Russ Brandon: He's never going away

[TheFunPolice]

This approach to spring football is odd to me.

 

Years of planning and hype seem to be followed by about 5 weeks of football before the leagues give up and go out of business. 

 

Then, a couple years later TWO MORE SPRING LEAGUES! Let's try to see if ONE can survive first maybe, instead of two leagues at the same time, competing for a limited number of players, sponsorships, TV time, fan attention, etc. 

 

 

[PromoTheRobot]

1 minute ago, TheFunPolice said:

This approach to spring football is odd to me.

 

Years of planning and hype seem to be followed by about 5 weeks of football before the leagues give up and go out of business. 

 

Then, a couple years later TWO MORE SPRING LEAGUES! Let's try to see if ONE can survive first maybe, instead of two leagues at the same time, competing for a limited number of players, sponsorships, TV time, fan attention, etc. 

 

 

 

I don't think it's a dumb idea at all. All these spring leagues had reasonable ratings. What they lacked was the funding to get them through the first year. And really the XFL was done in by COVID. With the USFL, you have two networks, Fox and NBC as investors. 

[teef]

1 hour ago, May Day 10 said:

 

Im close friends with someone who worked in the FO in the early 00s... even in his actual Director of Marketing days and the rumblings around the office was he was relating with a secretary (who was/is like a 4/10).  I knew of this long before the business with PS&E and that news didn't surprise us.  

yeah.  he apparently wasn't too shy about looking outside of his marriage.  you think he'd maybe branch out from the workplace, but maybe he was just too busy!

[May Day 10]

Im personally rooting for the USFL to become a longer term league.  Im sick of the XFL, McMahon's delusion that he could create a competitor to the NFL, the Rock, Russ Brandon, etc...  

 

I like the USFL teams in place.  The format seems like it could be a cool league.

 

I also agree with a few posts above... why are these leagues done in 2's?  

 

IMO, if the NFL thinks they need a development league and they think it can turn a profit, then one will happen.  Until then, they will allow these investors to take all the risk and probably fizzle out.  They have their cake and get to eat it too with NCAA football.  They dont need to spend any money on the talent and reap the rewards.

 

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by May Day 10

[TheFunPolice]

Just now, PromoTheRobot said:

 

I don't think it's a dumb idea at all. All these spring leagues had reasonable ratings. What they lacked was the funding to get them through the first year. And really the XFL was done in by COVID. With the USFL, you have two networks, Fox and NBC as investors. 

 

They should merge the XFL with USFL and put together a good product, IMO. 

 

They need to spend $$ on some names sports fans have heard of before. 

 

If there's going to be a pro wrestling match, the Rock vs. Brock Lesnar is going to get a lot more attention than John Smith vs. Tommy White.

 

Find some recently retired NFL QBs or guys who have been on the margins of the league and pay them some serious cash to QB a team. Find either older NFL HC's or up and coming guys and pay them to be the HC. 

 

If there are HC/QB combos worth watching people will tune in and the leagues will do well. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

3 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

Testing new rules and game concepts would be interesting.

Is this referring to interoffice relationships?

[CoudyBills]

9 hours ago, eball said:

 

I think we actually do know what sort of a person he is, based upon how he was dismissed from the Pegulas’ enterprise.  He’s a snake oil salesman and very good at it.

 

PSE dismissed a bunch of people pretty unceremoniously.  

[Albany,n.y.]

The XFL isn't playing until 2023, so this year only the USFL will be playing.  Even though the USFL has team names & cities, all the regular season games will be played in Birmingham Alabama in 2 different stadiums.  The playoffs will be in Canton Ohio.   

[Jay_Fixit]

Are we talking about famous actor Russ Brandon?

[FilthyBeast]

12 hours ago, Buffalosouth said:

That s.o.b. tried to move us to Canada and sell the team to bon jovi. On top of being Mr. Nasty in the building. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! in all seriousness summer football should only be for undrafted/practice squad guys like a NFL g league. More touches and looks for talent that doesn't get it in the regular season.

 

Brandon pulled a lot more strings that most fans realized and was a major part of this franchises failures between 2000 - 2017.

 

In some ways he was the defacto owner as Ralph Wilson's health declined and it's not secret Brandon was behind the Canada series which was another epic failure taking away a precious home game every year to try and pimp the Bills to the Toronto fanbase.

[Beast]

12 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

We honestly have no idea what type of person he is. He was the President of a dying franchise. Without the Pegulas the Buffalo Bills would be dead.

 

It was a tough situation.

 

Without multi-billionaires, the while NFL would look a lot different. So, I'm not sure what makes the Buffalo Bills unique in yhat sense.

[SoTier]

37 minutes ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

Brandon pulled a lot more strings that most fans realized and was a major part of this franchises failures between 2000 - 2017.

