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What Happens when Ralph Wilson dies ?


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His estate sells the team to the highest bidder and the new owner gets to answer where he wants the team...pending NFL approval, (from what I understand, a foregone conclusion mind you), and off they go. City of Industry has a nice new vacant home being built I here...I am sure the NFL is already working on the logistics of this issue... All the while, the fine blue collared citizens of WNY reach for the KY...err, I mean wallets to support a pipedream of keeping the franchise local...And so it is writen...

 

I live in L.A. They haven't built a thing yet. And there is another group trying to get a stadium built downtown and are competing with City of Industry. This is what has been happening in L.A. since the Raiders left. One group thinks they have something going then other groups pop out of the woodwork and eventually NOTHING HAPPENS. No stadium is built and the existing ones are raggedy, old and not NFL caliber. Bills ain't moving to L.A. any time soon.

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In the case of Jack Kent Cooke: he left the Washington DC franchise to his foundation with instructions to sell it. Cooke's son, John Kent Cooke, tried to put in a competitive bid to keep the team in the family, but it instead went to Daniel Snyder and his associates for $800 million.

It seems that the executor of the estate probably has a fiduciary responsibility to get the most out of the assets of the estate -- and that means the highest bidder.

 

 

Thank you for posting from a position of intelligence and knowledge.

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Unless there's some specific stipulation in the will (which none of us are privy too), ownership of the team would transfer to the spouse of the deceased. There is no estate tax in this case.

 

However, it's been stated that Mary Wilson has no desire to run the team once her husband has passed on. So, we need to assume the team would be put up for sale. I'm no accountant but I don't see the financial advantage of the surviving spouse selling. Sell the team for $800 million and you pay a capital gain tax on the sale. Let's say 20%, so you net $640 million. Then when you pass on the net procedes of the $640 million sale are subject to an estate tax. Why cough up an extra $100 million or so to incure two taxable events? For somebody many label as 'cheap' this seems incomprehensible even in death.

 

The bidding process would involve many parties, ownership, bidders, politicians, the league. Just how those dynamics play out is the question but I don't think we should automatically assume the team will be sold to the highest bidder and relocated. I also heard Trump is part of Kelly's group and while I think the guy's a shameless self-promoter his giant ego guarantees that winning would be a priority. Which is what we need.

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Why to the highest bidder? Can't they sell the team to whomever they want?

No.

 

All sales are pending approval of a super majority of the other owners. They won't let a sale go through that they feel undervalues the team.

 

Also, they can put the kibosh on an indivdual owner if they please (Rush Limbo).

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This is such an original thread!! But after having read it all, and if I read into it correctly Chris Kelsays parents are buying the team and his ridiculous salary for the next four years is merely his allowance and they get to write it off.

Am I close?

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I also heard Trump is part of Kelly's group and while I think the guy's a shameless self-promoter his giant ego guarantees that winning would be a priority

trump stated recently that he's seriously considering running for president...i'm not sold on his credibility

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The huge positives for the Bills are that we have a stadium already paid for so no debt service on the stadium and a great fan base that will come to the games even for a mediocre and less than mediocre team.

Keep in mind if someone from Toronto wants to buy the team they have to shell out close to $3B (YES that is a capital B in Billion) just to buy the team, pay a fee to the NFL to move the franchise from Buffalo to Toronto about 600M, and then build a stadium for 1B. Even at a nice interest rate of 4% per year on just $2B that is $80M a year just on interest for a team that will make you about 10-20M in profit (for a 2.5-3B investment/bad ROI). The taxpayers of Toronto are NOT subsidizing an NFL stadium. One of the best things that happened for the Bills was Toronto not getting the Olympics otherwise they would have had an NFL ready stadium.

Same with LA.....the broke state of CA is not shelling out $1B for a new stadium.

 

Kelly likely does have a group ready to finance the purchase of the team and keep it here. The downside is no new stadium but I think we can all handle that with the Bills staying here

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Yea which was altered during the 90s and again a few years ago. pretty standard and not the corporate structure, that has remained the same, its the structure of distribution of assets that changed.

