One event that probably saved the Bills

[PromoTheRobot]

Come on Kelly! It's nuts! Posters are inventing things to worry about. The same ones who previously told how ingeniously the stadium lease was crafted to prevent the team from moving (or being sold to a team that move it) are pushing these stories about those Bills-coveting Canadians.

 

That's a laugher coming from you.

[The Real Buffalo Joe]

From what I understand, moneywise Ted would have actually been able to compete with Pegula. Not to mention his buisness tactics would have been much smoother.

[4merper4mer]

Come on Kelly! It's nuts! Posters are inventing things to worry about. The same ones who previously told how ingeniously the stadium lease was crafted to prevent the team from moving (or being sold to a team that move it) are pushing these stories about those Bills-coveting Canadians.

 

How did you feel when they wanted to move your Pats to Hartford. Ralph also help keep the Pats afloat at one time but your boy Kraft still loves Bon Jersey doesn't he?

 

Newsflash dude Bills fans don't need your permission to talk about the their desire for the Bills to stay in Buffalo where they belong. If you don't like the thread go back to the Pats board and post there.

 

P. S. Cathal is a dude name? Only in Canada

[The Real Buffalo Joe]

Also, nobody is worrying about anything. Actually, this thread is quite the opposite. Would you rather an EJ sucks thread?

[Kelly the Dog]

Come on Kelly! It's nuts! Posters are inventing things to worry about. The same ones who previously told how ingeniously the stadium lease was crafted to prevent the team from moving (or being sold to a team that move it) are pushing these stories about those Bills-coveting Canadians.

I think it's insane, too.

[bbb]

Nice. I've been trolling him on Twitter since then. Also shows that he no longer works for the paper.

 

I hope he got fired over this article.

[Orton's Arm]

That doesn't make sense (and isn't consistent with what he titled this thread). If PTR thinks there is zero chance the Bills would have moved, then there can't be a better than zero chance that they would have moved with Rogers.

 

In fact, anyone who believes the trust is serious about keeping the Bills in Buffalo cannot believe they would ever sell to a Toronto group. So why do these threads keep popping up?

 

> In fact, anyone who believes the trust is serious about keeping the Bills in Buffalo . . .

 

No one without inside knowledge can be certain about the trust's level of dedication to keeping the Bills in Buffalo. Do I think the trust would like to keep the Bills here? Absolutely. But what if the Toronto group bid $100 million more than the next-highest bidder? What if it was $200 million more? How much financial temptation would it take for the trust to decide to sell out? I don't have the answer to that question. Neither do you.

 

The two factors keeping the Bills in Buffalo are the lease and the fact that Pegula appears to be the highest bidder. If Ted Rogers was still alive, it's quite possible one of those factors would have been eliminated.

 

It's likely the lease, alone, would have been sufficient to keep the Bills in Buffalo. But not certain. Suppose Ted Rogers bought the team, with the ultimate intention of moving it to Toronto. He'd have two options: 1) Wait it out in Buffalo, then move the team once the lease had ended. 2) Concoct a legal strategy for breaking the lease.

 

Either of these strategies would have been associated with considerable risk. It's quite possible Ted Rodgers was more willing and able to take on large risks than his successors. Perhaps he was also better able to obtain rewarding outcomes from high risk situations. His death made it less likely that either of these risky strategies would be put into play, or that they would succeed if they were employed. On the other hand, it's very possible that even Ted Rogers would have balked at the idea of buying a team as firmly nailed down (over the short-term, at least) as the Bills.

 

The Toronto group would have been much better able to take advantage of any team-stealing opportunities with Ted Rogers than they could have without him. That alone would not have been sufficient to guarantee their ability to steal the Bills, due to the lease. But if there was some weakness--some way to steal the team despite its apparently being nailed down--Ted Rogers would have been the one to take advantage of it.