8-8 Forever?

Having been involved in several of these over the years, there will be initial proposals, with offer price. Then the seller's representatives will create the illusion (if not already reality) that multiple bidders are involved and will solicit best and final bids after creating the illusion. The problem here is that it is not an illusion, there probably are multiple bidders and the price will be bid up. Crunch time will be when we have a high bidder whose intentions for the team location are unclear , with other lower bidders who will commit to keeping the team in WNY in writing. Then the intent of Ralph's will come into play (did he or did he not direct the team to be sold to the highest bidder regardless of their intent??). I suspect this will get into the press eventually, just as the bidding war for the Redskins got into the public domain back in the 90's.

why do teams just keep paying him...? thats what I cannot understand

I think EJ is better than we have seen so far, therefore I like 'em this year. The rest of the division is better as well. Phin's look really good and the Pats , well they are the Pats. Jets D should be very good. So everyone is better in the division. Hopefully it comes down to injuries and turnovers, like it should, and not that the Bills QB is no good. That would be an improvement in and of itself, blaming losses on injuries and turnovers and not on lack of key position talent and ability.

LOL, probably that will happen. Lets just let them play. The real action is off the field this year, friends.

BFA is a great initiative, and hopefully it has a voice at some level, but this is big boy business now and the rules of big boy business will apply here. Cuomo hinting that the state won't fund a new stadium is not helping the cause of getting a stay at home bid approved by the owners. I believe it will be difficult to get the other owners to approve a any buyer , home or away, who won't be moving the team to a new stadium Cuomo's counting the votes.... will be very interesting to see how he plays his cards

A new owner. Trumps (no pun intended) any other new face in the franchise. Players mean nothing if the team is moving.

Until they start winning some games, this is what you will see. After 14 losing seasons, I think the media, especially the 20-something internet blogosphere simply has no interest in the Bills. Most if not all internet sports writers were in elementary school the last time the Bills were any good. Just saying.

Frankly, the whole front office/coaching staff on paper is JV relative to the rest of the league, although I think they have had a great offseason and things look good for this season. Here's to hoping, for the 15th time.

Ok, got it. Lets hope its in there. Poloncarz is curiously silent on this critical point. Maybe no one has asked him point blank if a specific performance clause is part of the lease. If so , all good. Hope so. Of course. But remember the NFL is not the seller. And whoever wins the bidding will make a strong case to the owners. Will be interesting to see how the owners deal with a high bidder who also indicates they intend to move the franchise. That will be the moment of truth for all the owners who talk a good game about the importance of keeping the team in WNY. This is going to get interesting. Very interesting.

High bidder, if not awarded the franchise, will probably sue to get the franchise unless Ralph's will specifically says that high bid is only one of many criteria to be considered equally in picking the winner. My understanding is that Ralph was pretty clear that high $$ bidder wins. Hope I am wrong. His hook to keep the team in Buff was the lease and the termination provisions. My point is: new owner just makes the lease payments on the Ralph and still moves the team. Hard to imagine a lease "forcing " the lessee to also occupy and use the leased premises for the term of the lease will hold up in court. As long as the lessee doesn't turn it into a giant flea market, my sense is as long as he is current on the lease payments, the lessee is not obligated to actually use the property...would need to know the annual lease payment to assess the viability of this scenario. Was looking at the Reliant stadium lease... only $4m per year + other payments that are hard to figure out

No, rent is paid by the act of paying the money that is due. Has nothing to do with using or occupying the property. If you rent me your house , you are not necessarily requiring me to actually move in. Don't get me wrong, I don't want this to happen, but what's the big deal about paying $10-20m per year for 6or7 years to rent an empty stadium when you just paid $1000m for the franchise? seems the lease payments on the ralph are the smallest numbers in this deal....

The 2 great unknowns from my perspective are (a) whether the trustees have the leeway to accept something other than the highest bid (b) could the buyer move the team to, Say, Toronto or L.A. and simply pay stadium rent both on an empty Ralph AND to, say Rogers in the case of Toronto and the Coliseum in the case of L.A. while new stadium being built in either market. If the Ralph will need even more updates in the next 5 years, the buyer could just pay the rent on the empty stadium instead. Does the lease require payments on the lease under penalty (we know this is true) AND that the stadium must also be USED. Hard to believe a lease for a piece of property requiring the tenant to pay AND to use will hold up in court. Tenants in office buildings move and pay double rent for a period of time when it makes sense. 5 years of lame duck play in WNY could be more damaging to the franchise than just sucking up double rent and moving right away. One would think the highest bid will be from a party who intends to move the team to a higher cash flow market. Makes sense to me. Don't like it , but it makes sense to me.

Yep. This result was obvious a long time ago.

Pro Bowl. Just end it already. Worst sports event in the history of sports. Agreed? this is garbage.

Quarterback who can play in the NFL. Hopefully, EJ will start being that guy next year, but QB is our biggest hole to fill right now.

Pro Bowl = Beauty Contest = worthless

Certainly not, but him knowing those teams will absolutely help. Thoughtful post.

He plays for the Bills. That's strike one right out of the box. Not trolling, just the facts. Pro Bowl = beauty contest. Regrettably, Bills are the ugly girl at the dance right now. Winning cures everything.

The Bills need only one thing to be successful in 2014. And that is a healthy EJ playing at a higher level than he did in 2013. Give me that and in today's NFL, most everything else can fall into place.

ha ha yes

4 lineman nickel only requires 2 LBs. and it is used 50%+ of the time. so why do we need to go big on LBs? Seems to me we need to go big on DBs and D lineman. We have one pro bowl calibre LB now. I am sure we can find someone serviceable to go with him without busting the draft or FA to do it. Sounds like we have the wrong guys for Schwartz's defense already, with no outside speed rush guys to play his wide nine defense. Looks like another year of topsy turvy change on D .

+1. Totally agree. Extra Points and Kickoffs are meaningless garbage plays with ads in between. NFL is losing people's TV interest in addition to having a lousy in stadium experience (unless you are mainly to party). I now record games and begin watching 40 minutes after kickoff so I can fast forward through all the garbage dead time. Gets me all the way to the start of the second half where ad breaks are fewer. Especially if there is an injury delay or red flag delay.

they were 6-10 the last 43 years… who cares if a couple coaches leave. not like you can drop much from 6 and f ing 10…

Byrd in the PB is a joke. And it assures us that his agent will pull him out of town for even bigger $$

I've lived in NoVa for 30 years now and Snyder is like most fans on this board.. a super fan. The problem is, the crazy irrational stuff super fans talk about doing on this board, he actually does b/c he owns the team. Wants to do this and do that, treats the thing like a fantasy team. Knee jerk this and that,, he seems to love the glamour part of being the owner of his childhood team. Fans here thought things were fixed with the hiring of control-freak Shanahan, but drafting larger than life RGIII for his OC son to play with simultaneously killed the draft prospects for the team for 3 years, pissed off Shanahan b/c Griffin became bigger than him, and also brought Snyder back to hanging with the players and getting in the way. Then the salary cap penalty hit, limiting the roster and now Griffin needs the full 18 months to come back from the ACL. At the top, Skins are just like the Cowboys, the coach and QB need to be under the radar humble guys b/c the owner will never be humble enough to get out of the way. That said, the next coach, if a humble sort, will inherit a healthy RGIII, $40m in cap space and an owner willing to spend it all.