 

Could you provide us with the structure of distribution of assets, please?

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This topic maybe a bit morbid, But what happens when the owner of a NFL team dies ? How long before someone else takes over or the team gets sold. It has been reported that Ralph's family doesn't want to keep the team so new Bills Ownership in in the cards.

 

There has wide talk of Jim Kelly having a group to buy the team, there has been talk of them moving the team to Toronto or L.A.

 

Moving the team to L.A. creates scheduling issues, Would they still be in the AFC East ? I kinda doubt it ! Toronto would make more sense logistically. Lots of questions to be answered.

 

What happens when Ralph dies...just like any other person that dies, he will either be buried in a cemetery or cremated.

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Did you ever see Weekend at Bernie's? Well...

 

There is a mystery about what is already in place. Maybe the FBI could help us if they wanted so there will be less of a surprise down the line...

 

I know being a Bills fan is very frustrating but keep the faith. That way it will be harder to ignore us when the time comes. I was talking to a Steelers fan recently who was impressed with how loyal Bills fans are. Bills fans are the strongest asset to the franchise. Don't ever think the Bills brass doesn't hear us whether it be the Lynch trade, coaching disasters, poor drafts, etc. It just seems like they don't hear us!

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The huge positives for the Bills are that we have a stadium already paid for so no debt service on the stadium and a great fan base that will come to the games even for a mediocre and less than mediocre team.

Keep in mind if someone from Toronto wants to buy the team they have to shell out close to $3B (YES that is a capital B in Billion) just to buy the team, pay a fee to the NFL to move the franchise from Buffalo to Toronto about 600M, and then build a stadium for 1B. Even at a nice interest rate of 4% per year on just $2B that is $80M a year just on interest for a team that will make you about 10-20M in profit (for a 2.5-3B investment/bad ROI). The taxpayers of Toronto are NOT subsidizing an NFL stadium. One of the best things that happened for the Bills was Toronto not getting the Olympics otherwise they would have had an NFL ready stadium.

Same with LA.....the broke state of CA is not shelling out $1B for a new stadium.

 

Kelly likely does have a group ready to finance the purchase of the team and keep it here. The downside is no new stadium but I think we can all handle that with the Bills staying here

 

Makes sense to me. I wish RW would just sell the team now and let some real management take over.

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I think Ralph died a long time ago and they have a look alike plugged in for him (like the movie Dave). A look alike who couldn't get along with Bill Polian who built our championship team here, then did it in just TWO years in Carolina and finally in Indy.

 

The owner's only job is to pick a talented GM and get out of his way. The old man did the first part but not the second. Thats why we suck.

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The huge positives for the Bills are that we have a stadium already paid for so no debt service on the stadium and a great fan base that will come to the games even for a mediocre and less than mediocre team.

Keep in mind if someone from Toronto wants to buy the team they have to shell out close to $3B (YES that is a capital B in Billion) just to buy the team, pay a fee to the NFL to move the franchise from Buffalo to Toronto about 600M, and then build a stadium for 1B. Even at a nice interest rate of 4% per year on just $2B that is $80M a year just on interest for a team that will make you about 10-20M in profit (for a 2.5-3B investment/bad ROI). The taxpayers of Toronto are NOT subsidizing an NFL stadium. One of the best things that happened for the Bills was Toronto not getting the Olympics otherwise they would have had an NFL ready stadium.

Same with LA.....the broke state of CA is not shelling out $1B for a new stadium.

 

Kelly likely does have a group ready to finance the purchase of the team and keep it here. The downside is no new stadium but I think we can all handle that with the Bills staying here

 

You're half right about the mediocre team (it's worse than mediocre) and you are incorrect about everything else, but it sounds plausible to the uninformed.

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bull ****. I'm not stating what will happen as if it's a foregone conclusion. If you hate him so much maybe it's time to start rooting for a different team. Like the Buffalo Braves (aka LA Clippers.)

 

Actually, the franchise that was the Buffalo Braves are now the Boston Celtics. There was some kind of a wierd swap, with the Celtics owner, before the move. Just saying.

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