Buffalo_Stampede Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 I think we will have to get a restraining order against Mr Bon Jovi. He wont leave us alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8-8 Forever? Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 It was great to hear Andre Reed call for the team to remain in Buffalo in his induction speech! It was even better to hear the Canton Bills partisan heavy crowd give an extended standing ovation (which Reed allowed to continue). Those who misread NFL economics to judge that Toronto easily beats out Buffalo misread that the other NFL team owners actually profit more from keeping the team in Buffalo than they do from their 1/32 of the significant but in the end marginally higher team profits from selling the team to move to Toronto. The team stays here because the money behind the NfL makes more $ from the team staying in Buffalo. What? How do you figure that? I know one thing, The other teams certainly do not: Visiting teams get 40% of the gate for away games. Tickets to the Ralph are the lowest in the league on average. So visiting teams lose money big time coming to play at the Ralph vs. say, playing at Foxboro or at the Jets. Plus, Bills away games don't sell out because, well, they're the Bills and other than us, no one in the U.S. is interested in paying $150 to see the Buffalo Bills. So the existence of the Bills as an NFL franchise hurts game day gate receipts. Plus, the team is fetching a relatively low sale price because Ralph contractually trapped it in WNY (which is all good for us Bills fans), has the lowest gate receipts in the league and is in the smallest TV advertising market in the league (which hurts the TV deal). Let's not get carried away that the league, and especially the owners, are all that thrilled (from a annual $$ income perspective) about the Bills staying in WNY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoloinOhio Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 @ProFootballTalk: Jon Bon Jovi clarifies "intentions" regarding Bills, but will anyone in Buffalo believe him? http://t.co/uUzmTx0BF9 Ha! @JohnKryk: No immediate word if he, Tanenbaum or Rogers intends to pen a letter to Toronto fans expessing why they've abandoned #NFL-in-Toronto dream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hplarrm Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Potential reality? Actual reality is that Trump (based on multiple media sources) was selected to move on to the next round. The whys & why nots of Trump have been discussed ad nauseam but they are all conjecture, not fact based. Why would a piece on 2 groups moving to the next phase of the bidding get into this? As an aside...conjecture would be that JBJ has moved on to the next level. Else, why bother with an open letter to the City of Buffalo? My guess is that JBJ has a number of good (helpful to the NFL's $ making interests) even though it is quite doubtful (at best) that JBJ is gonna be sold the team to move the franchise to Toronto. 1. By moving this bid as far down the pike as he can, JBJ concretizes his partnership with the CA folk, which helps him a lot since NO ONE thinks JBJ on his own has $1.? in liquid assets to make a bid. This alleged deal puts JBJ in the game even though on the face of it it will not happen. 2. My contention is simply that what drives the NFL is what makes them the most money (do you disagree?). I think also that what makes the NFL the MOST $ is not the truism of putting the Buffalo franchise in a larger market, but instead exploiting BOTH the already obtained Buffalo market AND the new likely larger (but as yet unrealized Toronto market. No alleged solid reporter has even explored whether the BOTH/AND approach is the more likely outcome for maximizing NFL profits. Reporters seem to delight in living in a world where they get to write easy stories about Andre Reed hating JBJ than instead exploring the harder to explain fiscal details that it would be a real hit (and just stupid) for the NFL to simply walk away from the 100s of millions of real $ which 45,000 season ticket holders, tens of thousands of previous individual ticket buyers, millions of $ from already existing local advertisers, and `100s of millions in corporate welfare NYS govts have been and appear willing to ship to the NFL. Why are these realities not even mentioned when for any logical reporter the NFL simply walking away from millions of real dollars is a rarity (in the past Modell or Irsay ran to $ for themselves even though it created huge disruptions for the NFL (the NFL ended up getting rolled by municipal leaders in Cleveland so that they had to send the next franchise back to Cleveland rather than the NFL collecting 100s of millions from a new municipality). 