Archives for April 7, 2006

‘The 87-year-old owner reiterated his deep concern about the long-term viability of small- and medium-sized teams such as the Bills. One of the qualifying elements under the new CBA the league will be voting on is to exclude any new owner from revenue sharing. That would deeply impact a future sale of the Bills and keeping them in Buffalo. "I went in to see Gov. Pataki, and I wanted to put him at ease," Wilson said. "I said, ‘Governor, quiet down a little, I’m not going to ask you for any money.’ He took a sigh of relief there. I just wanted to explain what’s going on."’

‘"We’d like to have him in, but we also understand his position in this thing," said Jauron, who took over after Mike Mularkey’s abrupt resignation in January. "It’ll straighten itself out over time one way or the other. We obviously value his abilities a great deal."’

‘"We can build a $600 million stadium across the street and it would make no difference," he said. "Western New York is a poor area. We have no pricing power (to sell tickets and suites at a high price). We’d have no more pricing power (with a new stadium) than we have now."’

‘In other high(low)lights, Buffalo hosts Tennessee on Christmas Eve and is at Baltimore on New Year’s Eve.’

‘"You can read into it if you want," said Jauron. "But it’s just begun and it’s good. It’s going to be the case at every position, but we understand that quarterback will be the focal point."’

‘For Bills fans, the scariest element of the new collective bargaining agreement could be one that concerns revenue sharing when a team is sold. Under the new deal, when a franchise is sold it loses its ability to collect money from revenue sharing. Hypothetically speaking, that means any future owner of the Buffalo Bills would not receive money from the league’s wealthiest teams, and have an even harder time making the franchise financially viable in Western New York.’

‘If you’re judging by last year’s records, the Bills’ schedule seems manageable because they only face off with five teams that made the playoffs in 2005. Nonetheless, they still have to face a bevy of up-and-coming teams who either just missed the playoffs in 2005 or are being picked to contend in ’06.’

‘Singling out owners Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, Daniel Snyder of the Washington Redskins and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, Wilson said: “They, to me, and this is just my opinion, don’t have the same values about the league as the old guard did.”‘

‘Giambra made references to “qualifiers in the CBA” that included the following:

1) Local funding can count as revenue and against the cap.

2) If a team is sold to new owners – those new owners would not share be eligible for revenue sharing with the league.’

‘Wilson claimed that a player told him that the bargaining agreement was going well until the owners started to building huge stadiums, and that the NFL should not be in the stadium business. Wilson believes that the new stadiums charge high prices for suites and club seats have “thrown things out of balance.”‘

‘At 2:30, Paul Hamilton will be at Joel Giambra’s office to cover his press conference about his meeting with the Bills’ owner.’

‘It won’t take long for the Buffalo Bills to know where they stand in the AFC East in 2006.’

‘Republican Minority leader Barry Weinstein says the county has a substantial interest in the team but he’s not sure it can do any more. The county already provides about $5-million a year to the team.’

‘Buffalo, 5-11 last season, joined Detroit, Houston and Tennessee as the only four teams that won’t make a prime-time appearance in 2006.’

‘The Bills will not play in prime time this year as all games are on Sunday beginning at 1:00 PM.’