ct bills fan
09-11-2014, 10:47 AM
I take no credit for this, it was posted on another board by a user called Badlandsmeanie. I don't frequent this other site (and thinking maybe others don't either), so, figured it was worth posting here. I'm not sure how much of it is true, but, would like to think it is. One of the best posts I've ever read.
Ralph Wilson Achieves One of The Greatest Sports Victories Ever
I have no inside information about what has happened here with the sale of the Bills or about Mr. Wilson. But I have followed the facts over time. I think that Ralph Wilson has just beat everybody and he did it for us, and he took darn good care of his family too.
Historically Ralph Wilson has had some friction with the league. Major points included:
Ralph Wilson said the NFL was becoming too corporate and losing focus on the game
Ralph Wilson voted against every team move (recall Bud Adams who moved the Titans from Houston to Tennessee, giving him the finger)
Ralph Wilson resisted building a new stadium and said we did not need one now.
Ralph Wilson said he thought the league was getting away from the revenue sharing with smaller market teams that had been responsible for much of the league’s success. This put him in nearly open conflict with larger market teams.
Ralph Wilson was one of two owners who voted against the Collective Bargaining Agreement that was in place before this one. He was mocked for saying he did not understand it, so he did not vote for it.
Later when he had time to review it, and he understood it, he stated that he thought it was a bad deal. The other teams realized the same thing, but it took them a year or two, instead of about a week like Ralph Wilson, to understand that.
For ten or fifteen years now we have been told that the Bills will be moved when Mr Wilson passes away, because the league wants them in a larger more lucrative market.
Mr Wilson would only say that the team would be sold and that there was no specific plan beyond that.
The league seems to have believed him.
I do not have any wish to speak ill of the departed. And I am sure Ralph Wilson was a fine man and is in heaven. But I think he was lying about that. It certainly seems like there was a plan.
There may have been more, at this point I wouldn't put anything past Ralph Wilson in terms of weaving spider web legal traps, but all I know of is the lease.
To review the lease, it was supposedly one with a hefty fee for leaving before 2023, unless they took a 28 million dollar buy out in 2020.
The NFL approved this lease. But it became more and more apparent over time that they did not understand it, in the same way that they did not understand the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
But Ralph Wilson did.
For one thing they did not understand that the 2020 buy out is largely a mirage. This is because the lease does not permit the new owner to plan for it. Planning to move the team, or build a stadium in another metropolitan area, or negotiate with any parties intending to do these things, would result in a fine of 400 million dollars PLUS additional court imposed costs that have been estimated to be another 400 million dollars, PLUS possible jail time.
So the only way to move out in 2020 would be to do it with very little planning time and into an already existing stadium. That would be very difficult if not impossible.
These facts only trickled out as needed. Nobody in the league was given advance warning of them, and since they did not understand the lease themselves, it took them by surprise.
You can tell they did not understand the lease by the things that they said.
Three weeks after Mr Wilson passed away Jerry Jones said:
“We always ought to be looking for ways to improve not only the growing the pie but also growing the fan base.* And to the extent that you can involve more fans in any team location is something to be considered.”
“To the end that we can create more rivalries and involve larger viewing audiences, populations, that’s something that you have to look at when you get a chance to, and that’s the debate between Buffalo and Toronto.”
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...-of-the-bills/
Remember that? It was scarey. It was scarey because we assumed Jerry Jones had some idea of what he was talking about.
The Bills trust kept silent.
Later, Jon Bon Jovi, good friend of the Patriots Robert Kraft, was endorsed as an ideal NFL owner candidate by John Mara of the Giants and Jerry Jones of the Cowboys.
Bon Jovi's “Toronto Group” was forthright about their intentions to move the team to Toronto.
Remember that? It was scarey.
Then, when it was too late, it was pointed out to them that not only would they be facing around 800 million dollars in fines and possible jail time from angry New York courts, but the the lease also forbid the sale of the team to anyone expressing an intent to to move the team.
The Rogers family, John Mara, Jerry Jones, and Robert Kraft are all astute business men who can afford the very best legal and financial advice. Ralph Wilson made them look like clowns.
Nothing they were saying was possible.
The terms of the lease drastically reduced the number of potential bidders because as the requirements became clear they realized that anyone who wanted to move the team would have to lie about it and keep lying for nine years. Nine years is a long time to wait and a long time not to get caught lying.
We were initially told that the team would go into a trust and the sale would take as long as two years. That made sense because it takes time to free up huge amounts of money and it would allow the estate to get the largest number of potential buyers.
Instead it was later disclosed that the sale would happen very quickly and that this was in fact a requirement of the trust that Ralph Wilson set up.
Why?
I think it is because Ralph Wilson wanted it to happen fast before the league could figure a way out of the legal binds he put them into. The league and the Bon Jovi's and Jerry Jones etc didn’t even know what trouble they were in until July, when it was explained to them.
They had no time to conjure up a way out of it.
