RIP RALPH WILSON | Syracusefan.com

RIP RALPH WILSON

NashvilleOrange said:
Are there any prospective buyers who could keep it there?
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Bon Jovi wants to own an NFL team. He's been making friends with people in Toronto for financial support. I'm not sure of anyone who wants to keep the Bills in Buffalo.
The Bills will not be sold until their current owner, 95-year-old Ralph Wilson, dies. The purchase price could reach as high as $1 billion (U.S.). Whoever buys the team will need to build a new NFL-specific stadium, likely doubling the sunk cost.

This is where Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and CEO Tim Leiweke come in.

“Jon and I are very good friends,” Leiweke said Sunday. “We talk weekly about his NFL ambitions. And so we’re actively engaged, but I think it’s still a work in progress.”
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http://www.thestar.com/sports/footb...onto_inside_track_on_buffalo_bills_kelly.html
 
The Bills have a new 10 year lease with the City of Buffalo just signed last year. There are "loopholes" with that though so its not totally cut and dry. Like as long as the Bills play 4 of the 8 home games in Buffalo they are good. Therefore if wanted they could farm out up to 4 games a year to Toronto, Mexico City, or London or wherever.

Once the team is sold expect a total housecleaning and Doug and Russ Brandon will be looking for work. Most new owners come in and clean house (Hasslam, Kahn, Davis, Ross..etc.) Just how business is done in the NFL. Doug better win big this year or else and even that might not be enough. Jon Bon Jovi has spent a lot of time in Buffalo inquiring about buying them but nothing ever came of it. Something might now since it will be up for sale officially.

I hope Buffalo wasn't Doug's dream job. And I hope he kept some of the boxes from when he moved there
 
KaiserUEO said:
heres hoping the bills stay.

all this talk about Syracuse getting a new stadium is BS over the needs of the Bills.

lets build them a nice 60k stadium.

the NFL in upstate NY is a HUGE deal.
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I would rather have a new facility in Syracuse.
 
OrangeCrush22 said:
The franchise leaves Buffalo by the end of the decade.
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Perhaps, but today is a time to reflect on the loyalty of Ralph Wilson to a community that he never lived in. He could have made big bucks by selling or moving the franchise, but instead he gave upstate NY something to value as our own. You've got to appreciate that over everything else.
 
Stern said:
The Bills have a new 10 year lease with the City of Buffalo just signed last year. There are "loopholes" with that though so its not totally cut and dry. Like as long as the Bills play 4 of the 8 home games in Buffalo they are good. Therefore if wanted they could farm out up to 4 games a year to Toronto, Mexico City, or London or wherever.

Once the team is sold expect a total housecleaning and Doug and Russ Brandon will be looking for work. Most new owners come in and clean house (Hasslam, Kahn, Davis, Ross..etc.) Just how business is done in the NFL. Doug better win big this year or else and even that might not be enough. Jon Bon Jovi has spent a lot of time in Buffalo inquiring about buying them but nothing ever came of it. Something might now since it will be up for sale officially.

I hope Buffalo wasn't Doug's dream job. And I hope he kept some of the boxes from when he moved there
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People like you remind me of people , who , when a marriage breaks up take a side even thou you don't know the intimate details of the relationship. Small minded people.
 
OrangeCrush22 said:
The franchise leaves Buffalo by the end of the decade.
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I love definitive statements like this the day Ralph passes away. Where are they moving? Who's moving them? Bon Jovi got shot down with the reason being, he wanted to move them to Toronto.

Hopefully a buyer or group steps up and keeps them in Buffalo but to say they are "definitely gone" is absurd especially since the only other destination spot (L.A.) has 3 more teams in front of Buffalo that are more likely to move.
 
Tom Golisano has deep pockets and a big ego, Danny Wegman has deep pockets and a bad hair-dye job, there's the Rich family, etc. And, as longislandcuse points out, where are they going? Jacksonville and some others will move way before Buffalo.
 
