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Free-Agent Salaries Are Soaring in N.F.L.
When Marv Levy was the coach of the Buffalo Bills in the 1980s and 90s, he never knew how much money his players made. He did not have an agent, and his own salary negotiations consisted of the Bills’ owner, Ralph Wilson, telling him what he would be paid.
When Wilson asked Levy to be the Bills’ general manager last year, Levy, never comfortable with numbers, immediately told Wilson that someone else would have to negotiate player contracts.
But even Levy could not miss one emerging trend in free agency this season: contracts that are bigger than ever.
Flush with cash from a salary cap that ballooned to $109 million this season from $85.5 million in 2005 and faced with a thin class of free agents, N.F.L. teams have spent lavishly.
That includes huge amounts of guaranteed money, much of it given to players who in past years would have been second-tier free agents at best.
“It makes me blink,” Levy said in a telephone interview. “It certainly raises the risk ante.”
One of the biggest shocks came from the Bills. They gave a guard who has never made a Pro Bowl, Derrick Dockery, a $49 million contract, including $18.5 million in guaranteed money. It was the richest contract in Bills history and nearly equaled a contract given by the Minnesota Vikings last season to Steve Hutchinson, widely regarded as the league’s best guard. And it came from a small-market franchise that does not have limitless cash to cover its mistakes.
“It’s stunning you get paid that much money to play a game, but it’s a game that’s generating a lot of funds.” Levy said of the upswing in money.
Teams have long offered lucrative contracts during free agency, but they usually go to big-name players. This year, the spoils so far have gone to players who were lucky enough to become free agents but were not so valuable to their current team that they received the franchise tag. Guard Leonard Davis, a career underachiever, received $18.75 million guaranteed from the Dallas Cowboys, their biggest bonus ever. The Denver Broncos gave $15 million in guaranteed money to tight end Daniel Graham, who is more of a blocker than a receiver.
The list of free agents this year was thin for the same reason that so much money was available for them. The new collective-bargaining agreement resulted in a jump in the salary cap at the same time that the league’s lucrative television contracts gave every team enough money to keep its best players off the free-agent market.
Teams used the franchise tag to hold onto one top player; for instance, the Indianapolis Colts made defensive end Dwight Freeney their franchise player. Teams must pay their franchise player the average of the five highest salaries at his position, usually less than that player would receive on the open market.
When free agency began March 2, the pickings were slim, but most teams’ coffers were full. Teams had an average of about $15 million available, and some teams had much more. The San Francisco 49ers, in salary cap purgatory for several years, had nearly $40 million to spend. They gave cornerback Nate Clements $22.6 million guaranteed on a deal reportedly worth $80 million for eight years. That was more guaranteed money than a more talented cornerback, Denver’s Champ Bailey, received in his contract in 2004.
“If anything is surprising, it’s the money handed to players that if everyone was a free agent, they wouldn’t get,” San Francisco Coach Mike Nolan said in a telephone interview. “Some of the guards who have signed are getting money of Hutchinson value, but they are not near him as a player. But teams had to pay more just to get a void filled. That’s the luck of the draw.”
Patriots Coach Bill Belichick does not seem bothered by the large guarantees given this year. He compares them with large signing bonuses frequently given in the past to players with lower annual salaries as a way to spread the cost of the salary and bring it under the salary cap.
“I really think it’s not as big of a deal as everybody is making it out to be, in relation to the expansion of the cap,” Belichick said in a telephone interview. “In the end, it’s just shuffling money around. It’s more accounting than it is a fundamental change.”
Somebody will probably have to explain that to the players. One unintended consequence of the free-agency largess is the resentment it is likely to breed among players who were not due a new contract this year, but who must watch teammates — some of them lesser talents — cash far heftier checks. Nolan is already imagining the repair work needed in locker rooms.
“It is a concern,” Nolan said. “They have agents, and agents will be in their ear. They see the numbers handed out. My thing is you’ll get a deal, but you’ve got to play out your deal. Maybe you’ll strike it rich. When your contract is up, you get an opportunity as a free agent. By last year’s numbers, you got a great deal. This year’s numbers, maybe it doesn’t look as great.”
