Einstein

The demolition idea is a bit ridiculous. Say a new owner wanted to move the team in 15 years - The State/County would NOT demolish a 15 year old stadium. They would move UB there before that happened. It’s one of those “this sounds good but isn’t of any real benefit” type clauses.

I’ve read the entire lease agreement top to bottom. I recommend that everyone does. It IS just a question of paying back the money. The Buffalo News is funded by PSE and puts out puff pieces like you listed all the time. The goal is to convince the public of what they want - in this case, that the lease is ironclad. It’s not. The theory that the Bills (and NYS) attempted to float is that NYS could sue the Bills to stay. Except, no court in recent history has ever stopped a team from moving. And multiple cities have tried. “If the goal here is to keep the Bills in Buffalo long term, then [the lease] absolutely should have an extremely stringent requirement [to stay]… It’s weak to me.” - J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kenneshaw State University who has studied stadium deals. The demolition talk is ridiculous. The State/County has no desire to demolish a stadium less than 30 years old. They would move UB there before that happened.

If someone purchased the team RIGHT NOW, for the fair market value, it would only cost about ~20% more to leave. Twenty percent more, to leave us with a hole in the ground and an bunch of metal and concrete. After 15 years, the penalty to relocate reduces annually.

If this is correct, then PSL’s are following a formula of two and a half times the season ticket rate in the non-club seats. Question becomes: Is this a multiple of the current season-ticket rate, or the new stadium-season ticket rate?

And it took the Jets 3 years. This isn’t some massive difference - it’s literally 10 months. Your attempts to frame it as drastically different is not going to fly.

Wow, that's a nice looking stadium.

Trubisky was a 1st round pick on his rookie contract too. There were no takers. But forget that for a moment - even when they released him, and it cost NOTHING in trade value to sign him, teams still had little interest. He signed a 1 year $2M deal. No turnips here. Even with the Jets picking up half his salary, they are STILL paying him more than we are for Trubisky (2.75 vs 2.5).

And Trubisky has zero trade value. He was released by the Bears just 1 year after the Jets released Wilson and the Bills got him on a 1 year, $2M deal. He had no market then and he has no market now. Steelers record with Trubisky: 2-6 Steelers record without Trubisky: 17-9 I'm not sure how it gets much clearer than that. Zach Wilsons record sucks too, but the Jets suck with or without Wilson. He did not drag them down like Trubisky dragged the Steelers down. As mentioned prior, Zach Wilson beat 3 playoff teams last year. Took the Super Bowl champs to the final minute too.

It's not. And the NFL agrees with me. Trubisky was released by the Steelers as he had no trade value. He has lost 5 of his last 6 games, all of which were games against NON-playoff teams. This, while playing on a Steelers roster that had a winning record when he was NOT the quarterback. Wilson on the other hand was worthy enough to trade some draft value (albeit small) for. Last year, Zach Wilson beat THREE (3) playoff teams. The Bills, Eagles, and Texans. He also took the Chiefs down to the final minute. He beat more playoffs team last year than Trubisky has beaten in the last five (5) years COMBINED. I don't want either as a starter, but as for a backup, give me Zach all day, every day over Trubisky. I watched Trubisky hold the Steelers back repeatedly over the last two years. It is my opinion that he is barely deserving of an NFL roster spot.

Trubisky, in my opinion, is among the worst backups in the NFL. I truly believe that he is simply awful and I have zero confidence in the Bills winning a game with him ever needing to play more than a dozen or so snaps. - The Steelers were 7-3 when Pickett started and finished the game last season. He had wins over playoff teams such as Baltimore, Cleveland and the Rams. He threw for over 200 yards in 60% of his games. - They were 0-3 with Trubisky starting. All of those losses came against non-playoff teams. He threw for over 200 yards in 0% of his games. I really wish he was not on the roster. Zach Wilson on the other hand is not great, but I truly think he has potential as a backup. Heck, he's beaten us twice.

I would have taken him as a backup over Trubisky. Saw flashes him in (backup flashes - not starter).

The number of holes punched into drywall throughout western new york if Beane did this…

It could be part of it, but unless the Bills are run by incredibly inept executives (I don't think they are), then they would have surely had overruns calculated in. This is an internal figure and is typically only surprising to the public (not the company). At no point do you go into a $1.4B project not expecting at least a 20% variance (I believe McKinsey reported a few years back that the average overrun is 25%), which would be nearly $300M budgeted for overruns alone. PSL money is State money with the Bills acting as agents thereof. Its also not taxed. Every dollar the Bills can produce as agents of PSL's reduces their burden toward the stadium by about $1.087. No question that they will sell out all of the PSLs. The question is at what price. They are likely using the club seats as a benchmark for the next sections. If these seats are not selling like they hoped, then they are likely now realizing that the prices they will be able to charge for other areas will not be as high as they had hoped. Lower prices -> increase % of sold -> raise capital elsewhere.

The Buffalo News reported that 1 of ever 4 Season Ticket Holders are choosing not to buy them at their PSL appointments. Some posters have theorized that a percentage of those people may end up purchasing in less-expensive sections than they currently sit so that number may be lower in time, which I think is a fair argument. Where it gets tricky is whether we can actually trust this number. I don't have any evidence for this, but understanding how organizations think, my hypothesis is that this 25% number is actually a bit higher, and that the Bills are using corporate buys to bump that number (with the goal of creating scarcity). We have seen in other stadiums (Jets and Atlanta for example), that the teams have had to lower prices to sell all of the PSL's. Whether this all lines up with the Bills internal KPI's is unknown, but I have my doubts on whether Pegula would be raising capital via the sale of a portion of the team if PSL's were selling like hot cakes. My hypothesis is that they were using the club seats as a benchmark for forecasting the remainder of the stadium and they are now realizing that the prices they will be able to charge for other areas will not be as high as they had hoped. Lower prices -> increase % of sold -> raise capital elsewhere.

If you believe the rumors, they have been trying to sell the Sabres for about 9 months now.

This is correct. As I mentioned above, if the Pegulas did ever sell the team to a buyer at the team value of $5B, it would only cost that buyer 16% more to move the team. Some people would simply see that as a cost of doing business. But moving is not a concern right now. This minority sale of the team is simply due to PSL's not selling as they hoped.

The lease is garbage. I agree the Bills aren't going anywhere (why would they? brand new stadium and all), but if someone were to pay over $5 Billion to buy the team outright (the current value of the team), what is to stop them from paying another 16% to move the team? Nothing. Just 16%.

They dissolved PSE, many rumors of them trying to sell the Sabres on the low, and now they are putting 1/4 of their only valuable sports team on the market. Something is going on (hint: PSL sales are not going too well).

Fake. But it made me happy to read regardless.

The Bills and/or Erie Co share the blame in this. Why would you hire a company to install in-seat heating that has never done it before?

Yes that’s exactly what I meant. The heaters in the seat didn’t work. I love the radiant heating.

Sounds like we agree? Not sure what you mean by “no it’s not”?

I love the radiant heating. It is plenty for me personally.

The in-seat heating didn't last long in the current clubs. It was pretty awful.

Josh Allen would own us if he was on the Chiefs and we had Mahomes. QB is not why we are 0-3 against the Chiefs in the playoffs.