I don't trust your calculations but if true it is only if you exclude premium seats and corporate boxes.
The truth is that the Bills have the cheapest tickets in the NFL other than Cleveland and Cleveland has more revenue coming from premium seats and corporate boxes than the Bills.
But it's also pretty clear that Bon Jovi's ceiling is too low to beat out Pegula. So if those are the only two bidders we all acknowledge that Pegula's a shoe-in.
By introducing new bidders they only risk having Pegula get outbid. Why would they care about that if the primary goal is to sell to an owner that truly wants to keep the team in Buffalo?
You did not answer the question. I'll put it another way, they have competition, from the Toronto group, which has pushed the price tag high enough. And by insisting that, you're implying that the priority is "highest bidder," not "keeping the team in Buffalo."
So again, put another way, how does soliciting new and additional bids, and clearly not only from Golisano who still may not even bid, particularly if he was purely bidding to keep the team here when Pegula is now doing that, help keep the team in Buffalo?
Because the logic says plainly, the more bidders, the more likely that Pegula doesn't win. This isn't complicated.
I see absolutely nothing but lawsuits and a long drawn out process of appeals and the like if they solicit more bidders purely to drive Pegula's price up, then if he's not the highest bidder they award it to him anyway. That would be highly disingenuous and unethical. I don't see it happening. Which would mean that "keeping the team in Buffalo" likely isn't a significant part of the trust's instructions and that the only thing keeping the team here for the future would be this 10 year lease with its buyout clause that can be exercised after the 2019 season, and which I would see getting exercised if anyone but Pegula wins the bid.
Initially I was excited to hear the news about Pegula's bid and only three bidders. I thought that this was a best case scenario. Now this, soliciting more bids. I'm no longer nearly as excited. To me this stinks.
Yeah, but you know that that's unreasonable, 60%. No NFL team has gotten that and certainly no teams in NYS including the Yankees, which are far more important to NYS and which have a far more extensive history both in terms of success/winning and of longetivity, not to mention classic names and such.
So if I read you right, you're saying that Pegula's doing this "from his end," but then on the back end he's going to be telling the state (and county to a lesser extent) that looking beyond 2022 they're going to have to ante-up?
That doesn't sound like the Pegula that has been pitched to me.
Fletch (08-01-2014)
Yeah, something's gonna give. I just don't see Pegula shelling out $2B+ of his own money on a team and a new stadium when he has zero chance of ever recouping that as long as the team remains in Buffalo.
One thing that we're all overlooking, or at least most of us are overlooking, is what I think you implied earlier, that he's taking the first step to keep the team here and is going to put the ball in the court of the state and county in several years to do its share. If you think about it, who could argue. He's the only one that anyone had the faith in to keep the team here. According to everyone here anyone else (BJ/Tannenbaum Group or Trump) will move the team for sure.
He'll have done what Wilson could easily have done while Wilson was alive, while simultaneously having had a new owner back then put some of the extra cash that Pegula will have had to spend just to get the team now, into a stadium instead, which coupled with what the state provided for the renovation, may very well have been enough to have gotten us that new stadium that's required.
So in essence, you're ignoring any and all history in the matter, ignoring what NYS's governor has said, ignoring the fact that any contribution by Erie County is negligible, and insisting that they're all going to pony up a good portion of the cost of a new stadium.
Got it.
Think this over. Wilson while he was alive, and before signing that stupid $150M renovation deal (I think it was), could have sold the team to Pegula for the estimated value of $870M, hell, let's round up and say $900M.
That would have left Pegula $400M off his current bid, which according to all the cheerleaders here he's willing to pay much more, so maybe more than that $400M.
Throw in that $150 that the state (and county?) paid for the renovation resulting in nothing but a 10-year lease with an out after 7, and that would have been at least $550M towards a new stadium. I find that a lot more palatable to anyone than $1.3B or upwards for the team and nothing or much less from the state and nothing significant from the county and another $800M to $1B needed for a stadium.
But again, yeah, Ralph did all he could to keep the team in Buffalo. Let's face it, Ralph was serving Ralph, no one else.
Instead we get this scenario.
I love how people who don't live here think some great renaissance is happening.
Buffalo is great...but it's the same place it was in 2004 and the same place it was in 1994.
Originally Posted by mysticsoto
Of course the more bidders it will, at least in theory, make it harder for Pegula. But that assumes that somebody else jumps in. Or that people were not scared off by him. Allowing more time for initial (non-binding) bids to come only gives them another chance to get actual competition. As was explained, if there are only two bids and one drops out then the remaining guy can low ball and they are stuck. Keeping multiple people going for it will make Pegule remain "honest". So it might not be about the highest bid, but also about not getting a minimal return.
As for there being lawsuits and the such if the bring more bids and still award to Pegula that depends, as many of us have explained to you and others numerous times, if his bid is compliant with the trust then there are no suits.