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Ground Broken for Springdale Baseball Stadium
Thursday March 01, 2007 1:15pm
Rich owns the NFL's Buffalo Bills
Springdale (AP) - Ground has been broken for a new baseball stadium that will be built in Springdale, courtesy of a $50 million bond package narrowly approved by voters.
Among those on hand for Wednesday's ceremony were Kansas City Royals owner David Glass and Wichita Wranglers owner Bob Rich.
Rich's Class Double-A, Texas League team is to move from Wichita for the 2008 season. The Wranglers are an affiliate of Glass's Royals. Glass is a former Wal-Mart chief executive officer. Rich owns the NFL's Buffalo Bills and other minor-league franchises.
The stadium is being built on former farmland. Officials predict the surrounding fields will soon give way to commercial development.
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Financial gap widening between NFL's haves and have-nots
By Mark Curnutte, The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDIANAPOLIS — Coaches, executives and scouts from all 32 NFL teams have gathered here this week for the annual scouting combine, the unofficial start of the new season, when clubs share the cost of getting an up-close look at the top draft-eligible college players.
Teams with the worst records last season will have the first picks April 28.
At 12:01 Friday morning, another session of veteran free agency — the process in which teams, governed by a uniform spending limit, can compete fairly on the open market for players — will begin.
NFL draft and free-agency structures are just two practices that ensure competitive balance, the reason that teams from two small cities, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, won the last two Super Bowls.
But the management of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars and several other small-market NFL teams are warning that the league's competitive balance is being threatened by tremendous growth in revenues that have resulted — in large part — from that level playing field.
The likes of Bengals president Mike Brown and other team executives say that without internal economic reform, the NFL will slide into the Major League Baseball model of competitive imbalance. As baseball teams open spring training, more than half face almost impossible odds of winning the World Series. Teams in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee Tampa-St. Petersburg and Cincinnati have little chance of competing with the big-market teams in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago.
"If you look at the baseball pattern, and what happened over there, and which would be the likely result here, over time you would begin to see some teams spending a multiple of what other teams are spending (for players)," Brown said.
In other words, there might come a day within the next three or four years when small-market NFL teams like the Bengals are relegated to second-class citizenship.
Salary cap
Even though the NFL has a salary cap, the equal ceiling teams can spend for players, the current formula for determining the cap is helping to create the disparity, Brown said.
Teams in top-third NFL markets, such as Boston, Washington, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York, generate revenues on average of $256 million, according to Enquirer research. Teams in the middle third, such as Baltimore, Tampa and Seattle, have average revenues of roughly $199 million.
In Cincinnati, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Jacksonville and Buffalo — the league's smallest markets — average per-team revenues are about $177 million.
The average per-team revenue is $211 million, and each team is responsible for paying 57.5% of its revenues toward player costs, according to the collective bargaining agreement ratified 30-2 by owners in March 2006.
And though each of the 32 teams share equally in the league's national television and sponsorship contracts — about $102 million per team — big-market teams are generating unshared revenue at such a pace that it is causing the salary cap to rise faster than small-market teams can handle.
The higher rate of growth in unshared revenue generated by teams with new stadiums in larger markets has created disparity. A little more than a decade ago, Brown said, the revenue gap between NFL teams in big and small cities was less than $10 million. Now it's more than $100 million.
And the problem with unshared revenue — such as money from luxury box revenue, stadium naming rights, marketing and sponsorships and local media — is that it all goes into the league-wide tally that is used to determine the salary cap.
For example, Brown paid $5 million for the naming rights to Paul Brown Stadium before it opened in 2000. It went toward the $44 million the Bengals contributed for construction. Had a private company wanted the naming rights to the Cincinnati football stadium, the next $11.67 million would have gone to the Bengals.
But in New York, the Jets and Giants expect to get a deal worth $25 million for their new shared stadium.
In New England, Patriots owner Bob Kraft gets $100,000 to $300,000 for suite rental at Gillette Stadium. At the RCA Dome, Colts president Jim Irsay can get an average of $34,000 annually for a luxury box.
"The new stadiums have produced a discrepancy between the top-revenue and bottom-revenue (teams)," Brown said. "That has put the teams in the large markets in prime position. They are doing very well. But the teams in the smaller markets, they are struggling because their cap costs have gone up while their revenues have not kept pace."
