Kellyto83TD Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 From what I understand Ralph left the team in a trust so it could continue to operate while stuff was figured out. Mary Wilson was left the team and makes the decision on when and to whom to sell. Its in the mans will to SELL, so its time to deal with it. And you can bet it will be sold in no more than two years. Ralph had all his legal stuff done well before hand, there has been a plan in place between him, his lawyers and Mary so this isn't going to take a ton of time to do. It wouldn't shock me 90 days after the funeral we start hearing of Mary's lawyers start entertaining talk from potential owners. And of course Goddell etc. will be involved as well. As tight as Ralph had his estate set up I can't see a sale going more than 2 years from now tops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FluffHead Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 The trust is cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle flap Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 From what I understand Ralph left the team in a trust so it could continue to operate while stuff was figured out. Mary Wilson was left the team and makes the decision on when and to whom to sell. Its in the mans will to SELL, so its time to deal with it. And you can bet it will be sold in no more than two years. Ralph had all his legal stuff done well before hand, there has been a plan in place between him, his lawyers and Mary so this isn't going to take a ton of time to do. It wouldn't shock me 90 days after the funeral we start hearing of Mary's lawyers start entertaining talk from potential owners. And of course Goddell etc. will be involved as well. As tight as Ralph had his estate set up I can't see a sale going more than 2 years from now tops. Trust ≠ Will The terms of a will are public and the terms of a trust are not. I'm curious as to why you would jump to the conclusions that you've made in this post, considering every news item covering this topic has failed to report your assertions and even flat out contradicted some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdnlng Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 For some reason, this is all starting to sound like a John Grisham book to me . . . in the end, the family fights like heck for it, Ralph screws them all, and a long lost, ill-legitimate, missionary child of Ralph will ends up owning the team. And as she won't really want the money, she re-invests it in the team and keeps it western NY. And the novel ends with a little know Bills kicker making a field goal from 47 yards to win the Super Bowl! Naw, it ended with Rachel Lane marrying the kicker, one OJ Nordberg, with both returning to their hut along the Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphean Bills Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Trust The Trust. They're not going anywhere. Isn't the Trustee a guy named Jeffrey C. Littmann? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobillsinytown Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 It's unlikely that we'll find out the full details as to the admistration of the trust. We might find out who the principal people are, but not much beyond that. Trusts of this size are usually pretty complicated, particularly trusts that involve NFL teams. For example: It may or may not be true that the trustees are legally obligated to sell the team. Before Ralph died he did say that the team will be sold upon his death, but not when. Is there a time specification as to when it will be sold? We don't know. Complicating the issue is the lease agreement, with its 400 million dollar termination penalty. The team can be sold, but the penalty makes it prohibitive to move the team. That changes who might be interested in buying the team. If an interested party wants to buy the team but keep Buffalo.....great. However if an interested party buys the team with intention of moving it, they will have to wait 7 years before they can move. The point here is that there are a lot of interested parties, including: Potential buyers, the city of Buffalo, New York state, the fans of the team, the trustees and all of their people, etc. Taking all of this into account, I don't think that the issue is going to be resolved anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkady Renko Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I wonder what type of restrictions the trustees might have from a fiduciary duty perspective to spend while the trust operates the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BUNCH OF MULARKEY Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I had the weirdest dream that Papa from Papa Johns bought the Bills. Hilarious maybe I need to get interested in other things until the draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobillsinytown Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I had the weirdest dream that Papa from Papa Johns bought the Bills. Hilarious maybe I need to get interested in other things until the draft. Peyton Manning has a bunch of Papa Johns franchises......good move after Colorado voted to legalize pot. So now all we have to do is get pot legalized in WNY. Superbowl AND $$$ ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Not to nitpick but Mary Wilson is not a part of the group Mary Owen (Ralph's niece is). Jeff Littman is as well (his longtime right hand man). That's not nitpicking. I was going to ask if this was true, since it seemed rather important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerme1 Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 Not to nitpick but Mary Wilson is not a part of the group Mary Owen (Ralph's niece is). Jeff Littman is as well (his longtime right hand man). Thanks for clarifying that for me. There is so much incorrect information in the original post that it doesn't really warrant a conversation. Thanks for contributing. Other than stating Mary Wilson which was incorrect do you have anything to add? Even humor maybe? Anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pills -N- Bills Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 If the Bills ever leave Buffalo, I will never watch football again! Is what we have been watching for the last 15 years football? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Mary Wilson does NOT control the will, the executor controls the will That could be Mary, but so far the only thing that was reported is the Littman is ONE of the executors of the trust, haven't seen anything about the will, likely it's a pour-over will anyway. Could be the same people, could be totally different people. From what's been reported the team was left to the trust at least for now, whether the instructions are to sell it or not is unknown and has been mentioned, may never be known as the details of the trust don't need to be made public. A good accountant likely could back calculate what was done based on tax filings, but would be way after the fact. While I know RW has stated publicly that his family didn't want to run the team, first off he hasn't stated that in quite awhile. From what I've read, every time some sportswriter mentions that it's based on what RW stated years ago I have not seen any statements made by RW lately to that affect. Maybe that is still the case or maybe RW plans today are to leave the team in the trust indefinitely and Mary and the remaining beneficiaries get the profits from the trust every year. The trust makes zero profit every year, as all the money is passed through to the heirs which actually is kind of common practices in trusts to do that as trust tax rates are much higher at low income levels, though in this case Mary's personal tax rates may be as high as the trust rates, though she may have many things sheltered. While they are likely both millionaires or even billionaires, they don't appear to live lavish lifestyles, so could be she won't see most of the money, thus low tax rates. Mary Wilson controls the will which has say over the sale of the team. The trust group runs the team while its in transition that is all it does. Mary Wilson decides when and to whom the team is sold and Ralphs will was clear its to be sold. Trust = Runs the team in transition, Mary Wilson = 100% decision to sell team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGUNBILLS Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Is what we have been watching for the last 15 years football? It might not be much, but it's all we got brother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keepthefaith Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 To speculate what might happen this soon and without intimate knowledge of the trust and the legal expertise to explain it isn't very useful There are many scenarios that could play out over a period of years. The Bills aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The last thing the family and team leadership need right now is any media attention on this. I'm sure the Bills will be making public statements to the community in the coming weeks and months. Speculation on this is about as useful as a mock draft done by people who know little about football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Barbarian Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 As of this year we have to spend at least 89% to the cap so on $133 mil. They have to spend $118,370,000 to the cap. They will do that once they get through the draft. Sad as they could've afforded Byrd. I think Byrd would've taken less to leave for a playoff team. That's what sucks about this playoff drought. Until we start winning, our best developed talent will keep losing to better teams. This draft has to be a homerun. Seems like we say this every year and Levitre, I think until we get a new FO and scouting department I don't believe we will win much. If the Bills ever leave Buffalo, I will never watch football again! I will because I love football but it will not be the same nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillnutinHouston Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 (edited) Interesting note on GR this morning. Howard played a clip of Poloncarz talking on another station (WBEN?) where he (Poloncarz) states that he's been made privy to part of the trust under a nondisclosure agreement. Howard was trying to speculate that that is what might account for Poloncarz' optimism recently, I.e., that there may be something in the trust that points to the team staying in Buffalo. Hard to tell. Wondering if any attorneys out there can speculate on the significance of the disclosure to Poloncarz. Edited March 31, 2014 by BillnutinHouston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 i mentioned in the "whats next" thread, but on WGR Polancarz said that he was aware of a number of inquiries on the purchase of the team in recent years from both local and non-local parties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian Bills Fan Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Would it make sense for someone to buy to team in the next 2 years knowing that they would have to wait 4 more until they could move it? CBF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 (edited) Interesting note on GR this morning. Howard played a clip of Poloncarz talking on another station (WBEN?) where he (Poloncarz) states that he's been made privy to part of the trust under a nondisclosure agreement. Howard was trying to speculate that that is what might account for Poloncarz' optimism recently, I.e., that there may be something in the trust that points to the team staying in Buffalo. Hard to tell. Wondering if any attorneys out there can speculate on the significance of the disclosure to Poloncarz. 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. Edited March 31, 2014 by CodeMonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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