Report: Toronto group’s chances ‘slim’ of winning Buffalo Bills
By Cory Buck
The Buffalo Bills just can’t stay out of the limelight. After having been one of the two teams to open the NFL season with the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH, the team remains front and center in NFL headlines with their ongoing franchise sale saga.
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The latest bit comes from The Toronto Sun, where John Wawrow writes that the ‘Toronto group’ centered around Jon Bon Jovi believes their chances to be ‘slim’ of actually winning the bid for the Buffalo Bills.
If the rumors are true (and there have been new rumors on almost a daily basis in this story) then that would clear the way for Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula and New York City business mogul Donald Trump to duke it out over the bidding process. The biggest hang-up for the Toronto group is the cash-at-hand available to Bon Jovi, who intends to be the primary owner of any NFL franchise on which he bids.
"The rocker by far is the least wealthiest and cash-flush of the Toronto trio. Sources continue to underscore, though, that the unshakeable plan for this group is for Bon Jovi to assume the controlling, minimum-30% share, even though Tanenbaum and the Rogers family combined are worth about $9.5 billion. At whichever point soon past the $1-billion threshold, Bon Jovi ceases to have the ability to meet that 30% threshold."
Unless the Rogers family wants to take over the group’s finances, it appears that the Toronto group will be left twisting in the wind, even after Bon Jovi’s half-hearted plea to the City of Buffalo that claimed he’d be committed to ‘making the Bills succeed in Buffalo’.
Unfortunately for Jovi, Bills fans aren’t sold on him and it appears that the Ralph Wilson trust isn’t either.
If early reports are any indication, it appears that the Toronto group will soon have to bow out in the face of serious cash-flush billionaires prepared to duke it out over a coveted NFL franchise.