Fireball Jr. said:
Tom Golisano has deep pockets and a big ego, Danny Wegman has deep pockets and a bad hair-dye job, there's the Rich family, etc. And, as longislandcuse points out, where are they going? Jacksonville and some others will move way before Buffalo.
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Jacksonville has an iron-clad lease they are going no place till 2030. Impossible for the Jags to move. Vikings got a new stadium they are going no place. The 3 teams who are primed to move are the Chargers, Rams, and Raiders. Throw Buffalo in the mix with a pending sale now and a lease under 10 years.
 
Sadly the Bills will move because the NFL can make more money on the television contracts if they have another team in Los Angeles as opposed to little Buffalo. It's sad but it is reality…
 
longislandcuse said:
I love definitive statements like this the day Ralph passes away. Where are they moving? Who's moving them? Bon Jovi got shot down with the reason being, he wanted to move them to Toronto.

Hopefully a buyer or group steps up and keeps them in Buffalo but to say they are "definitely gone" is absurd especially since the only other destination spot (L.A.) has 3 more teams in front of Buffalo that are more likely to move.
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They aren't definitely gone, but the stadium is an utter dump, one of the worst in the entire league. The attendance numbers are sinking (i mean they had a Dolphins game blacked out last year, that's their #1 home game every year. I think it was the ONLY NFL game blacked out last season) and the fan base is small and the market is very small by NFL standards. One thing about the NFL is its run by greedy people. The league is dying to get a team overseas there are many markets over there. There has always been talk of a 2nd team in Chicago. You have San Antonio who is dying to get a pro football team.The NFL could kick the tires on Nevada again if they want, hell the NBA has held all star games there and is ready to move into that market soon the NFL could beat them to the punch. There are many profitable markets to move to.

I don't think the Bills (or any team) will move to LA. LA will be an expansion team because that is "found money" for the owners. Why put an existing team there, makes no sense. That is too big a market for that, make some billionaire write a huge check and "buy in." But fact of life in the NFL when the team is sold the Head Coach and GM will be let go by the new owner and the Bills are on the clock to be moved cause their situation is very poor. Getting $130 mill in money for renovations is nice but really isn't much. Stephen Ross just opened his wallet and is paying $400 mill of his own money for renovations. Begging to get $130 from the state is nice but its pennies in the NFL world. It will be up to Schumer, Cuomo, and the politicians to save them and they better start acting now. This 10 year lease will fly by and come and go before ya know it.
 
Stern said:
They aren't definitely gone, but the stadium is an utter dump, one of the worst in the entire league. The attendance numbers are sinking (i mean they had a Dolphins game blacked out last year, that's their #1 home game every year. I think it was the ONLY NFL game blacked out last season) and the fan base is small and the market is very small by NFL standards. One thing about the NFL is its run by greedy people. The league is dying to get a team overseas there are many markets over there. There has always been talk of a 2nd team in Chicago. You have San Antonio who is dying to get a pro football team.The NFL could kick the tires on Nevada again if they want, hell the NBA has held all star games there and is ready to move into that market soon the NFL could beat them to the punch. There are many profitable markets to move to.

I don't think the Bills (or any team) will move to LA. LA will be an expansion team because that is "found money" for the owners. Why put an existing team there, makes no sense. That is too big a market for that, make some billionaire write a huge check and "buy in." But fact of life in the NFL when the team is sold the Head Coach and GM will be let go by the new owner and the Bills are on the clock to be moved cause their situation is very poor. Getting $130 mill in money for renovations is nice but really isn't much. Stephen Ross just opened his wallet and is paying $400 mill of his own money for renovations. Begging to get $130 from the state is nice but its pennies in the NFL world. It will be up to Schumer, Cuomo, and the politicians to save them and they better start acting now. This 10 year lease will fly by and come and go before ya know it.
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Things I've heard today that give me hope are that Mara and Jerry Jones publically stated they want the Bills to stay in Buffalo and Pegula and Golisano expressed interest in keeping the team here.

