged interested prties, but the reality probably is many were either scared away over the no-relocation language, or wet their pants when they got a whiff of what somebody like Pegs was going to put on the table. Obviously there were a lot of people that wanted to move the team, or thought they were going to get an $850mil dollar steal.

Don't know why anyone would be upset over only three bidders. I thought it was great and the best possible scenario. It seems to me that the opposite is true, that had we had more it would have been worse.

Ideally two bidders, Golisano and Pegula, or maybe only one of them even. Three seems to be about as few as they could have while still keeping the process legit.

What has me worried are the rumors that they're going to open it up to more bidders which obviously would decrease Pegs' chances. But if that happens then it raises other questions. Right now the trust has pretty much what appears to be a green light to taking Pegs' offer and everyone will be happy, at least for now and until the whole new stadium issue begins to pop up.

[notacon]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

I don't think this was a "surprise" at all....and I don't buy the analysis presented in the first post for a moment.

In fact, I would say that the NFL leadership would seek out local ownership if needed. The last thing in the world the NFL wants is for the Bills to move out of Buffalo. Having a team in LA would do nothing for the bottom line...which is the value of the TV contracts. That cash cow has no signs of ever reducing, much less ending, and if it was a deciding issue, there would have been a team in LA long ago.

The politics of this are what is important. A move out of Buffalo could possibly bring the NFL's antimonopoly exemption into play. Don't think for a second that the governor of NY, the Senators of NY, and several other NY politicos have not had long talks with Goodell. Goodell is not a "scumbag"...he is a very astute businessman that has to keep 32 really rich guys happy and deals with the most powerful people in the entertainment industry.

This takes an immense amount of skill, diplomacy and sharp business acumen. Anyone who doubts that has no idea what they are talking about.

[stuckincincy]

Re: I Think The NFL Can't Believe What's Happening In Buffalo

Don't know why anyone would be upset over only three bidders. I thought it was great and the best possible scenario. It seems to me that the opposite is true, that had we had more it would have been worse.

Ideally two bidders, Golisano and Pegula, or maybe only one of them even. Three seems to be about as few as they could have while still keeping the process legit.

What has me worried are the rumors that they're going to open it up to more bidders which obviously would decrease Pegs' chances. But if that happens then it raises other questions. Right now the trust has pretty much what appears to be a green light to taking Pegs' offer and everyone will be happy, at least for now and until the whole new stadium issue begins to pop up.

I think they are forced consider other bids under pain of not honoring the intent of a trust. You can't imbed a covenant that demands that the item purchased must be bound within a particular piece of geography and at the same time established a trust with seeking maximizing return.Devil is in the details, but I can't see the legal folks who certified the trust would allow such. Be it's asset sports team or not. Sheik X could show up, bid 2bn for fun and giggles. Sheik X could sue the trustees for unsound care of the beneficiaries.

The NFL knows that the RW situation is so messy because of the lease deal. IMO, it's another Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce. I can see ownership decisions pending for quite a time. I'm sure a few season ticket holders will file suit, merit or not.