Scrappy Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Terry Pegula is not being questioned at all yet. Please post a link or explain who can reasonably question a new owner handed a team so late in any season.
K-9 Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Before I respond please don't think I'm a ralph basher. I appreciate all he has done and am a third generation bills fan. That being said he did hire russ brandon as the gm instead of getting a football guy as well as numerous hirings of under the radar coaches. My beef isn't with ralph as the owner however I am very frustrated with the lack of resources put into training and developing players. Brandon I might give you but barely. He was promoted to GM in a transition period but never had much say in football operations. Ironically he served immediately after RW had made TD, a big name in the business, one of the highest paid at his position and gave him unprecedented control over the organization. It's understandable that RW was going to circle the wagons while he regrouped. Most coaching hires are "under the radar" coaches. Every big name coach was under the radar before they made it big. That said, Rauch, Saban II, Knox, Levy were all coaches paid near the top of the scale at the time. While RW has final say in all FO hires, GMs are the ones responsible for the interviews. RW didn't hire Jauron without Levy's recommendation. Nor did he hire Gailey without Buddy's. On a side note, take a look at the history of big name coaches after they change teams. Very rarely successful. As for lack of resources put into training and developing players, you've completely lost me there. The Bills were one of the first teams to construct a full scale, all weather practice facility in the league. A state of the art training facility. Can you clarify what you mean by not investing in training and developing players? GO BILLS!!!
Lurker Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Just read some of the comments at the bottom of this story[/url]. Absolutely pathetic. Relax, PTR...the comments section of the Snoose is just an addendum to the "funny pages." It beats Garfield all to hell and provides a welcome laugh, regardless of subject.
Dawgg Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Before I respond please don't think I'm a ralph basher. I appreciate all he has done and am a third generation bills fan. That being said he did hire russ brandon as the gm instead of getting a football guy as well as numerous hirings of under the radar coaches. My beef isn't with ralph as the owner however I am very frustrated with the lack of resources put into training and developing players. Don't tell the homers on the board this! This is an owner who hired an out-of-touch Marv Levy to run personnel when Levy had no experience as a front office executive. This resulted in botched drafts (Whitner, Lynch, McCargo, etc), ill-advised free agent signings (Walker, Dockery, Fowler, Tripplet) and bad hires (Jauron, Dick). He then followed that up by handing the reigns to the team's marketing executive. Rather than bring an experienced outsider -- something this team desperately needed -- Ralph promoted a business development executive, which resulted in more of the same. He then followed that up by promoting Tom Modrak, who was a major participant in some of the worst drafts in years, inflating his title and allowing him to work from his home in Jacksonville, Florida. Ralph needs to stop making excuses. The Bills' inability to compete this past decade has little to do with their disadvantaged financial position and everything to do with a leadership void at the top. Having said that, give credit where credit is due: Ralph appears to have learned his lesson in handing the keys over to Buddy Nix. It's unfortunate that it took this long.
PromoTheRobot Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Terry Pegula is not being questioned at all yet. Please post a link or explain who can reasonably question a new owner handed a team so late in any season. There was a link. Look again. http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/article421489.ece PTR
Scrappy Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 There was a link. Look again. http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/article421489.ece PTR You're referring to the people posting below I assume, so these are the ones you claim to question Pegual already ?? You ask people in Buffalo for $.10 more on a check & they'll call the managers over, much less $'s. I would call these needless reactions versus a solid questioning of Pegula, it's emotional here not business. You did find me a link though, so I guess you're right.
RTW2012 Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 It's the ugly side of being from Buffalo. We want everything and when we get it we complain that it wasn't gift wrapped. Just look at Terry Pegula. People are already questioning his commitment. Here's an owner that was an answer to any Sabres fans prayers, a guy who has already spent millions on flying in alumni, remodeling the locker rooms, and installing super-dehumidifiers in HSBC so we can have the best ice in the league, and people were still pissing and moaning when the Sabres raised prices 5%. (A move that was mandated by the league so the Sabres would qualify for revenue sharing!) Just read some of the comments at the bottom of this story. Absolutely pathetic. PTR Complaining about ticket price hikes is not a uniquely Buffalo thing. Don't make it out to be so. Three people made a negative comment out of nine total. Hardly indicative of a community.