Now it is September, just two months later, and the team is gone.
Ralph Wilson beat them at every turn.
The pool of bidders was cut way down by the terms and conditions Ralph Wilson set in place. It had to be a sincere bidder who wanted to keep the team local, who also had a boatload of ready cash.
That left a very few people. Still, the team sold for a record amount with no league backed blackmailed promise of a new corporate style stadium. Why?
It is because of something else Ralph Wilson did that the the league does not understand.
Ralph Wilson built one of the very few NFL football teams, that is worth more than money.
The Pegulas bought the team because they understand that too. What they get by owning the Buffalo Bills, and what keeping them here means to our community, is worth more than money.
Ralph Wilson did not like corporate football, he loved the game.
Ralph Wilson did not believe teams should be moved.
Ralph Wilson did not want to build a new high cost stadium until we need one.
The league wants corporate football focused entirely on revenue.
The league was willing to move the team to maximize their market share in a larger market.
No matter where the team was, the league wanted to demand a new stadium.
Nothing that the league wanted to happen, happened. They did not get one thing.
We do not have a corporate football team. The team will not moved. We will build a new stadium when we are ready.
None of that was supposed to happen. Ralph Wilson was dead and out of the way. They could do what they wanted.
But Ralph Wilson had a plan and he had Mary Wilson too.
Say what you will about Mr. Wilson’s “inner circle” but there was a plan carried out here that very astute business minds did not understand, and none of it leaked out. It is now too late.
Ralph Wilson had no remarkable skills as an athlete and certainly could not have been successful as a professional player.
Ralph Wilson’s Bills did not win as many football games as we would like.
Maybe his football decisions were not always the greatest.
But Ralph Wilson founded a football team that has become interwoven in the hearts and identity of a city, a region, and beyond. When people leave Western New York behind, they take their Bills Fanhood with them. So Ralph Wilson must have done something right when it comes to football.
We lost Some Superbowls. We have no Lombardi Trophy.
This last greatest contest of Ralph Wilson’s life was not about Trophies, or bragging rights. It was instead about the fate of the Team that is at the core of our heritage as a region.
Would they take our team from us? There are no higher stakes than that.
In this last, highest stakes contest of all, Ralph Wilson won.
He beat some of the most savvy wealthy businessmen in all of North America and the league itself. They got nothing that they wanted. They did not get our team. They did not get a hefty relocation fee. We do not “owe” them a new stadium. He beat everybody. Ralph Wilson has achieved one of the greatest sports victories ever, and he did it, after he was dead.
Goodbye Ralph Wilson, Champion.
Thank you for our Football Team.
Ralph Wilson Achieves One of The Greatest Sports Victories Ever
I have no inside information about what has happened here with the sale of the Bills or about Mr. Wilson. But I have followed the facts over time. I think that Ralph Wilson has just beat everybody and he did it for us, and he took darn good care of his family too.
Historically Ralph Wilson has had some friction with the league. Major points included:
Ralph Wilson said the NFL was becoming too corporate and losing focus on the game
Ralph Wilson voted against every team move (recall Bud Adams who moved the Titans from Houston to Tennessee, giving him the finger)
Ralph Wilson resisted building a new stadium and said we did not need one now.
Ralph Wilson said he thought the league was getting away from the revenue sharing with smaller market teams that had been responsible for much of the league’s success. This put him in nearly open conflict with larger market teams.
Ralph Wilson was one of two owners who voted against the Collective Bargaining Agreement that was in place before this one. He was mocked for saying he did not understand it, so he did not vote for it.
Later when he had time to review it, and he understood it, he stated that he thought it was a bad deal. The other teams realized the same thing, but it took them a year or two, instead of about a week like Ralph Wilson, to understand that.
For ten or fifteen years now we have been told that the Bills will be moved when Mr Wilson passes away, because the league wants them in a larger more lucrative market.
Mr Wilson would only say that the team would be sold and that there was no specific plan beyond that.
The league seems to have believed him.
I do not have any wish to speak ill of the departed. And I am sure Ralph Wilson was a fine man and is in heaven. But I think he was lying about that. It certainly seems like there was a plan.
There may have been more, at this point I wouldn't put anything past Ralph Wilson in terms of weaving spider web legal traps, but all I know of is the lease.
To review the lease, it was supposedly one with a hefty fee for leaving before 2023, unless they took a 28 million dollar buy out in 2020.
The NFL approved this lease. But it became more and more apparent over time that they did not understand it, in the same way that they did not understand the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
But Ralph Wilson did.
For one thing they did not understand that the 2020 buy out is largely a mirage. This is because the lease does not permit the new owner to plan for it. Planning to move the team, or build a stadium in another metropolitan area, or negotiate with any parties intending to do these things, would result in a fine of 400 million dollars PLUS additional court imposed costs that have been estimated to be another 400 million dollars, PLUS possible jail time.
