Imagine the Absurd- Is it Legal?

[maryland-bills-fan]

First of all, because this is America, you have to pay tax, and can not give things away for free. If the francise cost $25K originally and is now appraised at $702.5 million, there is a net gain of $700M. If you sell it, you pay a long term capital gain type tax. If you give it away for $1 or $25K, somebody is going to pay a gift tax on $7M, which is the same amount of money as the first case. There is a floor amount that you can gift to somebody else (say leaving $ to one of your children) without paying tax but this is something like $5K a year. If you have surplus money or assets (like stock or a NFL franchise) I believe that you can give it to the charity, and get an income deduction on the original purchase price (for the Bills franchise example $25K) and nobody (the charity nor you) pays tax on the increase in value ($700M). I doubt that the NFL owners would allow the franchise to be given to a charity or non-profit- they closed the door to that except for the grandfathered Packers. The trustees of the will have to follow the intent of the will to the extent that the will is legally valid. I don not know what is in the will.

Edited April 28, 2014 by maryland-bills-fan

[nucci]

First of all, because this is America, you have to pay tax, and can not give things away for free. If the francise cost $25K originally and is now appraised at $702.5 million, there is a net gain of $700M. If you sell it, you pay a long term capital gain type tax. If you give it away for $1 or $25K, somebody is going to pay a gift tax on $7M, which is the same amount of money as the first case. There is a floor amount that you can gift to somebody else (say leaving $ to one of your children) without paying tax but this is something like $5K a year. If you have surplus money or assets (like stock or a NFL franchise) I believe that you can give it to the charity, and get an income deduction on the original purchase price (for the Bills franchise example $25K) and nobody (the charity nor you) pays tax on the increase in value ($700M). I doubt that the NFL owners would allow the franchise to be given to a charity or non-profit- they closed the door to that except for the grandfathered Packers. The trustees of the will have to follow the intent of the will to the extent that the will is legally valid. I don not know what is in the will.

[CSBill]

Finally, someone wants to offer the Bills what they are worth. B)

 

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

Agreed, But if there were instructions from RW that the trust is to sell to a Buffalo based group at any cost, then that is what she is legally required to do and that would be making a good deal for the trust per its instructions, Based on everything stated publicly in past few years by people like Kelly, Thurman, etc, about not to worry, I'm would not be at all surprised if there is not some type of instructions along those lines to keep the team here or some other type of poison pill created by RW that would make moving the team extremely difficult to do

 

MW is not necessarily required ot take the best deal for the trust, but she is required to follow the request of the trust.

FWIW, from a 2005 article reporting on an interview with Ralph:

 

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2005/05/20050516/Other-News/In-Profile-Bills-Owner-Ralph-Wilson.aspx

 

In Buffalo, the question on most football fans' minds is whether the Bills will stay. No matter the outcome of the NFL revenue issue, Wilson said he is committed to keeping the team in Buffalo during his lifetime. His family is not interested in owning the team when, as Wilson quips, he heads upstairs, so he cannot say what fate holds for the Bills at that point.

 

Wilson asked his lawyer if his estate could require a buyer to keep the team in Buffalo but was informed that would be illegal. So he is left hoping that a future acquirer will be as committed as he to the region.

Edited April 28, 2014 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[Cynical]

Think about this,just in another way. Ok the Bills get sold and the owner keeps them in Buffalo where let's face it people aren't exactly swimming in loot, and can't afford huge ticket prices, like they can and Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City etc.

 

in a city like Buffalo which is economically challenged and poverty ranks among the top 5 in the country it's hard to get $100 a ticket for a family of 4 to come to a Bills game on Sunday, it's even harder in November and December when the holidays roll around.

 

The Fat Cat NFL Owners by keeping the bills in Buffalo almost force the bills into a losing posture simply because of economics. Whereas if the bills went to a city like Los Angeles or Toronto where there's more population, more money, fortune 500 companies etc you can get those higher ticket prices and in turn sign marque players for big money.

 

Pardon. The Bills play in the NFL, not MLB.

 

NFL teams are subject to a salary cap and a salary floor.

[maryland-bills-fan]

Actually, the Bills are not really a "small market" team. You have to consider the other areas, maybe halfway between Buffalo and an nearby NFL city to get the region that the Bills draw from. So Toronto is in. So western NY and central NY is in. So a bit a PA is also in. If you do the math on these additional metro areas, the Bills are something like in the 25's for the NFL regions.

[Bills Fan since '64]

Just like most powerful and influential enormous corporations, rules can and will be bent and changed for them in the courts. Not to mention that they can tie up opponents in court costing them millions if necessary, which is chump change for the NFL.

 

I anticipate that this whole notion that the Bills can't leave Buffalo until 2020 will play out quite differently for exactly that reason. Despite the fact that we all want the team to remain here, the fact is that the region simply is no longer capable of sustaining an NFL team, by the NFL's corporate-driven standards along with PSL licensing, whether we are honest enough to admit that to ourselves or not being irrelevant.

 

Buffalo is a blue collar "lunch pail" kinda town, not one that fits the current NFL model for teams. I personally can't stand where the NFL has taken itself, but unfortunately that doesn't matter either.

 

It wasn't that long ago that the Bills were competitive, only 20 years or so ago, and during the Kelly/Bruce/Thurman/Reed era, it was still very much a blue-collar kinda gig. For us Buffalonians it still is, but for the NFL it is not.

 

I see this pushing north of the border and much more quickly than we all assume. $400M is really not all that much, and all it's going to take is a new owner telling the county, behind closed doors of course, that he/she/they will simply let the team "rot" in Buffalo for its last few years, or they can take the grease money and feign something like that the county gets nothing if the team simply leaves and that "this way" the county would at least get a buyout at a fraction of that $400M, which of course they'll sell to the public as a good deal.

 

Entirely lost will be the irony that having and NFL team is supposed to have a net positive impact on the economy, including getting all those taxpayer dollars back, a false notion, but one that will be stood on its head nonetheless if/when that happens, likely without anyone challenging it like that.

 

This entire thing, including where the NFL has taken itself, could not be a whole lot more tragic, particularly for WNY-ers.

 

And frankly, if we cannot have a "blue collar" team/stadium etc., then I'm not sure that I'm all that interested. I've seen what this does, as many of us have, to football in other cities, like D.C. for example.

This guy is a bleeping genius. Let's run him for president.