K-9 Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Don't tell the homers on the board this! This is an owner who hired an out-of-touch Marv Levy to run personnel when Levy had no experience as a front office executive. This resulted in botched drafts (Whitner, Lynch, McCargo, etc), ill-advised free agent signings (Walker, Dockery, Fowler, Tripplet) and bad hires (Jauron, Dick). He then followed that up by handing the reigns to the team's marketing executive. Rather than bring an experienced outsider -- something this team desperately needed -- Ralph promoted a business development executive, which resulted in more of the same. He then followed that up by promoting Tom Modrak, who was a major participant in some of the worst drafts in years, inflating his title and allowing him to work from his home in Jacksonville, Florida. Ralph needs to stop making excuses. The Bills' inability to compete this past decade has little to do with their disadvantaged financial position and everything to do with a leadership void at the top. Having said that, give credit where credit is due: Ralph appears to have learned his lesson in handing the keys over to Buddy Nix. It's unfortunate that it took this long. RW is not making excuses. He is 100% correct when he says that, compared to other NFL teams, the Bills are very much at a disadvantaged position. As an example, look at what the Redskins pay in salaries in terms of revenue percentage vs. the teams at the lower end of the revenue generating spectrum. That's a very stark reality for many teams. What RW is guilty of, in hindsight only, is making bad hiring decisions. He never claimed that was due to finances. Hiring GMs and coaches is not too unlike drafting players. It's a crap shoot. If Ralph hires a supposed football guru and gives him full control like he did with TD he gets crap for it. If he hires a trusted person from within like Brandon, he gets crap for it. I'm glad you think RW has gotten it right with hiring Buddy (so far). I do, too. But if the Nix experiment goes wrong, I won't get all pissed off about it. It's more fun to be a homer. Takes patience and guts. Anyone can be a stick in the mud. GO BILLS!!!
ganesh Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Got this from the Ny Daily news and Ralph claims that it is hard for buffalo to make it because the big corporations have the left the area. I am so sick and tired of this BS! Buffalo can support the Bills. Pittsburgh is no different than us and yet they are one of the most successful teams in the league. You don't hear about them leaving or being unviable, sames goes for Cincy, Cleveland or Detroit. Ralph is just making excuses for not investing in the team to be a winner and will do everything on the cheap until he doesn't own the team. Pegula thinks Buffalo is just fine and will be a great place to build a Stanley Cup Champion. The difference is Ralph loves money regardless of what he says and Terry loves Buffalo and that is all the Bills need. You can't compare the situation in Buffalo and in Pittsburgh. Ignoring what statistics says (as they are altered to everyone's taste), Pittsburgh is a pretty booming city (I lived there for the last 11 years). UPMC and Allegheny General are two big time Hospitals, including one of the largest Childresn hospital in the country. The Pittsburgh downtown is home to some of the best banks in the industry that has thrived through this recession in PNC, Mellon/Citizen. The city is home to two Major universities in CMU and University of Pittsburgh. Home to one of the biggest Insurance company Highmark....And to boot it all, these financial, insurance and medical institutions provide so much technology related jobs....Westinghouse, a powerhouse in the 70s and 80s came back strong by opening up a technology center for doing some military work in the suburbs recruiting 3000+ employees..Pittsburgh is a growing economy and allows for a constant sell out of the Steelers and Penguins, allowing both teams to sell nice luxury boxes and earn that extra income....Adding the Steeler Aura is an added BONUS. I don't think Pittsburgh is in the same situation as Buffalo.
Mr. WEO Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Can any of you (or Ralph) explain how the economic woes of the Buffalo area have caused or resulted in Ralph's inability to put a playoff caliber team on the field for over a decade? What, exactly, is the connection? Wilson has been doing very well in Buffalo despite the local economy--yet he's still trying to pretend otherwise in the press. It's bizarre, and a bit sad. Also, Ralph's vote against the last CBA has been spun in an infinite number of ways by his sycophants here. Yet the revenue sharing of that CBA provided an unprecedented windfall in corporate welfare for low revenue teams. The amount was more than double the previous amount. My guess is Ralph was worried that, given the Bills yearly high profit margin, he would be shut out of the free money. Another tired (and false) claim is that Ralph could have "made a lot more money" moving the team. How? Where--Baltimore? Cleveland? Indy? Someone above even suggested.....LA! Talk about clueless. Ralph has already admitted he messed things up the past decade--why doubt him?