So the only way to move out in 2020 would be to do it with very little planning time and into an already existing stadium. That would be very difficult if not impossible.
These facts only trickled out as needed. Nobody in the league was given advance warning of them, and since they did not understand the lease themselves, it took them by surprise.
You can tell they did not understand the lease by the things that they said.
Three weeks after Mr Wilson passed away Jerry Jones said:
“We always ought to be looking for ways to improve not only the growing the pie but also growing the fan base.* And to the extent that you can involve more fans in any team location is something to be considered.”
“To the end that we can create more rivalries and involve larger viewing audiences, populations, that’s something that you have to look at when you get a chance to, and that’s the debate between Buffalo and Toronto.”
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...-of-the-bills/
Remember that? It was scarey. It was scarey because we assumed Jerry Jones had some idea of what he was talking about.
The Bills trust kept silent.
Later, Jon Bon Jovi, good friend of the Patriots Robert Kraft, was endorsed as an ideal NFL owner candidate by John Mara of the Giants and Jerry Jones of the Cowboys.
Bon Jovi's “Toronto Group” was forthright about their intentions to move the team to Toronto.
Remember that? It was scarey.
Then, when it was too late, it was pointed out to them that not only would they be facing around 800 million dollars in fines and possible jail time from angry New York courts, but the the lease also forbid the sale of the team to anyone expressing an intent to to move the team.
The Rogers family, John Mara, Jerry Jones, and Robert Kraft are all astute business men who can afford the very best legal and financial advice. Ralph Wilson made them look like clowns.
Nothing they were saying was possible.
The terms of the lease drastically reduced the number of potential bidders because as the requirements became clear they realized that anyone who wanted to move the team would have to lie about it and keep lying for nine years. Nine years is a long time to wait and a long time not to get caught lying.
We were initially told that the team would go into a trust and the sale would take as long as two years. That made sense because it takes time to free up huge amounts of money and it would allow the estate to get the largest number of potential buyers.
Instead it was later disclosed that the sale would happen very quickly and that this was in fact a requirement of the trust that Ralph Wilson set up.
Why?
I think it is because Ralph Wilson wanted it to happen fast before the league could figure a way out of the legal binds he put them into. The league and the Bon Jovi's and Jerry Jones etc didn’t even know what trouble they were in until July, when it was explained to them.
They had no time to conjure up a way out of it.
Now it is September, just two months later, and the team is gone.
Ralph Wilson beat them at every turn.
The pool of bidders was cut way down by the terms and conditions Ralph Wilson set in place. It had to be a sincere bidder who wanted to keep the team local, who also had a boatload of ready cash.
That left a very few people. Still, the team sold for a record amount with no league backed blackmailed promise of a new corporate style stadium. Why?
It is because of something else Ralph Wilson did that the the league does not understand.
Ralph Wilson built one of the very few NFL football teams, that is worth more than money.
The Pegulas bought the team because they understand that too. What they get by owning the Buffalo Bills, and what keeping them here means to our community, is worth more than money.
Ralph Wilson did not like corporate football, he loved the game.
Ralph Wilson did not believe teams should be moved.
Ralph Wilson did not want to build a new high cost stadium until we need one.
The league wants corporate football focused entirely on revenue.
The league was willing to move the team to maximize their market share in a larger market.
No matter where the team was, the league wanted to demand a new stadium.
Nothing that the league wanted to happen, happened. They did not get one thing.
We do not have a corporate football team. The team will not moved. We will build a new stadium when we are ready.
None of that was supposed to happen. Ralph Wilson was dead and out of the way. They could do what they wanted.
But Ralph Wilson had a plan and he had Mary Wilson too.
Say what you will about Mr. Wilson’s “inner circle” but there was a plan carried out here that very astute business minds did not understand, and none of it leaked out. It is now too late.
Ralph Wilson had no remarkable skills as an athlete and certainly could not have been successful as a professional player.
Ralph Wilson’s Bills did not win as many football games as we would like.
Maybe his football decisions were not always the greatest.
But Ralph Wilson founded a football team that has become interwoven in the hearts and identity of a city, a region, and beyond. When people leave Western New York behind, they take their Bills Fanhood with them. So Ralph Wilson must have done something right when it comes to football.
We lost Some Superbowls. We have no Lombardi Trophy.
This last greatest contest of Ralph Wilson’s life was not about Trophies, or bragging rights. It was instead about the fate of the Team that is at the core of our heritage as a region.
Would they take our team from us? There are no higher stakes than that.
In this last, highest stakes contest of all, Ralph Wilson won.
He beat some of the most savvy wealthy businessmen in all of North America and the league itself. They got nothing that they wanted. They did not get our team. They did not get a hefty relocation fee. We do not “owe” them a new stadium. He beat everybody. Ralph Wilson has achieved one of the greatest sports victories ever, and he did it, after he was dead.
Goodbye Ralph Wilson, Champion.
Thank you for our Football Team.