CodeMonkey

I'm not an attorney, but I have recently been the executor of a Will as well as a Trustee (not anything near as large as the Bills). It is not unusual for stakeholders to be made aware of parts of a trust that could significantly impact them. Given the contract between the Bills and the County I'd be surprised if he hadn't been made aware of at least some of the details regarding the trust.

I generally agree with most of what you post, but not this time. 1) The power drinkers ruined tailgating in lot 1. It's been getting progressively worse for years with some people thinking you can't tailgate without being so drunk you puke in the lot, harass people including kids, or worse. I suspect a lot of the direction for this came from the NFL that wants a more "family friendly" environment. The power drinkers are not family friendly at all. In fact they are quite an embarrassment. 2) This is something that is happening everywhere. Many workplaces have gone from from smoking wherever, to smoking in a designated room, to outdoors only, to nowhere on campus. 3). Well there is no defense for this 4) Marrone was highly regarded at the time. And he was willing to take the job in Buffalo. You may have wanted someone else, but that someone else would have needed to accept the job. The jury is still out on Marrone as far as I am concerned as well. But blaming Brandon for this makes no sense to me (at least right now).

I know that Roger made a statement recently about wanting to keep the Bills in Buffalo and that is a very good sign. But at the end of the day he will do whatever is best for the entire NFL and all of it's owners. As a very wise man, Mr. Spock, said ... “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” (or “the one”). The question is, will there be a white knight that will step in and allow the Bills to stay in Buffalo.

How is your brothers arm and can he read defenses? I agree with most that Brandon is generally doing a good job and it was nice of him to go to the tailgate yesterday.

He lives in Florida now, not Rochester.

Hope you feel better. Probably should have stayed away from those last 5 or 6 hookers last night

I see where you are going and appreciate the sentiment. However: 1) The taxable profit statement, though true while Mr. Wilson owned the Bills was due to the fact that he had no debt. Any new ownership paying upwards of a billion dollars for the team will almost certainly not be in the same situation. 2) As far as ticket prices go, who can afford to pay more and sellout easier, people in Buffalo or people in LA, San Antonio, etc.? 3) Suite sales are VERY tough in Buffalo due to the bad economy. That was one purpose of the Toronto experiment, to see if they could entice Toronto businesses to pony up for the suites. And as in number 2 above, do you think it would be easier and more profitable to sell the suites in Buffalo or a larger, considerably more affluent, and considerably more high end businesses area? To sum up, you will never ever be able to make a business case that has Buffalo being better than a large market. No matter how many "what if the fans sell out every game and pay $X more per ticket" scenarios you dream up. The only way the Bills stay in Buffalo, in my opinion, is for a white knight (or group of them) to step up and forgo business case in favor of the emotional case.

Now THIS is an off season thread, wow.

Not sure about the others, but I believe Dallas has a standing room section which could be counted as higher attendance than seating capacity.

That would certainly make for some interesting, if not suicidal, threads on here

Makes perfect sense due to the fact that very few people outside of the US (and maybe Canada) give a rats ass about tackle football.

They don't need to. It is already available on the Canadian satellite TV provider Bell Express and has been for years. It is also available on multiple Canadian cable TV providers including Rogers Cable. DirectTV only has the exclusive rights in the US. SKY Mexico (Mexican satellite TV provider) also offers the Sunday Ticket.

Interesting timing to be sure. He certainly has the experience, the contacts, and the means to be an NFL owner again if he wanted to. Doubt he would have much interest in keeping the team in Buffalo.

There are a couple of very informative posts on page 4 of this thread about the non-relocation aspect of the lease. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/166653-report-lease-buyout-does-not-exist/page__st__60

I agree. Even if the Bills leave in a couple years it seems to me that Mr. Wilson did everything to keep them in Buffalo that a reasonable person could expect.

Thank Darryl for me. These two posts explain it very well.

I tend to agree with you, but I am not fluent in legalese. However as someone mentioned above, paying the $400 mil as a penalty for being in breach of contract is very different than paying the money as part of a buy-out clause ... at least as far as public relations goes. But somehow I doubt if the Bills move from Buffalo the NFL will care much about what Buffalo fans think, and the rest of the public probably won't care. I think you mean the county?

There is a link to a PDF file on the county execs site that spells out the non-relocation agreement for anyone interested. I am no lawyer but it looks to me like a "non-relocation default" is certainly possible. But I could be 100% wrong. Then again, this is also in the document so who the hell knows ...

Above mine as well. I just Googled it a bit and the way I read it, if the Bills are in breach of contract (i.e. break the lease) they pay $400 mil which is what people have been saying all along. But I am no lawyer, in fact legalese makes me dizzy.

Both sites say a similar thing ... What this random blogger quoting someone else is saying that the "right of specific performance" can't happen. I'm no lawyer, but if it cannot happen why would it even be in the agreement. Like everything else, we will know when we know.

Not necessarily true. I recently went though a similar situation (albeit at a MUCH lower net worth). Parts of the estate that would take a long time to resolve were automatically put into a trust at the persons death so the rest of the estate could be settled quickly while the more complicated assets were settled as part of the trust. I have no clue how the Wilson estate is being handled, but there are a lot of things being expressed as fact in this thread that aren't necessarily (not aimed specifically at you my robotic friend).

Understood. But if they were at your house with you cracking jokes and just having a good time during the commercials then it would not have been brutal. The fact that you were having a good time during the deadtime would be the same regardless if you were at the stadium or at your house or some random bar. Deadtime is deadtime no matter where you are.

Doesn't matter if they go 0-15. To the people that think stadium attendance matters in the decision process to stay in Buffalo or not (I am not one) all that matters is every home game selling out no matter what. Anything less gives new ownership reason to leave Buffalo.

An argument could also be made that perhaps he has been trying to do just that for years, but there were no buyers willing to stay in Buffalo that could put together a reasonable offer. Only a couple of people would know this, and I suspect none of them are on here

Agreed. But after the respect period things may move quicker than some expect simply due to the fact that this has been coming for several years and most, if not all, of the interested parties should already be prepared and ready to go as soon as the family and league are ready to proceed. Interesting times ahead for sure.