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Posted

What are you suggesting?

 

The estate less what Mary gets is taxed at 40% which is due 9 months from the date of death.

 

There's no estate tax on any property that passes to a spouse. Since Mary is likely the primary beneficiary of Ralph's estate, there's likely no estate tax due.

 

Yes I know that. As I recall Ralph said (paraphrasing) 'that Mary would be very comfortable'. I suspect that the majority of the estate will go to Ralph's daughters Christy and Edith. Their portion is not exempt. There is also a roughly $5 million exemption which is insignificant considering the size of the estate.

 

Ralph was not listed in the Forbes 400 of the richest Americans with the lowest estate value on the list of $1.3 billion. It is therefore a pretty good assumption that the vast majority of Ralph's estate value is tied up in the team and is less than $1.3 billion. For the sake of argument lets assume the estate is worth $1.2 billion (the team $1 billion of that) and Mary gets 25% ($300 million). That means the estate will have to come up with $360 million to pay the Federal estate tax. Cashing in the non team part of the estate still isn't enough to pay the tax.

 

Not sure what influence a Trust has on that, but I'd bet its significant.

 

A trust avoids probate and therefore having to go through a court. There are legal fee's associated with probate which is usually a percentage of the estate. He would have had to put the team in a irrevocable trust to avoid the estate tax which would likely be a violation of NFL rules. To the best of our knowledge the estate was put into a trust at Ralph's death, you cannot do that with a irrevocable trust.

Posted

So, I'm assuming that this is a normal tendering process, where each prospective buyer can submit one bid, right?

In other words... the bidders can't raise their bids if higher ones come in, like in an auction?

 

I'm still hoping that someone will be able to answer this question.

Posted

a quick sale process is all i'm hearing. no reasons why that i can ascertain.

 

jw

 

I'm guessing for the same reasons the estate put up Ralph's prized impressionists for sale so quickly.

Posted

Why, I oughta!

 

Seriously though, everyone is talking about what would happen if a "bidding war" takes place, but from my experience in tendering projects for local government, each bidder gets only one shot to get their bids right.

 

And whether TP can own the Sabres and the Bills.

Posted

Why, I oughta!

 

Seriously though, everyone is talking about what would happen if a "bidding war" takes place, but from my experience in tendering projects for local government, each bidder gets only one shot to get their bids right.

I see no reason why it would not be like an auction. At least give the local bidder a chance to top the high bid.

Posted

Can Bon Jovi even place a bid given his known plan to move the team to Toronto? And what was discussed at that lunch between Bon Jovi and Roger Goodell? One could envision Comm Goodell, in not so many words, letting it be known that Toronto would stand a strong chance of getting a team when the NFL expands to London etc... so perhaps Bon Jovi's Group decides to not submit a bid knowing that Pegula has both the $$$ and the Will to see this thing through... Financing a new stadium in Toronto is gonna be tricky given current financial constraints there... It doesn't hurt to have Chuck Shumer's influence and the backing of Gov Cuomo either... Bon Jovi's Group may realize that moving the Bills is simply too costly to seriously pursue...

Posted

Can Bon Jovi even place a bid given his known plan to move the team to Toronto? And what was discussed at that lunch between Bon Jovi and Roger Goodell? One could envision Comm Goodell, in not so many words, letting it be known that Toronto would stand a strong chance of getting a team when the NFL expands to London etc... so perhaps Bon Jovi's Group decides to not submit a bid knowing that Pegula has both the $$$ and the Will to see this thing through... Financing a new stadium in Toronto is gonna be tricky given current financial constraints there... It doesn't hurt to have Chuck Shumer's influence and the backing of Gov Cuomo either... Bon Jovi's Group may realize that moving the Bills is simply too costly to seriously pursue...

very well said. And probably true.
Posted

A trust avoids probate and therefore having to go through a court. There are legal fee's associated with probate which is usually a percentage of the estate. He would have had to put the team in a irrevocable trust to avoid the estate tax which would likely be a violation of NFL rules. To the best of our knowledge the estate was put into a trust at Ralph's death, you cannot do that with a irrevocable trust.

Rather than placing the team in a trust, Ralph could have borrowed against the value of the team and use it to create an irrevocable life insurance trust. The trust would then cover any estate tax due.

 

It's also possible that Mary inherrited the majority of the estate and she will dole out the proceeds from the sale of the team over he lifetime. Stretching out the timeline may make it easier to avoid estate taxes.

 

Also, the estate tax would be based on the value of the estate at the time of Ralph's death. The value of the team would be an appraised value which could easily be less that what the team actually sells for. I'm sure the estate will argue that the Bills are worth something in the $800 million range, but we all know that they could easily sell for more than that.

Posted

Seriously though, everyone is talking about what would happen if a "bidding war" takes place, but from my experience in tendering projects for local government, each bidder gets only one shot to get their bids right.

 

I would expect this to go similarly to any other private property sale. If you have multiple bidders for a house on the market, a bidding war can ensue and the sale price can exceed the asking price. I suspect the Bills sale might play out relatively the same way.

Posted

Can Bon Jovi even place a bid given his known plan to move the team to Toronto? And what was discussed at that lunch between Bon Jovi and Roger Goodell? One could envision Comm Goodell, in not so many words, letting it be known that Toronto would stand a strong chance of getting a team when the NFL expands to London etc... so perhaps Bon Jovi's Group decides to not submit a bid knowing that Pegula has both the $$$ and the Will to see this thing through... Financing a new stadium in Toronto is gonna be tricky given current financial constraints there... It doesn't hurt to have Chuck Shumer's influence and the backing of Gov Cuomo either... Bon Jovi's Group may realize that moving the Bills is simply too costly to seriously pursue...

 

When we talk about Bon Jovi's group - I would argue that MLSE needs Jon Bon Jovi more than he needs MLSE in this process. If the Bills don't go to MLSE (hopefully likely), then he will simply move on to the next consortium in the next city looking to purchase an NFL team that is up for sale. JBJ's seemingly stated goal is to become an NFL owner, and the particular city or team invovled I believe is agnostic to that goal.

 

I can't help but wonder if the meeting was more Goodell providing future advice in this regard to ownership - because more NFL will come up for sale - as oppossed to it being specific to the Bills.

 

 

Or, it could be Bon Jovi was scribbling down song lyrics that came to his head for his next record.

Posted

Why, I oughta!

 

Seriously though, everyone is talking about what would happen if a "bidding war" takes place, but from my experience in tendering projects for local government, each bidder gets only one shot to get their bids right.

This will not be run like a government bid. The trust will be free to negotiate with any or all the bidders trying to get the max value and best terms.

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