Topic of the day7/12:Stadium naming rights & Bills OP profit

[Mr. WEO]

The purchase of the team was for $1.4 bil., as people know, but the net net profit after everything is about $45 mil./yr. why shouldn't an owner sell naming rights for another $5 mil./yr. if he paid for the team. The county already makes money on the stadium and gets a piece on concessions.

 

I don't understand the issue. You should want our owner to make a healthy profit as it is security the team will be here forever. There are always suitors promising a lot more money somewhere else. I don't believe Kim would let this team leave Buffalo, amd if they decide to renovate and get some state funding, the stadium most of us love could get an upgrade in a few years and the tickets don't go up dramatically in 2022.

 

The owner makes a healthy profit automatically--and without an extra 5 million a year. It's how the league works. This deal has zero impact on the Bills future in Buffalo. Zero point zero.

 

I don't know why the revenue going to the owner of the team irks you. That has been the arrangement since the stadium was originally built almost half a century ago. Ralph controlled the revenue generated by the stadium (even when renting out the stadium for events). For the past 40 years or more the arrangement has been technically the county owns the stadium but contractually the owner of the team controls the stadium

 

The bottom line is that the county's bond costs (for the renovation) are covered by generated revenues associated with the football operation. A good chunk money covering the costs of the recent renovations came from the state tax on the players' income. So much of the state's and county's contributions were covered by income generated by events/participants associated by activity from the stadium. You may find that problematic but I don't. It's a reasonable and fair deal that satisfies all the parties involved.

 

There is a saying that seems fitting: Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. Or another way of relating it to this topic is that this deal isn't necessarily a perfect deal but it is still a good deal for all the parties involved.

So when the lease is up in a few years and the Bills vacate the Ralph, Erie County will have payed off their debt on that stadium? They will be paying off that stadium for years to come.

 

As for the bolded part, where do you get that info? The annual expenses (annual capital expenses, working capital expenses, game day expenses, operating expenses) total $11.5 million per year (shared with NYS). The Bills pay only $800K in rent per year! The Bills keep parking and concessions.

 

As for the players income tax contribution to the stadium renovation---I assume you were joking about that. Their contribution to the state coffers is almost undetectable anyway, let alone any suggestion it was somehow directed toward the stadium renovation costs. I don't know what you're getting at there.

 

This deal does nothing at all for the County. Just pointing that out.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Mr. WEO

[Tuco]

Especially since Mr. Ralph Wilson invented the concept of naming rights.

No, actually he always hated the practice.

 

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/06/the-ugly-fight-behind-one-of-footballs-first-stadium-naming-rights-deals/482556/

[JohnC]

 

The owner makes a healthy profit automatically--and without an extra 5 million a year. It's how the league works. This deal has zero impact on the Bills future in Buffalo. Zero point zero.

 

So when the lease is up in a few years and the Bills vacate the Ralph, Erie County will have payed off their debt on that stadium? They will be paying off that stadium for years to come.

 

As for the bolded part, where do you get that info? The annual expenses (annual capital expenses, working capital expenses, game day expenses, operating expenses) total $11.5 million per year (shared with NYS). The Bills pay only $800K in rent per year! The Bills keep parking and concessions.

 

As for the players income tax contribution to the stadium renovation---I assume you were joking about that. Their contribution to the state coffers is almost undetectable anyway, let alone any suggestion it was somehow directed toward the stadium renovation costs. I don't know what you're getting at there.

 

This deal does nothing at all for the County. Just pointing that out.

The deal and prior deals kept the team in the region. You have a simple choice. Pay for stadium renovations or not have a team in western NY. The amount that the state and county paid for in this last renovation was substantially less than what other regions paid for with their stadium circumstances.

 

If the amount that the county and state would have been at a prohibitive level then your point about the costs would be more forceful. That wasn't the case here. The stadium needed to be upgraded because there was so much deterioration. The shared deal was (in my opinion) more than fair and reasonable, especially when compared to how other regions handled their stadium financing.

 

http://www.investigativepost.org/2012/12/21/the-bills-lease-by-the-numbers/

 

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2012/12/27/3800798/new-buffalo-bills-ralph-wilson-stadium-lease

[Mr. WEO]

The deal and prior deals kept the team in the region. You have a simple choice. Pay for stadium renovations or not have a team in western NY. The amount that the state and county paid for in this last renovation was substantially less than what other regions paid for with their stadium circumstances.

 

If the amount that the county and state would have been at a prohibitive level then your point about the costs would be more forceful. That wasn't the case here. The stadium needed to be upgraded because there was so much deterioration. The shared deal was (in my opinion) more than fair and reasonable, especially when compared to how other regions handled their stadium financing.

 

http://www.investigativepost.org/2012/12/21/the-bills-lease-by-the-numbers/

 

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2012/12/27/3800798/new-buffalo-bills-ralph-wilson-stadium-lease

 

We were talking about the stadium naming rights deal.

 

As for the shared renovation deal, like other regions (St. Louis, famously), Erie will still be paying for those upgraded bathrooms and concessions concourses long after the Bills have abandoned the building.

 

90+ million for a couple of years of continued use. A sucker's deal. The suicide pill (400 million) in the lease may have prevented a future owner from moving the team (for several years), but the renovations had nothing to do with the future of the Bills in Buffalo.