BuffaloRebound

Right now, it looks like upper limit is whatever Pegula feels inclined to bid. As a Bills fan it would give me a heart attack, but part of me would love to see Pegula pull his offer. As the wealthiest (by far) person with WNY ties, once he decided he wanted Bills he was always going to be the choice. Trust/MS should have set the price tag at $1.2-1.3B and went to Pegula, instead of this farce auction process where now it's Pegula bidding against himself.

Maybe not for Morgan Stanley as a whole, but it's definitely important for their Sports Advisory group. They are not looking good so far when they could only muster 3 bids, 2 of which violated their own Non-Disclosure Agreement, and now they had to extend their deadline. Any serious Bills fan could have come up with a list of people both wealthy enough to pay over $1B and interested in keeping team in WNY. Public nature of this bidding process has basically eliminated BonJovi's group and Trump is hard to to take serious. By their own doing, Morgan Stanley and the Trust have given Pegula the upper hand in any negotiation for the team. He's got them by the balls now.

Completely disagree on the last part. With a 95 year-old owner, anyone serious about bidding on Bills has known this day was coming for years. If you couldn't get your act together by the Trust's deadline, can't see how you'd be considered a serious 'keeping-the-Bills-in-WNY' bidder.

How can someone be considered a serious bidder if they can't even get a bid in on-time? If all reports are true of only 3 bidders by the original deadline, 2 of which seem to be more of the clown-show variety, stop the charade and start exclusively negotiating with Pegula. Trust can always decide not to sell the team if they feel Pegula is squeezing them because there aren't any other serious bidders. Seems like at this point it's Morgan Stanley trying to justify their value to the trust or possibly NFL office involvement.

+1000. The problem is that Morgan Stanley will continue to drive the price up until the trust tells them otherwise. It's their job. Time for trust to lock up a deal with Pegula and end the nonsense. It's becoming a circus with Trump and Bonjovi.

I think Pittsburgh and NYG would do the right thing. Mara and Rooney seem to be voice of reason and would probably rally enough votes to block a move. I don't think we can count on many of the small market teams who might be eyeing moves themselves.

Sports franchises are generally valued using revenue multiples, not cash flow or EBITDA multiples. Guys like Trump who are focused on the numbers usually never win bids for teams. Sports franchises are toys for the uber-wealthy, that unlike cars or yachts rarely depreciate in value. Valuations are usually just a point of reference. Pegula's bidding for a $1.3b shiny new toy that will pay him 3-4% annually and not depreciate in value.

Maybe Pegula pulled a Larry Bird at the 3 point contest, and called up all the prospective owners and asked which one of you mofo's is coming in 2nd place? Joking aside, if there are only 3 bidders, perhaps Morgan Stanley put out word that a deal is essentially done with Pegula and it will take a huge bid plus a huge commitment to WNY for Pegula to be beat.

Kind of neutral on whether Bills should deal Spiller. If someone offers a late 1st or early 2nd rounder, I think you have to take it. Otherwise keep him and hope he has a great year. Never understood why teams with franchise QB's, especially aging ones, cling to their draft picks. A lot of good all those draft picks did for New England the past 10 years. Think what Brady could've done with a Julio Jones or AJ Green. Or imagine Brady with an Adrian Peterson. I'd think it would be a no brainer for Denver, whose window is rapidly closing, to deal for someone like Spiller.

Thanks for the info. Didn't know these actually existed or ever heard of a player exercising it. I assume that was before the new CBA, where it seems like teams now have the option on the 5th year of rookie contracts.

Not sure what guaranteed contracts have to do with competitive imbalance. Revenue sharing and salary caps are what level the playing field.

Transition tags and franchise tags are tools that teams have to restrict free agency for players. There's no guarantee Bills will tag Spiller. In 99% of cases tag is used, player would get more guaranteed money in free agency.

Disagree. That's simply free agency. If Spiller has another down year or god-forbid gets hurt, he's not getting much of anything from Bills or anyone else. A true player option would be Spiller having the right to opt-in to a fully guaranteed contract with the Bills. Obviously, NFL players will never have the power that NBA players have, but right now NFL players have little power. In a sport as violent as football, players are right to get as much as they can up-front, but in my opinion teams take advantage of that short-term thinking and players correctly assuming they might not even physically last the length of the contract.

Agree. NFL should call the years that fall outside the guaranteed portion of the contract a club option. I think if worded that way, players would demand more guaranteed money and it would avoid a lot more situations like this. As it is, NFL contracts are decidedly one-sided in favor of teams/ownership. No such thing as a player option in NFL, at least that I'm aware.

Once the guaranteed money is paid, it essentially isn't a contract anymore. Seattle can walk away from it, but Lynch can't. Surprised players union hasn't pushed NFL to change this.

+1000. Wawrow deserves serious kudos. No way leather-pants can be trusted. He could've addressed the rumors months ago about his intentions to move team to Toronto. He didn't and is only leaking it now through fools like Jaworski that he wants to keep team in Buffalo after it looks like only WNY-bids will be considered.

I'm surprised more NFL players don't do this. The second a player isn't worth what he's getting paid, he gets cut. Lynch is worth a hell of a lot more to that team this year than $5m.

Seems like Manuel doesn't have that fire in his belly and plays overly cautious. Good to be a cool customer but sometimes you gotta just let it loose. In that regard, Manuel could learn a lot from watching Tuel. Guy doesn't have half the talent of Manuel, but he plays with no fear and lets it rip.

Not sure how you do a valuation without some kind of numbers projection. Jags and Cleveland are the 2 most recent sales but those were 2 years ago. I suppose you could use Bills current revenue and compare it to Jax and Cleveland's revenue from 2 years ago and corresponding sale price to come up with a valuation, but that's basically meaningless to anyone who doesn't plan on keeping Bills in WNY.

Would love to know how Morgan Stanley is handling the valuation. I assume all numbers and projections are based on keeping Bills in Buffalo and playing in renovated Ralph. How would you make valuation projections based on moving the team to 'fill-in-the-blank' city with a stadium not yet built.

Once she gets her $1B+, I hope she forks over a nice chunk of change for a new stadium to put Ralph's name on it for the next 30-40 years.

Can't begrudge the guy. If he saved his money, he doesn't have to work anymore. With his punishing running style, he probably doesn't want to end up like Earl Campbell.

Maybe the Forbes article is wrong, but it clearly states that Pegula is the controlling owner of East Resources. He didn't sell East Resources to Royal Dutch Shell in 2010, he sold Marcellus assets. This is different land.

Unless assets are publicly traded or involve a recent sale, forbes doesn't know much more than you or me. According to them, clippers were worth $500m until Ballmer paid $2b for them.

Uber now valued at $17.5B after new round of financing. Sacca was an early investor. Guy seems to have magic touch. Would love a young, energetic owner with ties to WNY.