HEADLINES

Terry Pegula

Bills Rumors: Spiller, Pegula, Bon Jovi

September 9th, 2014 at 4:18pm CST by Zachary Links

Bills GM Doug Whaley has had a sit-down meeting running back C.J. Spiller‘s representatives and he’s interested in keeping him in Buffalo long-term, according to the team’s Twitter account. “He’s a playmaker, and we’re trying to keep as many playmakers as possible,” Whaley said (link). Recently, the tailback joined up with agent Chad Speck as he looks towards his next deal. Here’s more out of Buffalo..

  • While a consultant hired by the state has been identifying potential sites – and reportedly narrowed the list to four locations in Erie County – the search for a new stadium site has been hindered by the uncertainty over who would win the bidding for the team. Things should start clearing up now that Terry Pegula is set to take over the Bills, according to David Robinson of The Buffalo News. Pegula has kept mum on the matter, but his pending purchase of the team likely gives a leg up to potential stadium sites downtown, near the First Niagara Center, where Pegula’s Buffalo Sabres play, according to sources. That would also put the stadium near the HarborCenter hotel and hockey complex that now is under construction.
  • A source close to the Jon Bon Jovi bidding group, who spoke to Tom Precious of The Buffalo News, said the group bid $1.05 billion for the Bills and could have gone higher. The source also said media reports that the New Jersey native had split apart from the two Toronto investors were incorrect. That doesn’t matter much now as the Pegulas are slated to be the new owners of the franchise.
  • Donald Trump issued a statement on the sale of the Bills to the Pegulas and Tim Graham of The Buffalo News has the goods. “It was my great honor to have the opportunity to bid on the Buffalo Bills football team. A large part of the reason for my bid was to ensure that the team remained in Buffalo. I would like to congratulate the Pegula family on what will be, I am sure, a wonderful purchase. I would also like to congratulate the fans of the Buffalo Bills in that, I have no doubt, that the team will now remain in your wonderful city,” Trump wrote, presumably on gaudy gold paper.
  • The stadium site report should be out in the next week and will recommend three sites for the new stadium, tweets Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal.

Terry Pegula Frontrunner To Buy Bills

September 7th, 2014 at 9:08am CST by Rory Parks

In a full-length piece, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com expands on his report from several days ago that Buffalo Sabres’ owner Terry Pegula is the clear favorite to buy the Bills. As La Canfora writes, Pegula “has expressed a willingness to confidants to do whatever he has to do to get the team,” even if the NFL is able to find another bidder for the club and create something of an “auction scenario.” Such an auction could push the price tag further above the current estimate of $1.1 to $1.4 billion, but Pegula is apparently prepared to handle that type of increase.

Because he intends to keep the team in Buffalo beyond 2020–when the Bills’ stadium lease expires–Pegula certainly enjoys a great deal of public support. Fortunately for Bills fans, the Toronto-based group formerly led by Jon Bon Jovi, which would be hoping for a relocation to Ontario at some point in the future, has faced a number of internal struggles and is no longer a viable candidate. La Canfora does note that a move to Toronto may still be in the best financial interest of the team and the league, but “there are numerous options to exhaust in New York before reaching that point.”

Formal, binding bids for the team are due in the middle of this month. Once they are in, the trust of late owner Ralph Wilson will determine a winner, and the league’s other 31 owners will vote to determine if the winner will indeed become the new owner of the Bills. La Canfora expects that vote to happen during the league’s annual fall meetings, which will take place October 7-8 in New York.