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Michael Silver trashes Ralph Wilson


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Maybe I'm playing devil's advocate here but maybe some owners, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars for their teams, are just bitter and have some animosity over RW's whining because none of them will ever see the kind of return on their investment that RW has enjoyed over the years. RW's initial investment was what? $50k?? RW should be happy with anything he gets.

 

BTW. RW should sell the naming rights to the stadium.

 

I think it was $25K and they were called the "gang of fools" for throwing away their money right?

 

The first five years they (the AFL) almost went under several times. The AFL/NFL merger built the present NFL, unlike the 1940's AAFC which went belly-up, allowing the NFL to cherry pick only the best franchises.

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Why is the Bills playing a game in Toronto now a point of contention with this "anonymous" owner? Did this guy get pissed off when the Packers used to play a game or two a year an hour away in Milwaukee? The Cowboys in Mexico and the Pats in Montreal are extreme examples, but wouldn't it be somewhat smart for the Seahawks to explore a similar arrangement with Vancouver? Hell, the Dolphins already attact 60% Cubans to their games in Miami, they might want to look at Havana for a home game!

 

An NFL owner getting pissed off about a money grab....Oh that's priceless...

 

Simply put the cranky and cheap Ralph is pocketing $9.8 Million per game in Totonto.

But some how he still whines about revenue sharing.

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Simply put the cranky and cheap Ralph is pocketing $9.8 Million per game in Totonto.

But some how he still whines about revenue sharing.

I'm not exactly Ralph's biggest fan, but he has every right to be upset with the way the revenue sharing was set up in the CBA he was called crazy for opposing and now has been voided.

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Silver is very fond of his own opinion, and of interjecting himself into the stories he writes. Not my cup o' tea, and his leaving SI for Yahoo was addition by subtraction.

 

Just MY opinion -- which is fine for a message board, not so much for a magazine feature.

Couldn't agree with you more. Silver has a big case of penis envy when it comes to being part of the event he supposedly is covering.

 

His old SI bio is a hoot:

 

Michael Silver, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, joined the magazine in November 1994. He is one of SI's lead pro football writers, having authored the magazine's past 12 Super Bowl game stories. He also regularly pens in-depth profiles of some of the most intriguing characters in sports. He has bonded with subjects ranging from NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman to NFL choirboy Kurt Warner, co-authoring books with each. He has also hit the town with tennis vixen Anna Kournikova, rap legend Luke Campbell and heartthrob quarterback Tom Brady, among others. He is believed to be the first outside sports journalist to have entered New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, accompanying Saints running back Deuce McAllister into the heart of the city for a story on the team's displacement in the wake of the disaster.

 

Silver's first book, "Rice," with NFL receiving great Jerry Rice, came out in 1996, followed by collaborations with Rodman ("Walk on the Wild Side") and Warner ("All Things Possible"). His latest work, "Golden Girl," (Rodale Press, 2006) details the arduous journey of 2004 Olympic swimming champion Natalie Coughlin. He has also written articles for Rolling Stone and GQ.

 

Prior to joining the magazine, Silver was a sports writer and columnist for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he covered the 49ers and Golden State Warriors from 1990-94. He also covered the 49ers for the Sacramento Union and served as a correspondent for Pro Football Weekly and The Sporting News. Silver, who lists pro football, pro basketball, tennis and college softball as his favorite sports to cover, has received numerous writing awards from several organizations, including the Pro Football Writers of America, the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Pro Basketball Writers of America.

 

A self-described "slipshod" body boarder and sushi fiend who enjoys extremely loud hip-hop and rock-and-roll music, Silver's most memorable moment came as a high school senior in 1982, when he watched Cal's football team pull off a 'The Play'-a five lateral kickoff return through the Stanford University band to win the annual grudge match between the two rivals. He later covered the 'Music City Miracle' (the Tennessee Titans' dramatic victory over the Buffalo Bills in the 1999 playoffs) and claims to be the only person who attended football's two most famous lateral-driven finishes.

 

Silver regards his 1995 SI cover story on Rodman, his 1999 cover package on the links between sports, hip-hop and rock and his 2002 "Football Odyssey" piece (for which he attended five games in five states in five days) as the most compelling stories he has written for the magazine.

 

A native of Los Angeles, Silver is a 1988 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he was the sports editor of the Daily Californian. Silver lives with his wife, Leslie, and their three children in Northern California.

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Maybe I'm playing devil's advocate here but maybe some owners, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars for their teams, are just bitter and have some animosity over RW's whining because none of them will ever see the kind of return on their investment that RW has enjoyed over the years.

I keep a quote taped to my desk from former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz: "To me it is all right for people not to like you, so long as it is for the right reason. And the proper reason that people don't like you is you are too successful."

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I think it was $25K and they were called the "gang of fools" for throwing away their money right?

 

The first five years they (the AFL) almost went under several times. The AFL/NFL merger built the present NFL, unlike the 1940's AAFC which went belly-up, allowing the NFL to cherry pick only the best franchises.

"Fools Club"

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Simply put the cranky and cheap Ralph is pocketing $9.8 Million per game in Totonto.

But some how he still whines about revenue sharing.

Do you have any idea how much the cap is going to go up once the stadiums in New York and Dallas open? All that hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue from suites and PSL those teams get will raise the cap and is not shared. Complain about Ralph all you want but he knows what he is talking about.

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Simply put the cranky and cheap Ralph is pocketing $9.8 Million per game in Totonto.

But some how he still whines about revenue sharing.