Dawgg Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 RW is not making excuses. He is 100% correct when he says that, compared to other NFL teams, the Bills are very much at a disadvantaged position. As an example, look at what the Redskins pay in salaries in terms of revenue percentage vs. the teams at the lower end of the revenue generating spectrum. That's a very stark reality for many teams. What RW is guilty of, in hindsight only, is making bad hiring decisions. He never claimed that was due to finances. Hiring GMs and coaches is not too unlike drafting players. It's a crap shoot. If Ralph hires a supposed football guru and gives him full control like he did with TD he gets crap for it. If he hires a trusted person from within like Brandon, he gets crap for it. GO BILLS!!! Ralph is making excuses but I don't blame him for that. His job is to whine as much as possible so that revenue sharing continues (which directly benefits the Bills). I don't consider Ralph to be cheap in terms of player acquisitions– he's doled out some hefty contracts to such players as Schobel, Dockery and Walker. Where he's been cheap is his front office. Nobody faulted Ralph for hiring Donahoe. It was an aggressive move at the time, one that was widely praised. If anyone took the flak for Donahoe's failings, it was Donahoe himself -- and perhaps rightly so, given the team's performance under his watch. That said, to bring in Levy and to promote Overdorf, Brandon, Guy and Modrak was a move that was more designed to keep Ralph comfortable than to win games. I disagree that hiring GMs and coaches is a crap shoot. The Bills' could have easily found a cost-effective talent evaluator from a winning organization who would have jumped at the chance to run the personnel department of an NFL franchise. But Ralph took it upon himself make the Bills a closed-door operation, relying on his "inner circle" to turn the franchise around. The truly unfortunate thing is that Ralph's miscalculations resulted in a decade wasted. Judging by his own admission, he knows he screwed up and it appears as though he's getting it right by allowing his personnel department to do its job.
Lurker Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Can any of you (or Ralph) explain ....why the ignore user feature no longer works for me. I've asked this a couple of times now, but no one's given me any concrete ideas. I use three different laptops, so it doesn't seem likely to be a settings issue.
Dawgg Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Can any of you (or Ralph) explain how the economic woes of the Buffalo area have caused or resulted in Ralph's inability to put a playoff caliber team on the field for over a decade? What, exactly, is the connection? Wilson has been doing very well in Buffalo despite the local economy--yet he's still trying to pretend otherwise in the press. It's bizarre, and a bit sad. Also, Ralph's vote against the last CBA has been spun in an infinite number of ways by his sycophants here. Yet the revenue sharing of that CBA provided an unprecedented windfall in corporate welfare for low revenue teams. The amount was more than double the previous amount. My guess is Ralph was worried that, given the Bills yearly high profit margin, he would be shut out of the free money. Another tired (and false) claim is that Ralph could have "made a lot more money" moving the team. How? Where--Baltimore? Cleveland? Indy? Someone above even suggested.....LA! Talk about clueless. Ralph has already admitted he messed things up the past decade--why doubt him? Well said. Those are the facts.