The Bengals are paying roughly 68% of their revenue on players. Big-market teams are paying an average of 47%. For the Washington Redskins, the NFL's top-revenue team that has broken the $300 million mark, that percentage is even smaller.
More money to spend
The salary cap is $109 million for 2007. In 2005, it was $86 million.
In addition, each NFL team is required to make a mandatory player benefit payment of $21 million each year. The unofficial cap for this season is $130 million. The average non-player expenses for an NFL team are almost $50 million.
Large-market teams have additional money to spend on coaches, scouts and facilities. For example, in 2004, Jacksonville spent $3.31 million on assistant coaches. Owner Daniel Snyder's Redskins spent $5.22 million, according to the NFL Coaches Association.
Brown points to himself and his daughter and son-in-law, Bengals vice presidents Katie Blackburn and Troy Blackburn, as the team's three-headed general manager.
The future
The Bengals are on solid financial footing — for now. But the future is precarious.
"What is not in question is the Bengals' ability to compete over the next few years," Brown said. "What is in question is the Bengals' viability over the long term."
Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson — the other nay vote in March when owners decided to extend the collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association — says his team was expected to lose $5 million-$10 million in 2006. The reason, Wilson told the Rochester Times-Union, was that 65 cents of every dollar goes to his players.
The issue is expected to come to a head at the league meeting this March in Phoenix. Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged during his state-of-the-league address Feb. 2 in Miami — two days before the Super Bowl — that the issue must be addressed between owners and the union.
One solution — a reduction in the players' take — is unlikely.
More plausible is additional revenue-sharing among owners. A pool of $100 million in supplemental revenue-sharing is supposed to be available this calendar year. But owners have not agreed how to split it up, and Brown said big-market team owners are looking for ways to give up as little as possible.
Large-market owners like New England's Kraft, Washington's Snyder and Dallas' Jerry Jones think they're getting the short end of the deal; on the other side, so do Brown, Jacksonville's Wayne Weaver and Buffalo's Wilson.
And fans might see just a bunch of rich guys fighting over millions — nay, billions — of dollars with even richer guys.
"Fans have the right to not want to understand the business side of it," Bengals VP Troy Blackburn said. "They have the right to follow their team with passion. They want it to be a fun part of their lives and not get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of it. But I do think fans want to make sure their team has the resources to field a winning team."
The Cincinnati Enquirer is owned by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent company.
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Swap Raptors for Bills? TheStar.com - Sports - Swap Raptors for Bills?
Swap of home dates could be ideal deal
February 22, 2007
Dave Perkins
Rumours are flying around the Internet, sparked or at least exacerbated by comments made by running back Willie McGahee about moving the Buffalo Bills to Toronto.
McGahee told Penthouse it should happen. This was merely his personal preference, yet a relatively simple comment to a one-hand magazine has morphed into something more serious.
A Buffalo-area political website (www.PoliticsNY.net) takes it much further: It purports to quote Tom Golisano, who owns the Sabres, as saying the Bills are going to move to Toronto and assume another name. Buffalo would retain the name Bills (the way Cleveland kept the name Browns) and, upon construction of a downtown domed stadium, the Queen City, i.e. Golisano, would then be gifted with an expansion team and, sooner or later, a Super Bowl.
Well. That's a lot to digest and since it has been the position here, for 30 years, that there won't be an NFL team in Toronto in this lifetime, at least, I'm buying none of this.
But what's to stop a little intra-city cooperation between Buffalo and Toronto? Why couldn't Larry Tanenbaum "give" Buffalo a couple of Raptors games – say two of the 41 for a couple of years – and in return, Toronto could get that 2008 regular season non-U.S. NFL game for which Toronto is a frontrunner?
Think about it. Tanenbaum, who rides the fastest horse in the gang known as Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, is on record with Ted Rogers, who owns the Blue Jays and the stadium formerly known as SkyDome, as wanting an NFL team for Toronto if and when possible.
So show some good faith here. Larry could let the Raps play a couple of games in Buffalo, maybe against the Knicks, who would doubtless sell out in New York state, and the Celtics or Detroit or somebody else. There are plenty of midweek crowds of 13,000 at the Air Canada Centre over the course of a long season. If anybody here missed a couple of games, they could be made optional for season-ticket holders.