3. The NFL actually benefits a lot from encouraging the ultimately to fail bids from JBJ/CA (again the smart $ move for the NFL is to use JBJ/CA to fund a new franchise in a few years rather than simply trade already obtained Buffalo millions for divided shares of marginally larger millions from a Toronto franchise. Also, the quite frankly laughable Trump bid helps the NFL because they both have bidded up Pegula/Golisano to offer $1.3 billion for Buffalo (when the most recent real world cost was $1.1 billion for the larger Miami market with a stadium. The Trump bid is laughable on the face of it from this TV huckster who has more in common with Ron Popiel (the hair in a can guy) than Ralph Wilson. The JBJ/CA bid requires the NFL owners to walk away from 100s of millions in already obtained $ for as yet unrealized significant but as yet unrealized 100s of millions from a Toronto franchise. The journalism on this issue has simply been just bad to date in that some fairly simple conjecture has been ignored so the press can simply assume other conjecture (like a Trump did would not bring almost certainly fatal opposition or that a JBJ/CA bid necessitates the NFL walking away from 100s of million so someone else (JBJ/CA) can make $. This may not happen but it simply discredits the modern media that these issues are not discussed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF Bills Fan Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Bon Jovi underestimated just how hard it would be to relocate the Bills from a financial standpoint as well as the huge loyal fan base that would mobilize. He probably thought the Toronto guys could not be beat and now realizes too late that he is with the wrong group. He should have approached Trump or Golisano. I don't think Pegula woukd have wanted anyone else involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hplarrm Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 What? How do you figure that? I know one thing, The other teams certainly do not: Visiting teams get 40% of the gate for away games. Tickets to the Ralph are the lowest in the league on average. So visiting teams lose money big time coming to play at the Ralph vs. say, playing at Foxboro or at the Jets. Plus, Bills away games don't sell out because, well, they're the Bills and other than us, no one in the U.S. is interested in paying $150 to see the Buffalo Bills. So the existence of the Bills as an NFL franchise hurts game day gate receipts. Plus, the team is fetching a relatively low sale price because Ralph contractually trapped it in WNY (which is all good for us Bills fans), has the lowest gate receipts in the league and is in the smallest TV advertising market in the league (which hurts the TV deal). Let's not get carried away that the league, and especially the owners, are all that thrilled (from a annual $$ income perspective) about the Bills staying in WNY. Are you arguing that when the Bills travel to DC that the Redskins do not sellout because the Bills are a bad team? ???? Look, just like ticket sales at the Ralph, they are not driven by the quality of the opponent but by how the hometeam is doing. In fact, if I think the Bills are likely to destroy an opponent I am more likely to go to tailgate and party when CJ scores than not. The NFL actually needs teams to lose because like it or not the NFL W/L is gonna be .500 overall. The Bills market is Buffalo, but the NFL market (and ultimately the $ they get from their major cash cow the TV nets are eyeballs in all of America, Toronto, Mexico City. Tokyo. Beijing etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badasss Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 If JBJ has to liquidate everything he owns to become the Bills' majority owner, he likely will have to pay some taxes on the gains from those sales. Therefore, his net worth could decline by another $100 million or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoloinOhio Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 @kevinoDandC: Bon Jovi wrote a letter to The Buffalo News but refuses to answer questions about intentions for #Bills? Doesn't get more genuine than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahnyc Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Between Golisano potentially putting in a bid and JBJ writing an open letter, seems to me we really have no idea what is going on here or who will win the bidding process. Beyond frustrating, but the representation from Bills fans at the HOF induction ceremony was amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoloinOhio Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 @TheKickIsGood: Something to hide? MT@JeffRussoWKBW: Rep for Bon Jovi says he will not be doing interviews or commenting outside of this morning's letter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badasss Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Between Golisano potentially putting in a bid and JBJ writing an open letter, seems to me we really have no idea what is going on here or who will win the bidding process. Beyond frustrating, but the representation from Bills fans at the HOF induction ceremony was amazing. JBJ's open letter contained a lot of fluff, but it never specifically said he intends to keep the team in WNY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheZone78 Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 I'd say the trust has some pretty heavy provisions in regards to keeping the Bills in Buffalo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 My take on it is that he never mentions Tanenbaum and Rodgers by name. His intention himself could very well be to keep the team in Buffalo. So he writes the letter. Then the two guys from Toronto who want the team in Toronto overrule him 2-1 and he says "Oops, I tried." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dean Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Just curious, but how does JBJ's statement change anything? He falls far short of guaranteeing he will NEVER move the team. Period. Because of the way they have operated, and because the group includes a guy who has talked about moving a team to TO, only a guarantee to never move will assuage Bills fans. And quite frankly that might not be enough, at this stage. Now is that too much to ask of anyone looking to make a billion dollar investment? Probably. So the JBJ hate will continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXBILLSFAN Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Some quick thoughts: 1- Golisano remains a long shot, but there is no way he would keep Brandon in same/similar position, Quinn is Golisano's guy and Brandon would be forced out if he becomes owner 2- Pegula remains the heavy favorite and I believe Todd France would become VP, Football Operations under Pegs ownership and Brandon would either be relegated to VP for non-football activities or pushed down further in organization into a marketing only role 3- To all Trump haters, he WOULD be approved by NFL owners, so let it go. However, I doubt it gets to that point as he has openly stated he won't get into a bidding war for team, and it's clear trust is trying to create one. I'm not rooting for Trump to win bid, but you're kidding yourselves if you think he wouldn't be approved. 4- JBJ is in damage control and severely misread the tea leaves on this process, he threw his hat in with the wrong crowd and displayed extremely poor PR skills along the way, in the words of Andre Reed "F*$K Bon Jovi". His bid is toast. 5- Lastly, I still don't like this process and wish Ralph would have secured a transition plan that prevented all this speculation and uncertainty, that would have been a true gift to WNY. Stayin !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Just curious, but how does JBJ's statement change anything? He falls far short of guaranteeing he will NEVER move the team. Period. Because of the way they have operated, and because the group includes a guy who has talked about moving a team to TO, only a guarantee to never move will assuage Bills fans. And quite frankly that might not be enough, at this stage. Now is that too much to ask of anyone looking to make a billion dollar investment? Probably. So the JBJ hate will continue. Exactly, long lost Dean. There is really nothing in that letter to assuage any fears at all that after the lease is up they are staying. A promise to "try" to build a stadium in Buffalo isn't going to convince hardly anyone. And he won't answer questions about it. This is just the only thing he can say because if he doesn't they have no chance to win the bid (not that they do anyway). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebandit27 Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 I'd say the trust has some pretty heavy provisions in regards to keeping the Bills in Buffalo. And you'd be correct! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony P Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 My take on it is that he never mentions Tanenbaum and Rodgers by name. His intention himself could very well be to keep the team in Buffalo. So he writes the letter. Then the two guys from Toronto who want the team in Toronto overrule him 2-1 and he says "Oops, I tried." Been my thoughts on this all along. If JBJ owns 30%, he can easily be outvoted by a consensus of the minority partners, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 To me, the letter changes nothing. And out of the whole lot of them, Pegula is still the guy I want because he's proven his commitment to the area (like Golisano) but is the only one for whom recouping his investment wouldn't be a priority. As I said, I think the bids are much lower than reported, which is why Golisano decided to enter the fray. But he can't match what Pegula has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dean Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Exactly, long lost Dean. There is really nothing in that letter to assuage any fears at all that after the lease is up they are staying. A promise to "try" to build a stadium in Buffalo isn't going to convince hardly anyone. And he won't answer questions about it. This is just the only thing he can say because if he doesn't they have no chance to win the bid (not that they do anyway). Yet Graham and other "reporters" make it seem as though there is something new here. Some substance. Where? What has changed? Perhaps had JBJ started this way a few months ago, things would be different. Also, I'd like to hear from his partners on the subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts