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NFL Execs say Bills should get moving on new stadium


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Is all ticket revenue 100% shared? If so, I didn't realize that. I assumed that if you're Jerry Jones and you made more money at the ticket office than Pegula, that you actually got to keep some of it.

 

Ticket revenue is 60/40. Buffalo keeps 60, team sharing revenue gets 40. Last year Buffalo made roughly $49m in ticket revenue, so they gave the league $19m. Dallas made $96m, they contributed nearly $38m to the pot, so you can see why some owners want them to contribute as much as possible.

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If the Bills could actually be a team on the field this talk would never exist. GreenBay has not got a new modern stadium but they are relevant to the league.

The Bills are nothing more than potential money to visiting teams...we have no national appeal for TV because our executives and coaches have been so bad in the last 20 years.

​If we had a record like the Packers, Patriots or even the Giants no one would ever make these type of statements.

 

Win on the field and all this type of talk stops.

You act like the Bills are 0-16 every season. Have you seen the Browns?
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NYC built time square on money from the niagara power project...it's time that project pays for the local people. that thing makes like 500 million a year. 1 year of profits from there towards the stadium. everybody made a big deal about cuomo giving buffalo a billion dollars but it was our project.

Ummm....

 

Oh never mind....

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Is all ticket revenue 100% shared? If so, I didn't realize that. I assumed that if you're Jerry Jones and you made more money at the ticket office than Pegula, that you actually got to keep some of it.

 

IIRC the split is 60% home team and 40% road team.

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Which then has to be split 32 ways... And then players/employers need to get paid... they need to pay other bills...

 

It's not like they just pocket all $12b.

 

Man, I feel like I should just them a few bucks to make sure the league doesn't fold...

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@viccarucci

Talking about #NFL's desire for #Bills to have a new stadium on @WGRZ: http://on.wgrz.com/22GDQlU


The NFL should but out and let the owners decide whats best for the team. The organization is setting records for season ticket sales so the fans are not turned off by the stadium!!

 

From a league perspective, it's not about ticket sales or what the fans are turned off by. The issue is the revenue generated from those tickets sales.

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I know you've expanded on it before, but given that we're talking logistics etc. here, it's probably worth laying out one more time.

 

And folks, listen to Kirby's background/opinions on this subject. I don't know of anyone on this board that's been more closely involved in this type of issue before.

I will try to summarize as best as I can as to why I believe that a new stadium is coming. There really are a handful of issues with some being a little more talked about than others.

 

1) Let's start with the revenue portion. The gate receipts are split between home teams and visiting teams. At the present times games played in RWS are contributing less money to the opposing owners than games played elsewhere. The way that it works is the home team keeps 60% and 40% goes to a pool to be redistributed. If you are the Giants and that 40% you are giving up $5M each week and the Bills are contributing $1.5M to the pot (as an example) you are not happy. You are asking why you are paying $30M more a year (or whatever) than Buffalo?

 

2) So the next question is why cant you just raise the ticket prices at the Ralph to get in line with the rest of the league? Long story short is that they are so far out of whack they will price many of the current people sitting 20 rows up at the 50 yard line out. The best locations need to be tied to prime amenities to maximize your profits. In theory, you could do this at the Ralph but in practice it is impossible. If you parked in the same place, entered the same gates, sat next to the same people for 30 years and I now told you that it costs 100% more per ticket to do the same thing what would happen? If you think that people would downgrade to areas that are more in their price range you are mistaken. The majority (more than 50%) of those people would no longer be customers. The Bills are in no place to shave 20,000 season ticket holders (or whatever the number would be). The new stadium presents a clean slate in terms of "re-seating." You still allow people to select their seats based on tenure but you are removing the "but that's what I have always done" part of the equation. They may at that point sacrifice a little in terms of location for an upgrade in amenities.

 

3) The next part is that there are all kinds of new sponsorship revenues that can be created. The Bills have done a wonderful job of maximizing what that stadium will allow. If they have the "clean slate" though they can sell restaurants, bars, food choices, wine choices, etc... They can pretty much turn that stadium into Nascar. It is a little tacky but there is a lot of money to be made there. That nonshared (local sponsorship) revenue drives the cap as well. So to use the Giants example above if they are making $32M more than the Bills (just trying to use a round number) the cap goes up $1M each year because of it. Again that is a pretty extreme number but trying to paint the picture.

 

4) I do not know where suites factor into the equation. They did not used to count because Arizona did not have them until they moved into this stadium. That may or may not have changed. If it did not it is a similar situation to number 3. Teams are getting the money, driving the cap up at a rate that other teams can't keep up with. This was Ralph's initial pushback when everyone thought that he didn't understand the CBA. He actually understood it better than everyone else. He went from looking like a "crazy old man" to a "wise sage."

 

There are numerous other reasons that play in (city revitalization, the opportunity for the owners to monopolize part of the city like Kraft did with Patriot Place, etc...). I didn't want to go too far down the rabbit hole so I hope that this helps.

Edited by Kirby Jackson
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The NFL should but out and let the owners decide whats best for the team. The organization is setting records for season ticket sales so the fans are not turned off by the stadium!!

The NFL should butt out of their own business? That's like the tea party people saying...keep the government out of my medicare. It's not about the fans. It's about maximizing revenues and the owners want newer stadiums for their teams. I don't care either way but those are the facts.

Edited by nucci
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I have said it before, but Buffalo does not have the clientele for all the Bells and Whistles a shiny/sterile new facility offers for high prices.

 

Buffalo fans are there mainly for football. Winning would/could move the pricing much more than a new dome stadium would. We have a great stadium and experience that fans of other teams rave about/envy. To be honest, if you take this team and their 17-20 year playoff drought and counting, plop them into a shiny facility and ask me for double the money or more.... and I'm out. Show me some MEANINGFUL games for ONE TIME, and my metal bleacher seat and Ill gladly pay more.

 

 

I am sure the Pegulas/other parties are taking that into account. Its not like we have 500,000 high rollers living in $1,000,000 condos piled on top of one another in downtown proper. Also, no matter how many times people say it, a downtown football stadium DOES NOT do anything to reinvigorate a city. Many studies plainly show this. I have attempted to list the events a new facility would hold downtown and it barely gets to 20/year including UB Football.

 

 

We will see. It is obvious that this will not be addressed, at least publicly in the near-term. Around 2020, we may be hearing what preparations are being done for the next lease. The local economy, state of the NFL, etc could be different at that point as it is now.

 

 

IMO the best of all worlds is a segmented major renovation to the current stadium done over the course of a few offseasons in order to not displace the Bills. Would/may have to start September completely on the road. Give the current fan base enough perks, maybe jazz up the suites and clubs. Hell, add on seats. Keep the place going for 100 years. Its good enough for Lambeau, Arrowhead, Wrigley, Fenway, etc. Would like a unique, old stadium instead of Ford Field 6.0

Edited by May Day 10
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I have said it before, but Buffalo does not have the clientele for all the Bells and Whistles a shiny/sterile new facility offers for high prices.

 

Buffalo fans are there mainly for football. Winning would/could move the pricing much more than a new dome stadium would. We have a great stadium and experience that fans of other teams rave about/envy.

 

 

I am sure the Pegulas/other parties are taking that into account. Its not like we have 500,000 high rollers living in $1,000,000 condos piled on top of one another in downtown proper. Also, no matter how many times people say it, a downtown football stadium DOES NOT do anything to reinvigorate a city. Many studies plainly show this. I have attempted to list the events a new facility would hold downtown and it barely gets to 20/year including UB Football.

 

 

We will see. It is obvious that this will not be addressed, at least publicly in the near-term. Around 2020, we may be hearing what preparations are being done for the next lease. The local economy, state of the NFL, etc could be different at that point as it is now.

 

 

IMO the best of all worlds is a segmented major renovation to the current stadium done over the course of a few offseasons in order to not displace the Bills. Would/may have to start September completely on the road. Give the current fan base enough perks, maybe jazz up the suites and clubs. Hell, add on seats. Keep the place going for 100 years. Its good enough for Lambeau, Arrowhead, Wrigley, Fenway, etc. Would like a unique, old stadium instead of Ford Field 6.0

 

There are 5M people within a 90-minute drive of downtown Buffalo (assuming the stadium goes there, which I believe).

 

I don't think you'll have any trouble finding 70k (1.3%) to go to games 10 times per year.

 

Also, remember that the stadium isn't just for football games. It'll be used year-round for concerts, conventions, athletic events, etc.

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I will try to summarize as best as I can as to why I believe that a new stadium is coming. There really are a handful of issues with some being a little more talked about than others.

1) Let's start with the revenue portion. The gate receipts are split between home teams and visiting teams. At the present times games played in RWS are contributing less money to the opposing owners than games played elsewhere. The way that it works is the home team keeps 60% and 40% goes to a pool to be redistributed. If you are team the Giants and that 40% you are giving up each week is $5M and the Bills are contributing $1.5M to the pot (as an example) you are not happy. You are asking why you are paying $30M more a year (or whatever) than Buffalo?

 

2) So the next question is why cant you just raise the ticket prices at the Ralph to get in line with the rest of the league? Long story short is that they are so far out of whack they will price many of the current people sitting 20 rows up at the 50 yard line out. The best locations need to be tied to prime amentias to maximize your profits. In theory, you could do this at the Ralph but in practice it is impossible. If you parked in the same place, entered the same gates, sat next to the same people for 30 years and I now told you that it costs 100% more per ticket to do the same thing what would happen? If you think that people would downgrade to areas that are more in their price range you are mistaken. The majority (more than 50%) of those people would no longer be customers. The Bills are in no place to shave 20,000 season ticket holders (or whatever the number would be). The new stadium presents a clean slate in terms of "re-seating." You still allow people to select their seats based on tenure but you are removing the "but that's what I have always done" part of the equation. They may at that point sacrifice a little in terms of location for an upgrade in amenities.

 

3) The next part is that there are all kinds of new sponsorship revenues that can be created. The Bills have done a wonderful job of maximizing what that stadium will allow. If they have the "clean slate" though they can sell restaurants, bars, food choices, wine choices, etc... They can pretty much turn that stadium into Nascar. It is a little tacky but there is a lot of money to be made there. That nonshared (local sponsorship) revenue drives the cap as well. So to use the Giants example above if they are making $32M more than the Bills (just trying to use a round number) the cap goes up $1M each year because of it. Again that is a pretty extreme number but trying to paint the picture.

 

4) I do not know where suites factor into the equation. They did not used to count because Arizona did not have them until they moved into this stadium. That may or may not have changed. If it did not it is a similar situation to number 3. Teams are getting the money, driving the cap up at a rate that other teams can't keep up with. This was Ralph's initial pushback when everyone thought that he didn't understand the CBA. He actually understood it better than everyone else. He went from looking like a "crazy old man" to a "wise sage."

 

There are numerous other reasons that play in (city revitalization, the opportunity for the owners to monopolize part of the city like Kraft did with Patriot Place, etc...). I didn't want to go too far down the rabbit hole so I hope that this helps.

 

Well stated.

 

As far as I'm aware, and that was as of 2014, suites are not part of shared revenue. The only other non-shared revenue exception is Dallas merchandise, somehow Jerry has worked a deal where he gets to keep 100% of that revenue for the Cowboys whereas the rest of the league shares the revenue on merchandise.

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The fans don't want it, the owner doesn't want it, the tax payers don't want it, the state doesn't want it. I've never heard a free agent say they don't want to play somewhere because they have an old stadium.

 

Apparently the only people that want a new stadium are the other owners. Nothing they can do about it and from the article it wasn't even brought up. Vic is really reaching

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The fans don't want it, the owner doesn't want it, the tax payers don't want it, the state doesn't want it. I've never heard a free agent say they don't want to play somewhere because they have an old stadium.

 

Apparently the only people that want a new stadium are the other owners. Nothing they can do about it and from the article it wasn't even brought up. Vic is really reaching

Those people happen to be the owner's business partners.

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