When was the last time he "whined" about it? :thumbsup:

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I dont really have enough information to comment on a lot of this stuff....but I always found it odd that Ralph Wilson stadium remained Ralph Wilson Stadium

 

A while back, a better informed writer actually broke down what the naming rights may be worth with regard to RWS. It

ended up not being much. Seems Corporate America isn't all that interested in naming RWS with their name. If there is

an offer, maybe he should take it as whatever the amount, it would be additional revenues. Yet I kinda like having the

stadium named after Ralph and with the Toronto deal being far more valuable than the stadium naming rights, it's kinda

moot now anyway.

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A while back, a better informed writer actually broke down what the naming rights may be worth with regard to RWS. It

ended up not being much. Seems Corporate America isn't all that interested in naming RWS with their name. If there is

an offer, maybe he should take it as whatever the amount, it would be additional revenues. Yet I kinda like having the

stadium named after Ralph and with the Toronto deal being far more valuable than the stadium naming rights, it's kinda

moot now anyway.

 

I see that point. Ralph said himself they could get barely $1M-$2M per season, which is far below what naming rights cost on other stadiums. However, like you said, it's hard to cry poverty when you're not exhausting all possible revenue streams first. And if it's only $1M from Sahlen's to name it Hot Dog Stadium, well, that's $1M they didn't have before. How many luxury suite season tickets must be sold to reach $1M?

 

Also, probably more importantly, it removes the point of contention from the argument when Ralph's naysayers speak up that Ralph is vain, and is turning down potential revenue to keep his name on the stadium.

 

Isn't the new stadium in Cincy called Paul Brown Stadium? Interesting the two owners who voted against the last CBA both have their names on their stadiums.

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I see that point. Ralph said himself they could get barely $1M-$2M per season, which is far below what naming rights cost on other stadiums. However, like you said, it's hard to cry poverty when you're not exhausting all possible revenue streams first. And if it's only $1M from Sahlen's to name it Hot Dog Stadium, well, that's $1M they didn't have before. How many luxury suite season tickets must be sold to reach $1M?

 

Also, probably more importantly, it removes the point of contention from the argument when Ralph's naysayers speak up that Ralph is vain, and is turning down potential revenue to keep his name on the stadium.

 

Isn't the new stadium in Cincy called Paul Brown Stadium? Interesting the two owners who voted against the last CBA both have their names on their stadiums.

He does not cry poverty. He does not think it fair that these new stadiums are being built and these teams are pulling in millions that are not shared yet it raises the salary cap.

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2. Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones (Stephen Jones): Given what the Joneses are in the process of accomplishing in Texas – building the greatest stadium since the Roman Colosseum – it’s difficult not ranking them No. 1. A fourth Super Bowl ring in two decades of ownership might put them over the top, and with all the talent they’re hording on the Cowboys’ current roster, they just may get one come February.

 

I'll have to guess he had a little better support staff over at SI who would cover for his difficulty with our language.

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2. Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones (Stephen Jones): Given what the Joneses are in the process of accomplishing in Texas – building the greatest stadium since the Roman Colosseum – it’s difficult not ranking them No. 1. A fourth Super Bowl ring in two decades of ownership might put them over the top, and with all the talent they’re hording on the Cowboys’ current roster, they just may get one come February.

 

I guess that pretty much says it all, considering I think Jerry Jones is probably the worst thing to have happened to pro football...well, ever. Certainly, at least since Pat Bowlen.

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I see that point. Ralph said himself they could get barely $1M-$2M per season, which is far below what naming rights cost on other stadiums. However, like you said, it's hard to cry poverty when you're not exhausting all possible revenue streams first. And if it's only $1M from Sahlen's to name it Hot Dog Stadium, well, that's $1M they didn't have before. How many luxury suite season tickets must be sold to reach $1M?

 

Also, probably more importantly, it removes the point of contention from the argument when Ralph's naysayers speak up that Ralph is vain, and is turning down potential revenue to keep his name on the stadium.

 

Isn't the new stadium in Cincy called Paul Brown Stadium? Interesting the two owners who voted against the last CBA both have their names on their stadiums.

 

A point which some NY Times hack blogger enjoyed spinning into his own little tale of wonder earlier this year.

 

From an article a couple of years ago:

 

Questioned why he then put his own name on the stadium, when selling naming rights to a corporation might have brought the club a few million more dollars a year, he replied that New York State Gov. George Pataki encouraged him to put his moniker on the venue.

 

Rich Foods paid $1.5 million in 1973 to name the stadium for 25 years, money the state earned. As part of the lease negotiations in 1997, the Bills obtained the rights to rename the stadium in 1998.

 

A traditionalist who has long opposed selling stadium names, Wilson questioned in any event how much the team could reap from the rights in financially battered western New York. The population of Buffalo shrunk 11 percent between 1960 and 2000, a period during which U.S. growth was 55 percent. Per capita income in Buffalo two years ago was $23,110, far below the U.S. average of $31,322.

 

Despite the Rich Stadium deal, the first of its kind for an NFL stadium, Ralph does claim to be against it in general:

 

Ralph Wilson on Selling naming rights:

“I have never been a big advocate. I think it commercializes the game too much, it cheapens the game, to sell stadium names. I am a traditionalist. … In Cincinnati it was great, it is Paul Brown Stadium, he was one of the founders of the league. I mean, he was a great pioneer in pro football.”

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Isn't the new stadium in Cincy called Paul Brown Stadium? Interesting the two owners who voted against the last CBA both have their names on their stadiums.

Paul Brown died in 1991, so I seriously doubt he had anything to do with putting his name on a stadium that opened nine years later ...

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