The Raps could develop a large potential U.S. market, one they don't actively harvest at all – and yes, I know, it's nuts to suggest MLSE ever leaves a dollar on any table anywhere. Buffalo has a good sports history, remember, and a handful of colleges, which suggests a basketball audience of some size, even though the Braves lasted only eight seasons in the NBA in the 1970s before becoming the Clippers. (By the way, the TorBuff Braves, as we called them, played 16 "home'' games in Toronto from 1971 to '75. So there's precedent.) Sure, the Raps would have costs they wouldn't have at the ACC, but market the games right in a nice 19,000-seat building and they shouldn't take too much of a hit.
The Bills, meanwhile, also have a couple of games every December with rotten weather and 15,000 empty seats at Ralph Wilson Stadium. So pull one of those out of Buffalo in 2008 and move it the 100 miles to Rogers' stadium. Larry and Ted could sell the popcorn and get their foot in the NFL door. Plus, each city gets a little something, rather than the biggest bankroll doing all the talking.
Goofy idea? Maybe. But it makes a lot more sense than that other one.
WILL THE WORD BE GOOD? The word on the best words in baseball broadcasting comes today when the hall of fame announces its recipient of the 2007 Ford C. Frick Award.
Blue Jays' Day One guy Tom Cheek, for the second year in succession since his passing in the fall of 2005, is on the 10-man short list for the honour.
Cheek's many fans are well aware of his ample qualifications to have won the award by now, but that doesn't mean he's a slam dunk to nose out the likes of Tony Kubek, Dizzy Dean, Ken Harrelson, Bill King and five other worthies when the call is made in Cooperstown, N.Y.
If it's not today, we'll look to next year for Cheek. Better late than never and it's already late.
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BY EVAN WEINER
March 22, 2007
When National Football League owners arrive in Phoenix this weekend for their four-day annual meeting, they'll be looking to solve some of the league's persistent problems, including revenue sharing, building new stadiums for the San Francisco 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings, and perhaps addressing a rash of off-field arrests of NFL players, before hitting the links. Unlike previous years, there will be few discussions of "sexy" issues such as an eagerly awaited announcements of designated sites for upcoming Super Bowl contests. Although making instant replay permanent has surfaced as a topic. Still, the league has a number of economic issues to iron out and those should fill up the owners' agenda.
A major issue is revenue sharing and how to rectify what smallmarket owners perceive as inequities in the current system. The topic will likely surface during the meeting but it appears NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is in no hurry to tackle the problem. Goodell and the league's 32 owners have yet to draft an agreement that would satisfy both ends of the spectrum — from big-market owners like Dallas's Jerry Jones, and Houston's Robert McNair to Buffalo's Ralph Wilson on the poorer side of the revenue tracks.
Instead, Goodell and NFL owners are looking for someone to mediate the problem. Goodell initially sought the assistance of former commissioner Paul Tagliabue, but Tagliabue declined — and with good reason: He had addressed the issue and failed to reach a resolution during his last year in office.
Since Goodell took the helm in September, Senator Schumer, a Democrat of New York, has weighed in. Schumer has used his office and considerable influence in backing Wilson, who contends that the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement (it has not been ratified) could kill off smallmarket franchises like his Bills.
Meanwhile, a select committee of owners has explored the revenue-sharing dilemma and concluded that the revenue playing field lacks balance, but beyond that, nothing has come to pass.
Another item on the agenda — stadiums — could make for an interesting session because of a confluence of factors. For one, the league's stadium-building subsidy program, the G-3, is broke. There is no money left for the Yorks, owners of the 49ers; the Spanos family, owners of the San Diego Chargers, or Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, all of whom have new stadium projects on the table. (The Yorks have proposed a new facility in Santa Clara, Calif., while Alex Spanos has his eye on San Diego's suburbs, whether Oceanside, Chula Vista, or National City. Wilf intends to keep his interests close to home, with plans for a new facility near Minneapolis's Metrodome.)
