CodeMonkey

Maybe she doesn't think the Bills are all that important in the grand scheme of things and is letting Senator Chuckles do all the grandstanding. She also could not agree with spending tax money on a new stadium. I know I don't. But no one gives a **** if I do or not, but they would care about her making such a statement. As Abraham Lincoln said, Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. Something Senator Chuckles might want to consider in general.

Or potentially less as well. If the Bills try to relocate during the lease, and if the county takes the Bills to court, and if the judge rules in favor of the Bills, the judge could make the county prove the $400 million in damages. If they cannot to the judges satisfaction, he could award a lesser payment. On the other hand ... If the Bills try to relocate during the lease, and if the county does not take the Bills to court, I believe they would get the $400 million penalty payment.

Oops

Really? That cost was probably negligible compared to the cost of the 3 lots on a lakefront and building what I would have to assume was a pretty good sized high quality house on them. That was just another incremental cost that was factored into doing the project.

Yeah having a fat wallet makes a whole lot of things possible

Toronto and Erie both are just under 100 miles so count them and obviously Rochester is in as well. Toronto's 6 million for the region itself I think would get the number to 7 million. But i think if he had said 8-10 you would have been in trouble

Yup I understand completely. And I agree that even a multi-million dollar purchase gets their attention and they do not take it lightly. And I can only wish I was playing in their sandbox However one of the reasons most of them (ignoring inheritance) got that rich was by thinking long term and not getting spooked by the potential of a short term loss, even a significant one, if the long term outlook is strong enough. Like I said above, it is one factor in their decision making process.

It would not be empty. Plenty of people would go and enjoy the last few seasons. And even if they did not, the amount lost due to ticket non sales is nominal compared to the TV revenue. That few million dollars a year would not hurt someone like a Larry Page for example enough to deter him from his long term goal.

Mrs. Wilson is one of the Trustees is my understanding. No one here knows the details of the trust, and the only people that do know are not talking. So everyone here and in the press is just speculating. Typically the trustees have the responsibility to get the maximum money they can for any asset attached to a trust. So for example if you were the trustee of a trust worth a billion dollars, you could not sell it to your brother for $1. But who knows what wiggle room Mr. Wilson may have had written into this trust. Not astronomical to multi-billionaires who deal with large corporation financials every day. To them it is simply a cost of doing business that is one factor into their decision of whether or not to buy an asset and how much to offer. But it would be pretty astronomical to any group that was struggling just to put together enough cash to purchase the team.

It's not 40k-50k out of 1M+ in the area. It's 40k-50k of the 50k-60k season ticket holders. It's also not just about being able to afford it. It's about the thought of people giving their hard earned money to billionaires for essentially no real reason and getting nothing in return "The owners make millions upon millions of dollars every year. Why do they need my $4k?" Maybe enough people would go for it, I'm not sure. But even if I loved going to games and was a long time season ticket holder I would have a hard time choking that down.

I'm looking forward to it coming to that!

Do you think the Bills would sell 60,000 PSL's at $4,000 a piece? I think even attempting that could be catastrophic to the season ticket numbers. Unless of course the Bills really turn the team around starting this year and become a contender.

I suspect he meant that there won't be tickets left for you to buy with the team still in Buffalo if the team breaks it's 14 year ****-streak and becomes good. Which seems logical. If they can sell 50,000 seasons now just imagine how many will want them if they become a good team.

Ask your wife to see if any of her single girl friends would want to go to any games with you and see if she commits to any more games But seriously, in years past I have often seen people in Hammers lot looking for one ticket. Unless that has changed in the last few years I suspect you wouldn't have a difficult time selling one. You can also sell it to a scalper though you will lose money on it that way.

Great news! What's the capacity (i.e. tickets that need to be sold for a sell-out) of the Ralph these days after the renovations?

Not impossible at all. Google has facilities all over the world including 29 in the US with several on the east coast. But they tend to stick to large and/or popular cities such as NYC (which has ~3k employees). Buffalo NY, being currently as well as historically a blue collar low tech area would be a very long shot I would think. Rochester might have a outside chance though.

You and I have had discussions in the past about the lease and who brings who to court etc, so no need to rehash any of that here. But as to the bolded I think you are spot on. These guys are career politicians and the last thing they want to be known for going into their next bid for reelection is the guy that rolled over and played dead and let the Bills move without a fight. Even if they know it is a sure loss, they will put up the biggest fight they can if only for appearances sake.

Yup so that when he !@#$s up royally like he did (actually still in progress) in Rochester and that company get's it's ass sued off by Monroe County (also in progress) his other endeavors as well as his personal assets are sheltered.

His track record is lukewarm at best. And if Erie County asks Monroe County it's game over. Congel as far as I can tell has all his experience in shopping centers which have some of the same concerns as stadiums such as traffic flow, but they are obviously very different beasts. But, Golisano is no dummy and I am sure he is well aware of the Medley Centre fiasco in Rochester. I have to believe he knows what he is doing.

Of course this is true. I'm not an NFL historian so I will ask, has there ever been a time that an owner wanted to move a team and the NFL said no?

That's the thing about Page, he doesn't care if it's a big or small endeavor. He also is not looking for the path of least resistance. If he, and based on past history only he, thinks it is in the teams best interest to stay in WNY he will keep them there. If at any point he decides it is no longer in the teams best interest, he will move the team. He has no problem making big decisions and following through with them.

.Think bigger ... Google self driving cars to take all the drunks home after the game

Page is absolutely a "my way or the highway" kind of guy. If you are familiar with how Steve Jobs ran Apple, that's how Page runs Google. He has brains, balls and is the kind of guy who doesn't mess around. He demands to win, period. All of this can be good for the Bills. But Page is like Trump in that if conditions are favorable for relocation and he thinks it is in the best interest of the team to do so, he will pull the trigger without hesitation, regardless of the initial cost of relocation. If he becomes the owner it will be an interesting ride to be sure.

And that's a big part of the problem. Things are reduced, forgiven etc their entire lives then people act all surprised when these guys !@#$ up.

Yes I guess those 5 day test matches (I think they are called) can be brutal.