8-8 Forever?

personally , I think half the starters should be sick for the first week of camp. they already know what the deal is , but the new guys don't ... then the starters go down week 13 and we have no backups

Hey, long timers say you're the gospel, so that's good enough for me. Go Bills. Long may the flag fly in WNY (somewhere....).

Ok then. Let it be said , let it be so. Shut the thread down mods, Bills are 1000% staying, the largest home town discounts in the history of professional sports are 1000% sure of being paid out by any of several possible combinations of otherwise smart, financially successful businessmen and otherwise smart and otherwise successful government leaders. Shut the thread down, because this topic (at least the Bills moving out part) is closed. Training camp is opening, so lets get on with the football !!

With all due respect, how could you possibly know that? If that has been verified public knowledge I apologize, but otherwise that's the first I've heard of that one. Ok , if that is the case , then what decision criteria are they to follow? Or is Ralph's will, which no one has seen, silent on that?

All depends on what Ralph's will tells the trust to do in terms of accepting a buyer. If it's high bidder wins (which is what I thought the best intel was some time ago) then who knows. 29 pages of posts on this one topic says it all for me. No one knows and everyone is concerned.

Excellent. All for that. And I was talking about BMO field WayneCubed. Yeah , the Ex was torn down long ago. Childhood memories of going to the CNE took over there a bit. I was mainly making the point that while there is no WNY site without significant problems (N.Falls: no access and lousy value proposition for the stadium builder, B Lo waterfront: impossible politics and lousy value proposition for the sucker who has to pay for the stadium, Site of existing Ralph: too far away from most fans+no economic benefit/new revenue), the BMO site is absolutely ideal. I don't see a problem with stadium financing if the value proposition for the stadium owner is there; in Toronto, the value proposition is there b/c a new stadium would take all the non-baseball/CFL business now going to a beat up/old/small Rogers field. WNY would only attract a small fraction of what Toronto can attract, because it is, well, Buffalo . Toronto is f ing massive and attracts every outdoor/indoor touring event in the world. For the Bills to stay in WNY, 1) the NFL owners plus 2) the League plus 3) the franchise buyer plus 4) the builder/owner of a $1B stadium need to be giving one heck of a huge home town discount. Hope it happens, believe me. But it doesn't appear to make much business sense at all. We shall see.

Forbes Article: " Toronto is much easier. That group, which includes rocker Jon Bon Jovi, and MLS&E owners Larry Tanenbaum and the Rogers family, could rebuild BMO Field. There is much more corporate advertising and premium seating money in Toronto than Buffalo. A Toronto group would likely pay $1.2 billion for the Bills. How could Wilson’s trust turn that down?' " Pretty compelling argument. Replacing the stadium on the CNE grounds (where the Argos played for years) in Toronto would be much much easier/cheaper than building a stadium in WNY. Already has massive parking lots that serve the CNE, fantastic public transportation to the site, all you need to do is replace the structure surrounding the field. Tailgating would be easy in the surface lots. Ontario Place is right there plus all the facilities of the Exhibition grounds. Hey I'd rather see the team in WNY myself, but from a business standpoint, if Ralph's will dictates selling to the high bidder and league and owners want the biggest financial bang from a new owner, the Toronto gang will be very competitive I am afraid.

I think Ralph's people packaged the renovations with the lease to keep the team in WNY at least for another 5 or 6 years. It was a brilliant last hedging gesture to the area. Best he could do. The renovations may be the key to the lease requirement that the team actually play in the stadium in addition to paying the rent. Just my opinion, but if the performance clause of the lease (the clause that says the team actually has to play in the stadium) is taken to court (and it will by someone willing to pay the Ralph rent but wanting to move the team right away) maybe the $130m in renovations becomes relevant. Maybe not. Also, it is totally unclear that anyone will pay for a new stadium for the Bills in WNY, so the renovations make sense as a backup accommodation for the fans as well. Things are completely uncertain right now. Anyone who thinks a new $1B stadium is for sure going to be built in WNY is delusional. No way the thing could pay off for those investing in it, unless the taxpayers are heavily involved (which may happen). From a major league perspective, Buffalo is Sochi. For big time venues to be built , the taxpayers pay a significant portion of the cost, a payment that will never pay back. Hope I am wrong, but hard for me to see Cuomo going to the mat financially for Buffalo. Both he and Poloncarz already making noise that a new stadium is not necessary. Not enough votes? Not enough $$ ?