Replenishing funds in the G-3 program may have to be tied into a revenue-sharing formula, a move that may give rise to another contentious issue for NFL owners. Ironically, Jones is in the middle of this debate. Despite being an owner of a high-revenue franchise, Jones wants league money to help pay off his share of the Cowboys–Arlington, Texas, deal for a new Cowboys facility that will be erected in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. But funds in the subsidy program were depleted when the Giants and Jets received $300 million in loans toward the teams' New Jersey stadium project, and another $42.5 million went to the Kansas City Chiefs for upgrades at Arrowhead Stadium.
NFL clubs typically repay G-3 loans with revenue garnered from the sale of club seats to visiting teams, once the new stadium or stadium renovation is complete.
Additionally, the city of San Antonio has been relegated to the sidelines, having abandoned its search for an NFL (or Major League Baseball) franchise, which further limits the threat of relocation by the Yorks, Spanos, Wilf, or Saints owner Tom Benson. San Antonio and Bexar County, Texas, officials thought they were players in the stadium game until last week, when they were led to forfeit after neither NFL nor MLB officials expressed interest in the city.
Perhaps San Antonio officials shouldn't have been surprised. The city's Alamodome was a stateof-the-art football facility when it opened in 1993 — but that was 14 years ago. Today, the multipurpose facility requires hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations.
The San Antonio–Austin, Texas area is also a weak television market with a limited corporate base. The region's corporate community and rank-and-file ticket buyers already show their support for the NBA's Spurs. (San Antonio also has a baseball team in the Double A Texas League and an American Hockey League club.) A second major league franchise in San Antonio could result in a financial calamity for both the Spurs and the new team. There is just not enough of a market to sustain both.
Even after Benson took his Saints from the Katrina-ravaged Superdome to play three games at the Alamodome, NFL officials remained convinced that San Antonio was simply not much of a market for pro football. Part of that reasoning may be attributable to Jerry Jones, whose Cowboys trained in San Antonio in 2002 and 2003 and will return this summer for training camp. Jones has signed a five-year deal with city officials, which grants him rent-free use of the Alamodome. San Antonio is part of the Dallas market and the league may be wary of cutting into McNair's Houston Texans revenue stream.
Now that San Antonio officials have earmarked stadium upgrade monies for other local projects, it figures to cause some problems because the league does not have any other legitimate, uninhabited markets seeking teams — available markets that owners could have otherwise used as leverage in dealmaking.
This weekend, the 32 owners will once again be brought up to speed on plans for Los Angeles, but there is nothing going on in the country's second-biggest market. L.A. will not even be among the cities discussed by the owners' Super Bowl selection committee. Dallas and Indianapolis want the Big Game, and the usual suspects will make bids — South Florida, Tampa, Houston, and Phoenix — but there will be no talk of Los Angeles since it remains a city without a state-of-the-art stadium.
This will continue to weaken NFL owners' leverage in the stadium game. When other cities are thrown into the mix, deals can get done quickly, as demonstrated recently by the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins owners, Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle. Lemieux and Burkle used an offer from Kansas City and a visit with Las Vegas's Mayor Goodman as negotiating chips in talks with Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and Pennsylvania officials, and finally landed a new arena. NFL owners are losing their leverage.
The owners likely to address the increasing number of player arrests, but it's unclear what they could do without the support of the National Football League Players Association. The owners and the players union will need to work out a disciplinary agreement that allows management to deal with players' behavior.
The balance of the sessions figure to deal with international growth — looking beyond 2007, including a pre-season game in Beijing and a regular season matchup in London— and with a look at how the NFL's day-to-day business fared in 2006. Once that's out of the way, securing the best tee time might be the most important decision an NFL owner makes next week in Phoenix.
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My Turn: Moving Back East; Heading Back Home
When I left my hometown, I swore I'd never come back. Seeing the world changed my mind.
By Brian Castner
Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662270/site/newsweek/
March 26, 2007 issue - The human-resources recruiter at the hospital in western New York was confused.
"You live in Las Vegas now?" she asked.
"Yes, that's right," my wife said.
"And you're moving here?"
It was not the first time my wife, an emergency-room nurse trying to set up interviews for a new job in a new city, has had to explain herself. Perhaps the time of year explains the recruiter's confusion—she was probably buried under a late-winter blizzard, dreaming of our sunny weather. Thousands of people move to Las Vegas each month. No one moves from the sun belt to the snow belt. No one, that is, except us.
