BillnutinHouston

There's a lot about your post I agree with factually, but I urge you to resist the temptation to just surrender without even putting up a fight. You'll hate yourself later if you didn't lift a finger. Fortune favors the brave!

To my knowledge, every NFL team is profitable and according to this post the league is swimming in money. So then why you may ask would anyone move a team, ever? For MORE money. It's not just about making an annual profit, it's about maximizing the return on investment for your investors. This plan offers those investors a softer landing in Buffalo, with the hope that it will help offset the grener pastures in other places like Toronto and LA. If you can't appreciate that concept, it's no wonder you would scoff at contributing to this fund. Kudos to those attempting to be proactive in addressing the soon-to-be unsettled ownership situation. Where do I send my check?

In order for this idea to go anywhere, it needs the endorsement of some key leaders in order to establish the plan's legitimacy. The Bills can't/won't touch it as it acknowledge's Ralph's mortality. Jim Kelly can't either, since his supposed ties to a prospective ownership group would lend the appearance of a conflict of interest. I wonder if there is anything prohibiting a political leader from endorsing it. Someone of Schumer's ilk. If you intend to rally thousands of people to give money to any kind of effort, you must have strong leadership and absolute legitimacy. That may be the Achilles heel of this idea.

How in the world do you get to 60,000 season tix? I think they're in the mid-40's now.

Good tackling from the Seahawks but what also impressed me was Seattle's receivers. Many of their catches were difficult, but the only one I remember being dropped was by Willson, the TE.

Why would the stadium renovations help justify a ticket price increase? Aren't the renovations funded solely with public money?

$170 million doesn't seem like it would be enough to move the needle on anything, but I'd be in. I agree with you that the Bills for some reason do next to nothing to cultivate Buffalo expatriates, who are among the most rabid of Bills fans. Kind of a mystery there. What do you mean by "major Bills hubs"? Do you just mean fans in other major cities?

It's been reported that this year for the first time, cameras were inside the room and the presentations will be shown on TV at some point. Can't wait to watch Gaughan's presentation.

Where is the official announcement?

Why is this less than clear? In years past the announcements were done live, correct? Why the different process this year - is this supposed to be an improvement over previous years?

You may recall that a few years ago the Bills conducted a "marketing" study in Canada, I believe led by Mary Owens (Ralph's relative). The purpose of the study as I recall was to learn about Canadians' attitudes about the Bills and how the Bills could reach out to them more effectively. It would not shock me if the Bills were told in effect, "I won't think of you as my team until you play games in my town". If you put yourself in the shoes of Canadian fans, its not hard to imagine the Bills getting this kind of polite yet direct feedback. Of course, I'm sure they didn't expect to have to watch bad teams and have to pay high prices for the privilege.

I submit that the above statements almost completely miss the point of the TO series. Brandon is trying to set the team up to be not just "viable" but actually, at least minimally attractive to a new owner from a financial standpoint. In contrast to Mr. Wilson, the next ownership/investor group will likely be up to their ears in debt and possibly looking to build a new stadium. What investor group in the real world sits in that position and settles for just "viable" or "not in financial trouble"? That doesn't cut it, you must have return on your sizeable investment or else the Buffalo thing just doesn't work. Again I say, we should all be thankful for Brandon's efforts to link up the Bills to Toronto - he's doing us a favor whether we realize it or not. Do I like this? Of course not, but who ever said I had to?

Who said a 4 game-per-town split needs to be attempted during the life of the CURRENT lease? On the other hand, I see no reason why a new owner couldn't look to renegotiate the lease as a condition of the sale. I'm thinking that the prospective ownership groups are not simply competing in a highest-bidder auction, but are also about pitching to the NFL various "concepts" about what their franchise will be about. Some groups may say they want to move the team to LA, some may pitch a full-out Buffalo team, and others may pitch a hybrid. A hybrid history/tradition/max revenue blend might be appealing to all of the NFL owners (who have to approve of all sales), especially if those proposals come with high valuations of the team. And if such a high bid "hybrid" group secures the NFL's approval, wouldn't that lessen Erie County and NYS' hand a bit?

Yea, I'm chairing an ownership group and we're working on all those details now. Why is it so hard to think that a new owner will come in with a completely new paradigm that looks to maintain the history of the franchise while fully mining the revenue that could be had from the Toronto market?

On the other hand, considering that Hostler has OC ambitions, it could ratchet the pressure UP on Hackett.

It would not surprise me if this or something like it plays out under a new owner, as a condition of the sale. But Russ will have had nothing to do with it.

I'd say it means they wanted to continue beefing up the O coaching staff and gave a nice title to a guy who lost on the final cut of the Ravens OC sweepstakes. I like how Marrone is upgrading the experience level of the staff as a whole.

I laugh at how these conclusions come about. Is it possible, just possible, that Weaver expected to be promoted to DC and when he wasn't, decided to leave out of spite and disappointment? No, I guess it's CLEAR that that's not a possibility.

Comparing Schwartz's D while he was the HC to ours now (with Schwartz back as DC) is apples to oranges in my opinion. Look at what he did as DC in Tennessee. And no mention of Crossman?

Great effect, huh? Not that a successful link would invalidate my point but....link?

This is the key fact in this thread, period.

Possibility of an inch of snow in Houston tomorrow. I'm sitting in a dentist's chair now and was told the dentists' office is already closing for tomorrow.

How is this known? When do teams release their draft board rankings? Never recall seeing anything like this from the Bills.

Maybe a stretch as it relates to Downing but wasn't Manuel named the MVP of the Senior Bowl? I agree.

Some point to Overdorf and Littman reporting to Brandon as evidence that Whaley doesn't have full authority over football decisions. But I think a case can be made that Overdorf's and Littman's work is, strictly speaking, administrative in nature and therefore shouldn't be overseen by a hardcore football guy. Who really wants Whaley to be worrying about whether Littman's numbers are right or if Overdorf properly initialled page 12 of the rookie contract? Regardless of who the green eyeshade people report to, the real keys are: a) who sets the priorities for how the money is spent, b) who determines the parameters that O&L work under, i.e., who gives Overdorf the latitude to negotiate contracts and how much latitude is he given, c) how the financial information is used to make decisions and d) who makes the final decisions. I think it's significant that in the Buffalo News article, "Whaley said he is completely comfortable with the chain of command because the three of them work so closely together. 'Absolutely, because we have one singular focus, to win,' Whaley said. 'No one has a hidden agenda in that building.'”