This is an e-mail making the rounds out of Buffalo ... you know, it comes from a friend of a friend ... of a friend.
And we all know how reliable that guy is.
In case you're not familiar with Buffalo social circles (and lucky for you if you're not), Tom Golisano is the owner of the Sabres, the gazzillionare who ran Paychex, and a perennial loser in the NY governor's race.
Here's the scoop ... you know, from a friend of a friend of a friend:
This guy I work with let me in on some information about the Bills future in WNY. Apparently, this person was at a dinner meeting with Tom Golisano in early September in Buffalo. At this meeting Golisano dropped a bombshell about the nefarious Ralph Wilson.
Golisano claims that Wilson's intentions all along have been to move the Bills to Toronto. Stay with me on this......there are businessmen in Toronto that are ready to plunk down mega-millions for the Bills and move them there. Wilson already let the NFL know of this (Apparently they can't stop him either).
Golisano & the people from Rich Products offered Wilson a similar financial package but Wilson demurred....when they offered him more, he demurred again...& said he wouldn't sell the team to them no matter how much they offered; it's not about money. Wilson wants it to be his legacy that he be the first person to bring international play to the NFL.
Still with me..? There's more.... Not to be dismayed, TG went to the NFL & has an agreement that when the Bills move, they cannot take their name with them, ala Baltimore Colts/Ravens.
After the move to TO, Buffalo will be granted an expansion franchise with the promise that they build a new stadium & sell it out for 5 consecutive years. (The NFL wants a franchise in Buffalo because it's one of the original teams & has history in the league) TG agreed to do this & will build a DOMED stadium on the waterfront in Buffalo with a capacity of 60,000. In addition, Buffalo will be granted a Super Bowl in the future.
The caveat to this is that Buffalo will be without a football team for 3-4 years. The wheels are already in motion & no one can stop it. TG says that RW is playing the game right now..ie: crying the blues about money, saying enjoy the team while it's here, not signing/keeping star players, etc.
Next year or possibly the year after the Bills will be gone. Willis McGahee may have let the cat out of the bag with his recent TO talk in Penthouse. Star players don't want to come to B-lo because they know RW is a tight ass. TG also said that if he ran the team he will not be such a cheapskate & would turn things around in a hurry like he did with the Sabres. Now I realize how all this sounds & you probably let out a big laugh & said "bullshit" but this guy has no reason to lie to me. (I can read people pretty well too) I don't say much to him when I see him other than "hi."
We just happened to be proctoring an exam together yesterday when we started talking about sports. This guy is a sports nut who travels all over the country for various sporting events. We must expose the walking corpse that is Ralph Wilson. Send this to everyone you know & encourage people to call radio shows & expose this true. We may not be able to stop it, but we can let him know we will not be fooled & bamboozled. And when he dies, which I hope is VERY SOON; we can all fly to Detroit & take a big piss on his grave..... Remember....you heard it here first....
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6 comments:
I would have been willing to accept some of the story, right up until I read this crap.
After the move to TO, Buffalo will be granted an expansion franchise with the promise that they build a new stadium & sell it out for 5 consecutive years.
If they sell out 3 years and then fail for the next two, are they going to tear the stadium down? They can't pick it up & take it away if they don't sell out, so how, exactly, would this assertion even begin to make sense on any level of common sense or business logistics?
You can sell out for 5 years *before* the stadium is built; that is how it makes sense.
The killer for me is this statement: "In addition, Buffalo will be granted a Super Bowl in the future."
Not.
In.
A.
Million.
Years.
will there be a Super Bowl in Buffalo.
My BS meter was up from the outset ... there's a reason it's here in the blog and not on the homepage.
The story falls apart with the expansion franchise/domed stadium talk.
No one can convince me that Wilson's main concern is, in fact, MONEY. This crap about wanting to bring "international" football to the NFL as his legacy is nonsense.
It's all about the Benjamins for every owner, especially guys like Wilson who resent how much money OTHER teams make.
If he could coerce a free domed stadium out of the Buffalo citizenry, then he'd stay there for sure.
And yes...a Super Bowl in Buffalo? The NFL has held two SBs in Detroit and one in Minneapolis....EVERYBODY hated those three games because of the cold weather OUTSIDE of the domes. People spend Super Bowl week mostly OUTSIDE of the game's venue, not inside it. When you're outside in January/February, you want it to be warm.
The NFL may very well never learn this lesson, but I think it will be awhile before we see another cold weather city hosting a Super Bowl IMO.
Now, is Wilson a cheap jerk? Why yes he is. Would he move the team to another city that makes him a crazy offer? Yes, he probably would.
But if he can get a free domed stadium out of the Buffalo taxpayers, I'm sure that would persuade him to stick around.
In my previous post, meant to say that no one can convince me that Wilson's main concern is NOT money. I didn't type it out correctly.
There's no doubt in my mind that if he can get a free stadium in Buffalo, he'll stay there.
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