Business First: A Run at the Future

[buffalobillsfootball]

Business First

 

A run at the future

A look at the viability of the Buffalo Bills in WNY

TIm O'Shei

Business First

Buffalo Bills fans have worried about the future of the team in Western New York for, oh, approximately forever. And with good reason:

 

By virtually any measurement, the Bills play in one of the NFL's smallest markets.

Owner Ralph Wilson, who turns 87 next month, has confirmed that his family isn't interested in running the team after he passes away.

Los Angeles used to have two NFL teams. Now it has none. Which, predictably, leads people to believe that the team will be purchased from Wilson's estate by an out-of-town investor who will quickly pack up the franchise and drop it into southern California.

With that long-held belief as a starting point, Business First examined the viability of the Buffalo Bills in Western New York. The research focused on two questions:

 

Why have the Bills been able to thrive in Western New York? (By all accounts, the team is well-run and profitable.)

What needs to be done to ensure the franchise's future here?

Sources included national sports-business analysts, finance experts, local elected officials, and business executives who are familiar with the Bills' inner workings. The full report, which can be found this week in Business First's magazine, Western New York Life, draws conclusions that are both reassuring and alarming:

 

Someday, when the Bills are put up for sale, it's unlikely that the team will be quickly purchased, packed and moved.

"The chance of an individual owner deciding to up and move is unlikely -- that fear is unfounded," said David Carter, founder of the Sports Business Group. (That opinion, by the way, was echoed by each of the three other national sports experts interviewed for this report.)

 

Based in southern California, Carter is intimately familiar with the Los Angeles situation. He points out that since the Raiders left for Oakland 10 years ago, southern California has seen little of the tangible progress - for example, planning and funding a state-of-the-art stadium - that would be needed to attract an NFL team.

 

"You need a place to play," he said. "You don't jump into a pool unless there is water in it. There's not a lot of water right now."

 

With the team's lease on Ralph Wilson Stadium due to expire in 2013 - and with an escape clause leaving open the possibility that the team could leave any time - Western New York needs to be prepared to talk about major renovations, or a new stadium.

This is the alarming possibility, but it's almost guaranteed to happen. Ralph Wilson Stadium opened in 1973, which places it among the league's oldest facilities. The renovations of 1999 were cutting edge -- at the time.

 

No matter who owns the Bills, it's difficult to imagine that the team won't request a new stadium or major enhancements to its current home as the lease nears its end -- or, very possibly, sooner. But, given the fiscal crises faced by both Buffalo and Erie County, it's even more difficult to imagine that taxpayers will be willing and able to fund it.

 

"Knowing the conditions in place today," said Jack Quinn, a former Congressman from Hamburg and now a Washington-based lobbyist, "I would think the community would want to examine any and all sports facilities built in recent years to see what arrangements were made."

 

The funding of sports stadiums is a hot issue nationwide. In June, voters turned down New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed $2.2 billion Manhattan stadium, which would have served as a convention center and home to the New York Jets.

 

This week, the Minnesota Vikings and the county in which they are located reached an agreement for a $675 million retractable-roof stadium that would also encompass shops, offices, housing and nature preserves. (Thinking ahead, a Buffalo waterfront stadium - an idea touted by city Councilman Antoine Thompson - might include many of the same developments.) Part of the deal asks the state to commit $115 million in bond moneys, an idea that was received coolly at first by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

 

What's the benefit of building a new stadium? If it were located downtown, it could complement and spawn other developments. It would also lock the Bills in place with a 30-year lease, presumably with a no-escape clause. (The Vikings are committing to such a lease.)

 

"When you get a new stadium, that's what's expected," said Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp Ltd. in Chicago.

 

The Western New York Life story explores non-public funding options for a Buffalo stadium, all of which would require significant private investment. That creates another question: How do you convince entrepreneurs and corporations to invest in Buffalo?

 

The answer to that question unlocks the one way in which the Western New York community can affect the future of the Bills. Several factors - revenue sharing among NFL teams, a new collective bargaining agreement with the players union, the on-field success of the team - are beyond the control of anyone outside the league.

 

But Western New York business leaders and elected officials can, and must, help create a vibrant, investment-friendly community. Doing that will be a major step toward keeping the NFL here.

 

"What will secure the Bills' future in Western New York is stabilizing and growing the local economy," says Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo. "The waterfront development issue is key to that."

 

Put another way: You can't force the Buffalo Bills to stay -- but you can make them not want to leave.