Buffalo Barbarian Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 (edited) link Brief piece, talk about the old CBA, difficulty for Buffalo to compete. Dude, why did you take over my thread? Among the largest 100 metros, only seven lost population from 2000 to 2010 (Buffalo-Niagara Falls was 6th worst): http://www.gnocdc.org/JobsPopulationAndHousing/OtherMetroGraph.png The fact that Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, Cleveland and Detroit--despite their economic woes--are 2-4 times larger than the Buffalo metro area is surely an advantage. Rochester and Southern Ontario help even the field, but there's no question that this region is hurting more (in terms of filling a 72,000 seat stadium) than any other NFL market but New Orleans. Metro area population: Detroit---4.4 million Pittsburgh---2.3 million Cincinnati---2.2 million Cleveland---2.1 million Buffalo+Rochester---2.1 million Buffalo---1.1 million The point is we aren't leaving just like them. Ralph is just making excuses not to invest in the team. We have less population now and yet we have had the stadium pretty much sold even with a poor product on the field. New Orleans faces a natural disaster and could have left after Katrina and yet they stay, The only reason a team leaves is because the owner is greedy which is why Ralph has no co-owner in place so the team can be sold for the most money. Maybe some one should remind him he can't take it with him and his family isn't going to starve if he doesn't get top dollar for it. Edited May 15, 2011 by Buffalo Barbarian
Buffalo Barbarian Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 Making bad hiring choices is far different than not investing in a wining team. Please cite specific cases where RW DELIBERATELY chose not to invest in a winning team and I'll give your argument come credence. Regarding the quotes from the NY Daily News article you chose in your post, are you saying RW is wrong about Buffalo and its economic decline since 1960? GO BILLS!!! Really, you must have short memory. Lets see 75 million from Toronto and adding no elite level free agents, 25 million under the cap when they had one and been under the cap for awhile, Russ Brandon as GM because you don't want hire (costs money)one to actually draft good players, how about letting Butler go because he was to cheap or trying to screw Wade out of his last year or letting our good players leave in free agency (Peters, Winfield, Williams etc)Driving Jim Kelly away because he could get more in the USFL, "Tom Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who acquired the pick from the San Francisco 49ers in a trade for O.J. Simpson. Cousineau never played a game with the Bills. He instead signed with the Canadian Football League Montreal Alouettes where they offered double the money that the Bills originally offered" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cousineau Do I really need to go on?
BillsVet Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 That said, to bring in Levy and to promote Overdorf, Brandon, Guy and Modrak was a move that was more designed to keep Ralph comfortable than to win games. I disagree that hiring GMs and coaches is a crap shoot. The Bills' could have easily found a cost-effective talent evaluator from a winning organization who would have jumped at the chance to run the personnel department of an NFL franchise. But Ralph took it upon himself make the Bills a closed-door operation, relying on his "inner circle" to turn the franchise around. The truly unfortunate thing is that Ralph's miscalculations resulted in a decade wasted. Judging by his own admission, he knows he screwed up and it appears as though he's getting it right by allowing his personnel department to do its job. The major ramification from RW hiring/promoting familiar and lesser talented individuals is a huge blow to the franchise's reputation. This was illustrated in the HC search last January when they were repeatedly rejected for interviews, forcing Nix under cover of darkness to seek out a man who hadn't been a NFL HC in a decade. It also didn't help when, before introducing Nix, RW admitted he didn't personally know potential GM candidates and therefore eliminated them from consideration. I doubt that comment earned Buffalo any credibility points, especially from guys who wanted to be a GM and didn't get an interview. As a result of these recent hirings, Buffalo has become and remains the NFL's Siberia.
Beerball Posted May 15, 2011 Author Posted May 15, 2011 Dude, why did you take over my thread? Ummmmm, because it is a duplicate posted 10 hours after mine?
bills1960 Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 I think our distance from Toronto is a blessing in disguise. I think the NFL understands that Toronto's enthusiasm for an NFL team isn't strong enough to relocate the Bills there. But it is big enough to keep the Bills close in order to keep that market interested. I'm fine with an eventual stadium in Niagra Falls or some place closer to the boarder, as long as it's still the Buffalo-Niagra metro area and they're still the Buffalo Bills.
Doc Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 It was obvious that the 2006 CBA was a blunder of monumental proportions. Now it seems everyone is finally grasping that. Well, almost everyone.
PromoTheRobot Posted May 15, 2011 Posted May 15, 2011 You're referring to the people posting below I assume, so these are the ones you claim to question Pegual already ?? You ask people in Buffalo for $.10 more on a check & they'll call the managers over, much less $'s. I would call these needless reactions versus a solid questioning of Pegula, it's emotional here not business. You did find me a link though, so I guess you're right. Complaining about ticket price hikes is not a uniquely Buffalo thing. Don't make it out to be so. Three people made a negative comment out of nine total. Hardly indicative of a community. Spend a little time at SabreSpace.com and read their forum, especially posters named DeLuca, Ghost of Dwight Drane and PA Sabres Fan. I think the honeymoon lasted all of 20 minutes with those 3. PTR
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