Of course anytime something like this happens to a small market team there will be rumblings of that team possibly moving but stuff like the Miami blackout have more to do with a decade of losing than fan support.
 
texasorange said:
Sadly the Bills will move because the NFL can make more money on the television contracts if they have another team in Los Angeles as opposed to little Buffalo. It's sad but it is reality…
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I think the tv market thing is wildly overrated. The NFL is popular everywhere, including Los Angeles. Most people in Los Angeles are fans of other teams, obviously. Not really sure that having a team there opens up a new market for the NFL. People also underestimate the fanbase of the Bills. It's not just upstate New York. There are Bills fans all over the country who became hooked during the Kelly, Reed, Thurman, Bruce years.

The only reason a team would move to LA would be because of an owner that wants to earn more money than they could in Buffalo, from ticket prices to suite sales to corporate sales. Television is negligible in this case.
 
shandeezy7 said:
I think the tv market thing is wildly overrated.
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It's not overrated because when the NFL negotiates with CBS, FOX...etc for the rights packages for the AFC and NFC games replacing a Buffalo with a larger market "home team" would raise the value of the AFC package. That is why the NFC package always gets more money than the AFC Package. Because you have larger markets in the NFC (ie Philly, Chicago, Dallas, the "A" team in NY, San Fran, Atlanta, Wash DC...etc). While in the AFC you have smaller markets in Houston, Boston, Miami, San Diego, Denver..etc. It's not even close.

So if you replace a Buffalo with London, or LA, or Toronto or Berlin...that AFC Rights package will get more money out of a network cause you are bringing in a much bigger city with a lot more eyeballs on a TV set. It's not overrated if anything its very much underrated. Owners can act all sentimental today about Ralph but in a year or two when they are talking dollars and cents they will be saying "RALPH WHO?" and do what will put the most money in their pockets.
 
You're neglecting advertising costs. If you have a team in LA, team is being shown in LA, the advertisers can charge more money than in western New York. And no I'm not underestimating the Bills fans base, I used to be season-ticket holder for 10 years before I moved to Texas. I'm from Rochester and actually went to the first Super Bowl in Tampa Bay. Was a heartbreaker. Bills fans are diehard but they're small and would really boils down is size.
 
"The attendance numbers are sinking (i mean they had a Dolphins game blacked out last year, that's their #1 home game every year. I think it was the ONLY NFL game blacked out last season)"
Tampa would have been blacked out for almost every game, but the ownership had to buy out the tickets because there was such a huge uproar over the state of the team under Schiano... games have been blacked out here and in Jacksonville over the last two years... more here...
 
TampaLaker said:
"The attendance numbers are sinking (i mean they had a Dolphins game blacked out last year, that's their #1 home game every year. I think it was the ONLY NFL game blacked out last season)"
Tampa would have been blacked out for almost every game, but the ownership had to buy out the tickets because there was such a huge uproar over the state of the team under Schiano... games have been blacked out here and in Jacksonville over the last two years... more here...
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If the Dallas Cowboys hadn't made the playoffs in 15 years , that entire Jerry Jones Mausoleum would be empty. There are few fan bases that would support such total ineptitude , especially after they went to 4 superbowls in a row.
 
Stern said:
It's not overrated because when the NFL negotiates with CBS, FOX...etc for the rights packages for the AFC and NFC games replacing a Buffalo with a larger market "home team" would raise the value of the AFC package. That is why the NFC package always gets more money than the AFC Package. Because you have larger markets in the NFC (ie Philly, Chicago, Dallas, the "A" team in NY, San Fran, Atlanta, Wash DC...etc). While in the AFC you have smaller markets in Houston, Boston, Miami, San Diego, Denver..etc. It's not even close.

So if you replace a Buffalo with London, or LA, or Toronto or Berlin...that AFC Rights package will get more money out of a network cause you are bringing in a much bigger city with a lot more eyeballs on a TV set. It's not overrated if anything its very much underrated. Owners can act all sentimental today about Ralph but in a year or two when they are talking dollars and cents they will be saying "RALPH WHO?" and do what will put the most money in their pockets.
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My point was that people in LA are already watching the NFL. I don't see how putting a team there is going to increase the number of the viewers to the point where it's worth that much more in a new contract. Now whether or not some idiotic network would be willing to pay a significant amount more for it is a totally different story.
 
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