A plea for Ralph Wilson to leave the Bills to his wife

   Today's column urges Bills owner Ralph Wilson, 89, to reconsider his decision not to leave the team to his wife, Mary, upon his passing. Read my column here.

   Leaving the team to his wife ensures that the Bills stay in Buffalo for the foreseeable future. She would not … unlike if Wilson left the team to his daughters … have to pay an estate tax bill of some $270 million, which would necessitate selling the team in order to get the money to pay the bill.

   Wilson recently said that the team would be sold upon his passing. There is talk of a local ownership group bidding for the team. But odds are slim that a local entity could financially compete with prospective owners from more prosperous parts of the country. With Los Angeles and other large markets lacking an NFL team, odds are that the Bills would leave Buffalo if the team was put on the open market.

   Buffalo has backed the team during its 47 years with its fan loyalty, game attendance and taxpayer subsidies of more than $125 million. Western New York has been the team's extended family. I think we have the right to at least ask Ralph Wilson to reconsider a decision which would likely cause the Bills to leave Buffalo after his passing. Agree or disagree?

--Donn Esmonde

Comments

[Stoecdo]

Has Mrs. Wwilson ever even expressed an interest in being the owner upon her husbands passing? Maybe she dosen't even want the job.

[Mark]

This is a relatively new marriage for Mr. Wilson. Maybe there are some internal family issues that are unresolvable. Also he is very familiar with the fate of the Robbie family after Joe Robbie passed away and they had to sell the Dolphins. Most in the media with the exception of Larry Felser don't have a clue about that situation. Maybe Mr. Wilson will survive another 10 or 15 years(we all hope) and maybe Jim Keane or one of our other deeply experienced politicians can work on solving the areas economic problems so that maybe we will have an economy that could support it. But again that is fantasy.

[rocking ron]

Folks,

Let's remember Football is a business. Mr. Wilson has done well in his business and will continue to do the right thing for his family. Any other person in WNY would do the same thing

[Kennedy's Hangover]

Why does Esmonde insist that Mrs. Wilson be asked to spend her golden years struggling to keep a franchise afloat in a an economically declining area? Even assuming she's a bright energetic person, she does not have any business or executive background that would help her with this.

Also, what Esmonde conveniently overlooks is that his would merely delay facing up to the problem, since when she passes the Bills would necessarily be put up for sale then at that point.

Why doesn't Esmonde demand that Warren Buffett promise that he or his estate will purchase the Bills when the time comes and promise to leave them here forever?

That's a much more practical idea and would solve the problem for the long term rather than just kicking the can down the road.

Donn, when you get to the office Monday morning just ask your boss to call his boss to ask him to call his boss, and so on up the chain to explain your idea to Mr. Buffet.

[web monster]

It's lack of private sector economic growth that's the problem.

Instead of crying to Wilson that he owes us, Donn should be crying to the voters of NY state to impose a right-wing overhaul of state government. Massive tax cuts and elimination of union-loving laws are the only way our WNY economy might really recover enough to draw companies here.

Baby steps won't do it. Collins victory will be nice but he'll still have Liberal Democrat legislature and the state is run by two liberal Democrats and a liberal Republican.

The upstate economy is not keeping up with the U.S. Economy. Not even close.

[Lloyd Marshall Jr.]

"Wilson owes us"

Couldn't have said it any better myself, web monster.

[Floyd]

Too much pessism on this board for me to take. Obviously Buffalo needs to get its economic act together, but what is wrong with asking Mr. Wilson to leave the team to his wife? Like Mr. Esmonde said, the community has given so much in fan loyalty and tax dollars over the years to help make Mr. Wilson a very wealthy man. We don't know if his wife wants the team but it doesn't hurt to ask. Maybe our pleas to save our Bills can help persuade them.

[john]

Buffalo didn't invest the $125 million, NYS did. Rochester is now heavily invested in the team too. Both financially and emotionally. Rochester has been a major success for the bills. If now, you want to move the fan base to the west and north, that's fine, but don't come looking for NYS to put anymore money into the team and future stadium expenditures.

There are 5 million people upstate. Same as Toronto. The Syracuse Dome is where the team should be focusing on.

It's funny. When Gunderson was living in Saratoga, Buffalo complained that he was at the far extreme end of the stste. Now he is at the other extreme end of the state. Gunderson has forgotten that he represents upstate NY, not just Buffalo.

I realize the goal is to keep the team in Buffalo and maybe a downtown domed stadium, but Buffalo gets far more than it's fair share from state and federal budgets, while the population still dwindles away. NY now has a $4 billion and growing budget gap next year.

Good luck getting the billion dollar dome after allianating your upstate neighbors.

[RSW]

I believe, once again, it is prudent for the fans of the Bills to try to understand what Ralph Wilson has been and will be up against financially by keeping the team in Western New York. This is despite significant government monies and renegotiated revenue sharing agreements with the NFL. It has little to do with population.

Read CAREFULLY Bob DiCesare's column in this past weekends Buffalo News.

It explains perfectly and in detail WHY the team will probably not be able to stay in Western New York after he is gone.

[RSW]

I believe, once again, it is prudent for the fans of the Bills to try to understand what Ralph Wilson has been and will be up against financially by keeping the team in Western New York. This is despite significant government monies and renegotiated revenue sharing agreements with the NFL. It has little to do with population.

