Three parties to prepare binding offers for Buffalo Bills
By Cory Buck
The Buffalo Bills ownership saga is advancing to the next stage. John Wawrow of the Associated Press reports that three parties — all headed by names familiar to the process at this point — are preparing binding offers to purchase the NFL team. Once those are submitted, the firm handling the team’s sale will sift through and fish for the best offers until they are satisfied.
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The three bidding parties include Terry and Kim Pegula, the current owner of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, a Toronto-based group headed by musician Jon Bon Jovi, and New York City billionaire Donald Trump. These are the names most strongly tied to the sale since the first non-binding bids were submitted.
Reports on the amounts bid on the team have wildly varied, but it’s widely believed that the Pegulas are the favorite in the process because of their fortune, which exceeds $3.5 billion, and because of their clearly stated intentions to keep the Bills in Buffalo. Jon Bon Jovi’s group, on the other hand, has offered no such assurances despite flimsily worded letters and other publicity attempts.
The process is already well underway as the article notes, “Attorneys representing each of the groups have spent the past week exchanging information with Proskauer Rose in order to complete the 80-page documents.”
The winning bidder will endure a background check by an NFL-contracted firm before their bid is then brought to the NFL ownership table. If the winner gets two-thirds of the owners’ approving votes, they get an NFL franchise. The timeline on such a move is still vague though, as the piece notes, “It’s unclear whether the sale and vetting process can be completed in time for league meetings early next month. The approval may have to be pushed back to NFL meetings scheduled for December.”