hear hear

What a silly article. Lets call 'em the Binghamton Bills or the Boomtown Bills , nickname 'em the BBs and claim the entire state. At least the name has some potential. Geez. Or just call them "Da Bills" or "he hate me" take the whole geo thing out of it... Can we get a buyer please and get on with it already?

good idea; unfortunately the NFL is not a grassroots movement, it is a big boy, big dollar business driven by television ad $$ and merchandise/game day revenue, all of which are very low in WNY. Hopefully, some WNY guy decides to blow his wealth on the franchise as a gift to his or her home in order to make sure it stays in WNY rather than to try and make money. If making money is the goal, the franchise will probably move, as the league and other owners will demand a new, unnecessary and unsupportable stadium in order to triple the ticket prices they share in.

love it

Winning solves all of this. Problem is, no one expects the team to win anymore. Like, its over. Team needs to change the perception, that will effect the reality. Win some d--n games, and after the "well, that is an aberration" and "well, Buffalo sucks in general" followup negativity subsides, then they will get the respect and rankings. Takes time and wins. Lots of wins.

Lets hope they have a stadium plan and a play to dramatically raise ticket prices. I doubt the owners will approve any bidder who intends to stay at the Ralph. The other owners (who get 40% of ticket revenue on away games ) lose too much money playing games in a stadium with the lowest ticket prices in the league. Hate to be the negative nellie, but things will not be the same no matter who wins the team.

I simply cannot imagine someone putting out 1.75B to run an NFL team in the leagues smallest market. not going to happen. The numbers cannot possibly work in any reasonable scenario.

lame

My kids are bills fans and they were not born there and hardly spent any time there. With the exodus of likely the majority of an entire working age generation during the seventies and eighties , and with those marrying and having kids and still being bills fans and now their kids being bills fans, I would guess there are more Bills fans outside of WNY than in WNY. do the math . I did it once and posted the simple analysis and I think I showed at least as many as 1million bills fans who live outside WNY. So, no , they are not yours, they are ours.

Um, no. Bills have a nice team this year. Any more Kiko type knockouts and it won't matter b/c our talent won't be on the field, but the talent is there now it seems. Injuries kills seasons , so that is a huge wildcard as "next man up" is pretty much garbage if whole units get wiped out by injury. If Kiko is it for this year's pro bowl season enders, then I like 'em. Hard not to. EJ can play enough IMO. we will see

me too. worked for a couple years, then they called the bluff.

I can only imagine what his take was for East Resources 4 years ago. Had to be many many billions. Guy started it in '83 and fell into natural gas extraction after 20 years. Man this is where the phrase "I'd rather be lucky than good" comes from. Good for him. Now buy the Bills build a fracking stadium in Niagara County with "enhanced tailgating" features and be done with it.

I would imagine most of the payment for the franchise will be from borrowed money, so no one is coming up with a billion out of their pocket. I forget the debt / equity split in the redskins buy, but I would imagine only $300-400m is coming out of anyones pocket in this deal. NFL franchises are probably very bankable, so any buyer will only be coming up with 40 - 50%of the bid price, if that much. So the net worth of the buyer is less of an issue. As long as someone has $500m to $1B in net worth, they are good to go to bid i would imagine.

it begins

sounds good. This means high bidder does not get the team, because Goodell will block a move to a more lucrative market. Good. hey, the NFL is a private club and the club makes the rules

you should be worried. Assuming a new stadium in the near term is a absolute requirement of the league and the owners for approving a buyer (and from what the league and the most influential owners are saying, it is) the fact the Ralph exists and is paid for no longer matters. So, if you have to pay $1B for the team and contribute to a $1B stadium no matter where you put the franchise, would it not make sense to put it in a city with the largest potential source of non-shared (luxury suites, merchandise, etc) revenue? Hard to imagine the team staying in WNY unless Pegula and crew are willing to overpay big time, and then build a stadium that is not needed. Maybe they will. Lets hope so. Doesn't look like NYS is going to pay much for a stadium if anything, so the owner will be on his or her own. I don't like the looks of this. Money wins every time at this level.

Non disclosure agreement. Serious legal document. This is not an open process. This is a closed, competitive bidding process. We will find out who the winner is when everyone else does. Fans are a serious component to all this, the bidders know that, but these properties only come along in an supposedly competitive bidding process once in a lifetime so this is serious big money business. The press and the fans will get involved between the time the winner is announced and when it goes to the owners for approval. There will be all kinds of press and noise during that time period.