Sources tell All Sports WNY that the recent figures released by Forbes on the bids for the Buffalo Bills are accurate and that the NFL is not happy. The league is looking for a minimum bid of one billion dollars for the Bills and anything less is a setback for the NFL.
Terry and Kim Pegula’s reported bid of $890 million would look to be the winner if the process ended today. The Pegula’s are not about to up their bid just to appease the NFL unless it meant they could lose the team. Without another bidder willing to up the ante the Pegula’s feel they would be bidding against themselves.
The NFL was hoping to establish the one billion dollar mark as the minimum for team sales and there are rumors that the Cleveland Browns sale to Jimmy Haslam two years ago was one billion dollar purchase on paper only. It is possible that the same type of creative book keeping could take place to give the Buffalo Bills sale the appearance of a one billion dollar transaction.
Case in point; the Sabres were bought by Tom Golisano for a reported $85 million dollars, but sources involved in the process say that Golisano paid somewhere around $18 million in actual cash. the rest of the transaction was forgiveness of debt, etc.
With the Bills it is possible that value other than cash could be tossed into the “official” sale price so the NFL can save face and go on record that the Buffalo Bills sold for one billion bucks. With formal bids due in two weeks the winning bid should be known before the leaves turn.
Filed under: Koshinski's Korner
Tagged with: billion dollars, Buffalo Bills, NFL, Terry Pegula
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