I'm also surprised about our coming move. Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., I spent my first 18 years trying to leave. My hometown was too small, too predictable and too boring, filled with similarly small, predictable, boring people. Each summer vacation, when we visited my father's family in Oregon, I dreamed of permanently moving out west. I was drawn to the sense of optimism and the broad Western landscapes. Back east I felt doomed to the opposite; gray, snowy winters that seemed to never end. My mother's family had lived in Buffalo for nearly 150 years, and no one ever escaped.
When college came, I grabbed my chance, went to school in Milwaukee (far, but not too far), got married (to a girl from Michigan, not Buffalo), joined the Air Force and didn't look back. The few friends from high school I kept in touch with all moved away: to New York City, Boston, California. In the military I met many others from my hometown. All told the same story of the desire to escape. We joked that Buffalo was a better place to be from than to actually be.
In the past eight years, I have lived in South Dakota, New Mexico and Nevada, and seen the world—Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kyrgyzstan. The strain of constant deployments has taken its toll on my family, and my Air Force career is now drawing to a close, which means we can decide for ourselves where to move.
My wife and I made a list of priorities. After years of brown landscapes, we longed for trees, grass and water. We wanted to move east, and north; someplace with four seasons. We liked the idea of a university town, where we could get our Ph.D.'s and maybe teaching jobs later. Our new hometown needed to have affordable housing—the boom of Las Vegas had left us barely able to afford a too-small house there. Also on the list were good schools for our three sons, and easy access to their grandparents. Plus rolling hills for cross-country skiing for me; a body of water for kayaking and sailing for my wife. After eight years of following my job, we wanted to follow our life.
As we brainstormed our list of towns to move to—Burlington, Washington, Albany, Minneapolis—nothing seemed quite right. Finally one day my wife said, "Stop being so stubborn. You know Buffalo has everything that we're looking for." But I worried I would be judged a failure for moving back. Did it mean I couldn't hack it on the "outside"?
But the idea of making my old hometown my new address began growing on me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that moving back will hold benefits far eclipsing our meager list. My sons will get the chance to grow up with not only their grandparents, but great-grandmother, great-great aunts and first, second and third cousins. They'll get to hear family stories about their grandfather, a firefighter, who put out a blaze in the church his grandfather built. My sons will go to my old high school. These ideas suddenly held meaning. Marriage, fatherhood and deployments to the worst areas of the world have given me a perspective I was too self-absorbed to see before. I took for granted a large supporting family and sense of community history most people don't have. I appreciate it only now. But I understand that I am not settling for an easier road, but rather making an active choice to believe in the place my immigrant ancestors poured their lives into.
I am learning to be less defensive when admitting I am moving back home. I tell people we thought objectively, and Buffalo just happened to have all the things we were looking for. When I tell my high-school friends I am moving back, they say "good for you," as in "you're braver than I." When I tell my military friends from Buffalo, they say they have seen too much of the world to move back to that small, predictable, boring town. I tell them I have seen too much in this world not to move home.
Castner lives in Las Vegas, Nev.
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Boston radio is quite dichotimous. On one hand they will laud the Patriots and everything they do while absolutely blasting the Red Sox and everything they do.
Kinda like WGR with the Sabres and Bills respectively.
I don't have that perspective at all... actually, I enjoy WEEI more than WGR. That being said; I don't sense that they bash the red sox to the extent WGR bashes the Bills - I don't even think it's comparable.
I do believe, however, that they talk RED SOX way too damn much... they even talk Red Sox on Sunday's - DURING FOOTBALL season. That annoys me.
WGR can learn a lot from WEEI.
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I just love living in the Boston area... not!
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The Buffalo Sabres have made it all but official: They will have no playoff tickets left to sell to the general public this season.
A whopping 98.5 percent of season-ticket holders have put down a deposit for their playoff tickets, while 90 percent already have renewed for next year — more than six months before the start of next season.
And with the team’s own 14,800 season-ticket cap still in place for next season, Sabres officials believe there’s a decent chance they won’t be able to provide minipacks — which typically allow fans to buy tickets for five, 10 or 20 games.
Three weeks before the playoffs begin, Sabres tickets remain a redhot commodity in this town.