 

In some ways he was the defacto owner as Ralph Wilson's health declined and it's not secret Brandon was behind the Canada series which was another epic failure taking away a precious home game every year to try and pimp the Bills to the Toronto fanbase.

 

The early part of the Drought wasn't on Brandon.  I think he joined the Bills about 2005 after overseeing the dismantling of the Florida Marlilns after they won the 2003 World Series (which resulted in the Marlins significantly increasing their profits).  He was put in charge of the Bills after the firing of Tom Donahoe IIRC when Marv Levy was named as a figurehead GM while Brandon held the purse strings and Jauron ran the team on the field.

Edited February 22, 2022 by SoTier

[eball]

2 minutes ago, SoTier said:

and Jauron ran the team on the field

 

 

Thanks for the reminder of that era…

[May Day 10]

2 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

The early part of the Drought wasn't on Brandon.  I think he joined the Bills about 2005 after overseeing the dismantling of the Florida Marlilns after they won the 2003 World Series (which resulted in the Marlins significantly increasing their profits).  He was put in charge of the Bills after the firing of Tom Donahoe IIRC when Marv Levy was named as a figurehead GM while Brandon held the purse strings and Jauron ran the team on the field.

Brandon was with the marlins in 97 I believe as a low level employee

 

Came to the bills after that.  To his credit, he sold the heck out of premium seats when they were re-doing the lease and major reno... and was a trailblazer in monetizing and regionalizing training camp (although that trend has almost fully receded).

 

Ralph loved him and thought he was a hard worker and innovator.  Brandon rested on those laurels the remainder of his career.   In ralph's advanced age he gave him the keys to the kingdom.  Brandon really wanted to be a pro sports gm and Ralph even had butler showing him the ropes.

Edited February 23, 2022 by May Day 10

[Buffalosouth]

10 hours ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

Brandon pulled a lot more strings that most fans realized and was a major part of this franchises failures between 2000 - 2017.

 

In some ways he was the defacto owner as Ralph Wilson's health declined and it's not secret Brandon was behind the Canada series which was another epic failure taking away a precious home game every year to try and pimp the Bills to the Toronto fanbase.

I'm kinda mad at myself forgetting about him pimping the team to Canada. 

[FilthyBeast]

19 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

Brandon was with the marlins in 97 I believe as a low level employee

 

Came to the bills after that.  To his credit, he sold the heck out of premium seats when they were re-doing the lease and major reno... and was a trailblazer in monetizing and regionalizing training camp (although that trend has almost fully receded).

 

Ralph loved him and thought he was a hard worker and innovator.  Brandon rested on those laurels the remainder of his career.   In ralph's advanced age he gave him the keys to the kingdom.  Brandon really wanted to be a pro sports gm and Ralph even had butler showing him the ropes.

 

People say he's a marketing genius, but let's be serious and for real here....selling Football to the greater Buffalo and western NY region is like selling alcohol at a bar and restaurant. In other words not that hard.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Hoping Russ Brandon can bring this rule to the NFL. One of the most exciting plays in sports is a kickoff return. I miss them.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Buffalo_Stampede

[Don Otreply]

On 2/22/2022 at 7:51 AM, msw2112 said:

 

This post made me laugh.  I have never seen this Brandon quote before now, but it reminded me of a running joke I had with a co-worker.  We had a sales rep from one of our vendors who used the word "verticals" in every other sentence.  We had a running wager on how many times she would use that word whenever we had a meeting or call with her.  She never disappointed.  But "incubator" and "accelerant" are pretty good.  Let's throw in some "throughput," "collaboration," and "deliverables" while we think "outside of the box."

Ah, the buzz word junkies, they are irritatingly entertaining, aren’t they. 

[SirAndrew]

5 hours ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

People say he's a marketing genius, but let's be serious and for real here....selling Football to the greater Buffalo and western NY region is like selling alcohol at a bar and restaurant. In other words not that hard.

Yeah, I don’t think Brandon did anything innovative. The Bills just marketed themselves for the first time in franchise history. We were stuck in the Stone Age with marketing, but other teams already had the blueprint for Brandon to follow. 

[Sierra Foothills]

On 2/21/2022 at 4:29 PM, Albany,n.y. said:

"People would ask, 'What are the opportunities to look at the game through a different lens from a player development standpoint?'" Brandon told ESPN. "'How can you be an incubator or an accelerant in many different verticals, from officiating to rules innovations to playing surfaces, to player development?' You can go on and on.

 

It seems like he's asking, if your core competency is a market modifier, what certainables can be brought to force in a meaningful and actionable way? And if the bandwidth exists how can those certainables be employable as a best practice in order to create a center of excellence that incubates further positive outcomes?

Brandon asks really good questions here. Both from the helicopter and from a granular perspective he contextualizes the conundrum that happens when one monetizes mission critical processes. These are legitimate real-time and scalable concerns.