Read CAREFULLY Bob DiCesare's column in this past weekends Buffalo News.

It explains perfectly and in detail WHY the team will probably not be able to stay in Western New York after he is gone.

[East Amherst John]

GO BILLS GO AND TAKE THE SABRES WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Common Sense]

Don't listen to Donn and Lloyd, Mr. Wilson. If the Buffalo community wants to keep an NFL team here, let some person or group who wants to keep the team here simply pay the market rate price to purchase it. Yes, that will be a high price tag but that's reality and so be it.

Simple as that.

You and your wife owe us nothing, just as Warren and Mrs. Buffet owe us nothing, Bob and Mindy Rich owe us nothing, and so on. Best wishes to you.

People of Buffalo, if you want to play with the big dogs you better be willing to pay the price.

Otherwise, try to get another arena league team and support it this time. Or just stick with indoor lacrosse.

[Jeeves]

10 or 20 years from now, this will be a non-issue if Buffalo keeps shrinking at its current shrinkage rate and by becomes the size Syracuse is today.

[Chancellor Carlyle Roberts, II]

It's Ralph's team: he can leave it to whomever he wants!

[Danno]

Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves here? Actuarial tables published by the Social Security Administration give an 89 year old male 4 years. Given that Ralph Wilson is in apparently good health, working, and active (proven keys to longevity), it wouldn't be surprising that he lives to 100.

More likely, he will sell the team during his lifetime (maybe when he's about 95 and wants to retire) and set up trusts for his wife and daughters. That would make the most sense from a tax standpoint.

In any case, I think we are out of line to ask him to do anything. After all, like the Chancellor said, it's his team.

[Lloyd Marshall Jr.]

Hey, Common Sense, thanks for the support...

"listen to Donn and Lloyd, Mr. Wilson"

"You and your wife owe us"

Your support is greatly appreciated.

[Common Sense]

Hopefully Mr. Wilson has better reading comprehension skills than Lloyd.

Danno, he has clearly said he will not sell the team before his death, and that his family does not have an interest in owning the team, but I suppose it's possible things coould change at some point.

Even beyond the tax issues, however, the Buffalo market is shrinking and just does not seem to have the corporate customers here to buy the luxury box seating that's so important iin today's NFL.

So his family if they owned the team would have less revenue than all other teams, and that would make for a lot of difficulties for them. Also, they don't have executive experience.

I think he doesn't want to put them through all that, especially since his wife is in her retirement years, and so he thinks it best for all concerned if the team is put up for sale to the highest bidder.

Will that highest bidder be somebody who wants to keep the team here?

Mr. Warren Buffet, are you reading this?

Mrs. Buffet?

A Buffett Junior?

Anybody out there?

We'll even throw in Lloyd as your personal assistant.

But make no mistake - Buffalo will have a team only if the highest bidder decides this is where the team should be.

[Lloyd Marshall Jr.]

"Hopefully Mr. Wilson has better reading comprehension skills than..."

...Common Sense. Yep. Got it right.

[Dan]

The thing the doubters have to remember is that there aren't many cities open for the NFL to move to. A lot of teams make LESS money than Buffalo because of poor attendance, etc. New Orleans, Oakland, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, these are the names of a few teams that are having more difficulty than Buffalo. Where are they going to move to? LA? Not likely, the owners want to sell that market for a huge franchise fee which they can split among them. Toronto? Sounds good now, but what happens when the dollar returns to its historical level and Toronto players start getting hurt by the exchange rate and the high taxes? One of the biggest cities in North America, but their baseball and basketball teams can't compete with US cities have the size. Nor is a fanbase like Buffalo's assured up there. I hope any Toronto owner isn't relying on Buffalo fans to make the trip north. That ain't going to happen.

[john]

"Buffalo has backed the team during its 47 years with its fan loyalty, game attendance and taxpayer subsidies of more than $125 million"

If that statement was still true, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Ticket prices are the lowest in the league, and still, the majority of people at the stadium aren't from Buffalo.

You always hear what great Bills fans Buffalo is and how much the team means to Buffalo. The facts show another story.

Ralph has kept his part of the bargain all these years. Buffalo hasn't.

Why would a new owner keep the team here? Even a local owner would be foolish to invest that much money here with such a pitiful return on investment and a dwindling population base.

[Kennedy-Dodd Waitress Sandwich]

Dan -
No, the idea is not that Buffalo fans will go to Toronto for that game. In fact, that would defeat the purpose. The idea is to gain Canadian fans, especially wealthy corporate ones.

I think you're mistaken that the Cincinnati Bengals are doing worse financially than the Bills. The metro Cincinatti area has double the popution of merto Buffalo, and much better economic growth. It's also home to significantly more big corporations than is the Buffalo area. I think that team is stable there.

New Orleans probably will keep its team another 5-10 years due to political correctness, post-Katrina, but then the Saints will move but likey to some other city in that region. Somewhere in Louisiana, Missisippi, or Alabama.

So that leaves three cities at serious risk: Oakland, Buffalo, and Jacksonville.

And at least three U.S. cities as very good candidates for a team:

- San Antonio
- Los Angeles
- Sacramento

And Toronto as a long shot.

Add in Oklahoma City as an outside possibility.