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Boston Sports radio saying Pats may have interest... (no link; not much I know - but passing it on)
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sounds a lot like the new england patriots approach - and boy, do they suck
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Is it time for Schumer, Clinton, Spitzer, Giambra to address this with Ralph? It's amazing all these emails; and no one divulges the long & trusted source. Really lacks any credibility.
"PoliticsNY.Net: This is something I just received from a long & trusted source:
Joe, seems to have legs...
--a friend in Toronto says that there is some major financial activity related to a sports team venture, and they certainly aren't bringing in another baseball,hockey, or basketball team!!
--there is also some talk of a shell company quietly buying downtown property here for a Dome. It is headed by a prominent minority businessman/community leader."
###"
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That's perhaps one of the more shameful things I've heard regarding Willis.
Given this kind of idiocy, I wouldn't blame him for wanting to leave. I'd almost hope for it. It's one thing to have your abilities questioned, it's something completely different to be treated with absolutely zero respect and discontent. He may not be the greatest back, but he played a good portion of this season with broken ribs and a hurt ankle. If for no other reason, he deserves at least a modicum of every Bills fan's respect for that.
Cry me a river.
Talk about disrespect to the fans and city of Buffalo...
I admire what Coles and Brennan's are doing... besides, they're great places to hang out.
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When I woke up this morning, I was hoping there would be another thread bashing WGR...Thankfully you came through!
For a group who hates 550, you guys sure listen a lot....
It's just that when you turn that garbage on - for even the two minutes - it's the same garbage, useless topics, that have absolultely NO meaning whatsoever to the reality of the Sabres or the Bills - these guys gotta go.
The freaks @ WGR could learn a lot from WEI Entercom Boston...
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Anyone know how the revenue sharing talks went last week?
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WGR still sucks!
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Actually you don't know what your talking about. Ralphs wife and Daughter have said they do not want to keep the team when he passes on.
Its been known for a while
People can keep burrying their heads in the sand thinking everything is ok and this team will live in buffalo forever, but there are some here living in reality that know things will need to be done to keep this team here and it won't be easy
No sand; just really good connections.
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Where did I say that my mind is made-up? I said that IF the next owner of the Bills (seeing as how Ralph's family doesn't want the team) finds a suitable place to move, like SA, he'll probably do it, especially if fans keep staying away.
More drama, please - MORE - you are so TYPICAL BUFFALO I can't stand it!
Please submit proof - link- anyther other that HEARSAY - that Ralph's family doesn't want the team.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
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Let's just say that the Bills will be staying in the Wilson family and the Buffalo community for the next generation. WTF do you think RALPH is working so damn hard?
CAN WE MOVE ON NOW, please?
Thank you
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I'm sure Ralph won't while he's still around, afterwards, who knows
But, I know and just leave it at that.
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Yes because the LA Bills would keep the traditions and History alive
Bills aren't going anywhere man; relax. I know. Way too much political support and pressure for the NFL to encourage this. Besides, Ralph will never move the team.
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I like the idea. I would call the team some variant of Niagara. Maybe ' Niagara Rushers' or something like that.
So much for tradition and history...
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First: I'm glad you're not the owner. Sharing the Bills with Toronto is just not practical for the team, its players and the fans. Also, there would be ZERO sense of home field advantage. Having a permanent base is important: and for the Bills: it will *always* be Buffalo.
Second: All this talk about the Bills leaving is premature. Whether you see it or not; the WNY economy is slowing starting to improve. In addition, this community, which stretches from Syracuse to Toronto and the state of NY/County of Erie has invested way too much into the franchise to bail now.
We will never be LA or NYC but nor will a number of other communities in the United States. Also, Canada will never see a team. The NFL will not impose on the CFL unless that league folds.
Third: Take a holistic approach to the Bills and WNY economy: build the stadium downtown - improve high speed rail connections between Toronto to Buffalo and Albany to Buffalo. Not only would this help build the economy - it will keep the Bills in Buffalo for a very long time.
Fourth: If Jacksonville, Green Bay, and New Orleans can retain their teams - SO CAN BUFFALO.
This topic is old. Please move on; cause the Bills aren't going anywhere.
Oh Buffalo...
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