NFL Ownership: Bills benefit from modern rules
By Andy Pollin
All that stands between Terry Pegula and his $1.4 billion purchase of the Buffalo Bills is approval of the NFL owners, thanks to an agreement reached this week. Pegula also owns the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabers, which years ago, might have been a roadblock for the sale to go through. It may have even prevented the Bills from staying in Buffalo.
The NFL used to have rules against cross-ownership. As the league was finding it’s way in the 1950’s, Commissioner Bert Bell wanted the owners to focus their attention on the success of their teams. He instituted rules that said, if you owned an NFL team, you couldn’t own a team in another sport. Nobody really kicked up too much of a fuss, because in those days, sports franchises weren’t the money makers they are today. But if those rules existed today, either Pegula would have to sell the Sabers or he wouldn’t be able to own the Bills. It might have meant the family of late Bills founder Ralph Wilson would be forced to sell to an owner not willing to remain in Buffalo.
It wasn’t until 1997 that the rules were amended. Wayne Huizenga, who owned baseball’s Florida Marlins and hockey’s Florida Panthers, wanted to have all the ownership rights he was entitled to with the Miami Dolphins. He’d been the majority owner since 1993, but the team had been placed in a trust to avoid the rules against cross-ownership. The new rules said NFL owners could purchase teams in other sports, as long as it was in the same market as the football team. Also, it was okay to own teams in another sport as long those teams were in cities without a football team. Paul Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. No problem since Portland doesn’t have an NFL team.
Then you have exceptions. Stan Kroenke bought the St. Louis Rams in 2010. Nobody owns more teams than Kroenke. In addition to the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, he’s got from Major League Soccer, the Colorado Rapids and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. All play in the same market as the Denver Broncos. Technically that’s a no no. The loophole is Kroenke is listed as majority owner of the Rams and his son has that title for everything else.
And then there’s the Green Bay Packers. They are what they are since they were set up this way by August A Reimer in 1923 – a publicly owned non profit corporation. Team President Mark Murphy represents the Packers at owners meetings, but the team is owned by the their stockholders.
The most interesting story from the days where cross-ownership was prohibited involves one of the great characters in the history of sports. Jack Kent Cooke became majority owner of the Washington Redskins in 1974. But since he owned the Lakers and Kings, Los Angeles’ basketball and hockey teams, he wasn’t allowed to serve in an ownership role for the Redskins. The team’s board of directors chose famed trial attorney Edward Bennett Williams as the operating partner. That led to an interesting evening for longtime Washington, D.C. television producer and director Ernie Baur.
In the mid-70’s at Cooke’s urging, the Redskins hired Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn to do the play-by-play of the team’s preseason games. Although Cooke was in Los Angeles, he was somehow able to watch. During one of the games, while directing from a television truck, Baur answered his hotline phone and heard a very irate Cooke on the other end. It seems that Hearn had referred to Williams as the owner of the Redskins. Cooke in some very salty language told Baur to never again let that blankety-blank Hearn refer to Williams as the owner.
In the late 70’s Cooke sold the Lakers, Kings and Los Angeles Forum to Jerry Buss for a record $67.5 million, bought an estate just outside of Washington in Middleburg, Virginia and assumed ownership of the Redskins. The timing was right for both of them. Buss’ Lakers soon drafted Magic Johnson and went on to their “Showtime” success of the 1980’s. Cooke hired Joe Gibbs as his coach and watched his team play in four Super Bowls, winning three, over the next decade. Good times.