RIP Ralph Wilson

[jmt57]

RIP to Ralph Wilson.

The Buffalo Bills owner and last of the "Foolish Club", the eight original AFL owners, has passed away at the age of 95.


Tough week for Bills fans, first with news of Jim Kelly's cancer, and now this.

 

[Froob]

RIP Mr. Wilson. One of the all time greats. Hopefully the Bills stay in Buffalo even without him.

 

[Rob0729]

For all the crap he has gotten over the last decade, the NFL wouldn't be the NFL that it is without Wilson. Owners like him built this league and helped it through its growing pains.

 

[Deus Irae]

Prayers to his family in their time of sorrow.

 

[Joker]

ask not for whom the bell tolls....

RIP ..................

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Buffalo is a great city and the people are top notch. Tough week for Bills fans. I hope whoever gains control keeps the Bills in Buffalo!

He could have made a killing selling his team to someone who wanted to move it, but he refused and would not let them leave Buffalo. Good guy he will be missed.

 

[PATSNUTme]

RIP Mr Wilson. I know a person who was on the coaching staff during the 4 straight SB appearances. He has nothing but good to say about MR. Wilson.

 

[varjao]

2 weeks ago William Clay Ford also passed away, 2 owners in the same month.

RIP

 

[Fencer]

One may question his effectiveness as an owner, but if there was anything else at all to criticize him for, I've never heard it.

RIP.

 

[everlong]

Thoughts and condolences to the family.

 

[oldrover]

One of the AFL's founding fathers... may God rest and keep his immortal soul.

 

[JDot]

RIP, Mr Wilson. Thoughts and condolences to his family loved ones..

 

[Kontradiction]

My condolences to the Wilson family and all affected. A legendary owner.

 

[sb1]

One of the all time great owners in American pro sports. He is one big reason why the NFL as we know it is here today.

RIP and condolences to his family, Bills fans and the city of Buffalo.

May the Bills find a way to stay in Buffalo. That's their home and that's the way Mr. Wilson wanted it.

 

[patchick]

For all the crap he has gotten over the last decade, the NFL wouldn't be the NFL that it is without Wilson. Owners like him built this league and helped it through its growing pains.

Amen. And even in the past decade...remember all the scoffing when he refused to vote for the last-minute 2006 labor agreement, saying that given the rush he "didn't understand it"? And how it turned out that it was the 30 owners who DID vote for it who didn't understand the mess they were getting themselves into?

 

[chasa]

he seemed like a legitmately good person.

rip

 

[Uncle Meat]

May the Bills find a way to stay in Buffalo. That's their home and that's the way Mr. Wilson wanted it.

I appreciate how this thread is classy.

RIP to Ralph Wilson, a true NFL pioneer.

As to the Bills staying in Buffalo, a new 10-year stadium lease was put through last year. A big stipulation to the lease is that there will be a $400 million penalty if the team were to move in the first seven years of the lease...so that's through the year 2020. Again, $400 million just for the penalty of moving them. In addition, there are $130 million worth of renovations happening to Ralph Wilson Stadium this offseason.

Looks like Ralph was trying to make it so the team stays in Buffalo this way. There are interested billionaires with ties to Western New York (and Buffalo in particular) as well. Roger Goodell is from the area. Politicians will push for it. I think a lot of people will do all they can to make sure that the team stays in Buffalo. Ironically, Jim Kelly was always rumored to be trying to get some group together somehow, and his cancer just aggressively returned...and I heard that he's actually undergoing surgery this very day (cannot verify that).

 

[DaBruinz]

Thoughts and prayers going out to Ralph Wilson's family.

This is just been a horrible week in general.. Had a co-worker pass away as well.

 

[sb1]

I remember the reports that Mr. Wilson bailed out the Patriots from financial ruin back in the AFL days. Same with the Raiders.

He had the vision to know that the AFL needed these two teams to stay alive. Without him, no merger and no NFL.

 

[upstater1]

Buffalo is a great city and the people are top notch. Tough week for Bills fans. I hope whoever gains control keeps the Bills in Buffalo!

He could have made a killing selling his team to someone who wanted to move it, but he refused and would not let them leave Buffalo. Good guy he will be missed.

I know the guy died today, and that this may seem like the story nationally, but it's been well-known inside Buffalo for years that NOT selling the team makes them MORE likely to move.

And this has everything to do with death taxes and keeping as much of the $800m for his family. I know that most people would want to keep hundreds of millions for their families but the fact is, the Bills were a team that were subsidized by the local tax base over the years and much of that franchise value is owed morally (ha, ha) to the people of the region. This is why so many have a distaste for how everything has gone down.

This now goes to lawyers who will auction it off to the highest bidder with absolutely no interference from the family. In this way, he maximized the value for his family. The one saving grace, and I have to hand it to Wilson here, is that he did sign a long lease of about 10 years, so whoever buys the team will buy knowing he can't move it out of Buffalo for a decade, or else he will have to expend an awful lot of money buying himself out of the contract. I suppose you might argue that this drives the price of the team down, but in the end it would have been better if he had sold to one of the 6 local billionaires who are interested. (Their industries: Manhattan real estate, fracking, high tech payroll software, processed foods and goods, Delaware North).