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Audacy producing "Training Camp Live"; Buffalo Bills are persona non grata

NY didn't pay for the stadium. NJ did. NY spent a lot more money on new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets. Upstate ought to get equal consideration.
Doesn't matter who paid for it, but it got built.
Without a new stadium, the league will pressure the Bills to move. Buffalo can always try to get some Canadian money. Before the Pandemic, I've heard that Canadians are something like 25-30 percent of the people attending their games.

The point is that the league will survive whether or not the Bills remain in Buffalo. Austin has plenty of new money coming in. The NFL also still has London in its sights for a team...
 
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The NFL also still has London in its sights for a team...
I remember when there was consideration for a team in Monterrey or Mexico City. They looked deeper, and found that the only real American football fans were Mexicans who had gone to college or lived a long time in the US. That group could fill a stadium for a game or two, but a whole season would erase the novelty value after a few games.

I suspect that the same would apply to London as well.
 
I remember when there was consideration for a team in Monterrey or Mexico City. They looked deeper, and found that the only real American football fans were Mexicans who had gone to college or lived a long time in the US. That group could fill a stadium for a game or two, but a whole season would erase the novelty value after a few games.

I suspect that the same would apply to London as well.
Hard to say. The NFL keeps scheduling games in London every year. They're constantly looking for global money. The money is in corporate sponsorships and luxury boxes, not the average Joe in the cheap seats.

Reminds me of the James Caan movie ROLLERBALL. The corporations run the show...
 
The misconception that rich people have loads of cash is widely prevalent.
It is true that the rich don't have loads of cash on hand, as their wealth is tied up in various assets. However the rich do have access to high levels of leverage, often to an extreme degree. They would never tie up $2B of capital all at once; it would be borrowed, using existing assets as collateral, with extremely low interest rates. As the old saying goes, "the easiest way to get a loan is to prove you don't need it."

There is no way Austin would fund and build an NFL stadium. As I mentioned in another thread, the city is full of UT alumni who are devoted to their alma mater, and fervently believe Longhorn sports should be the only game in town. And there is a general hostility to professional sports in Austin as well. That's why the AAA baseball team is in suburban Round Rock, and the AHL and G-League teams in Cedar Park. I'm amazed the MLS stadium got built within the city limits.
 
There are a lot of ways in which cities benefit from owning stadiums. The most obvious is they can lease it out for other events and they keep the money. They charge the team rent. They get a percentage of concessions. They own the parking lot. They get a percentage of the stadium naming rights.

Then there are the intangibles, which is attracting tourism, the hotel rooms used by visiting teams and fans, the additional people shopping in local stores and eating in restaurants. All of that contributes to sales tax fees and other taxes.

The way most cities finance stadiums is to impose certain use taxes on game tickets, parking fees, rental car fees, hotel room fees, and other things people from outside the area do. The main goal is to have the visitors to Buffalo pay for the stadium, not the local residents. So typically this kind of thing doesn't come out of local property taxes. This will all be discussed at the city council meeting when the city decides on this proposal. These are usually open to the public.



Taxpayers own the frequencies that you're licensed to use. You're just a renter.
Ahhhh…no. I own the frequencies
 
Ahhhh…no. I own the frequencies

Not exactly. You own the license to operate on the frequencies. Not the frequencies themselves. There are limits on what you can do as stipulated in the terms of the license. The taxpayers own the spectrum. It is a public resource, not unlike other natural public resources that are licensed out to users and operators. The FCC can find you unfit to operate and revoke your license.
 
Ahhhh…no. I own the frequencies
You own the license. The license expires eventually and needs to be renewed; renewal is expected by not guaranteed. Or it can be revoked and cancelled due to infractions... not a frequent occurrence but distinctly possible.
 
The on field performance has nothing to do with revenue. Dallas has been mediocre for years, but they get national ratings. The Modern NFL requires Football Palaces. If Buffalo wants to stay "relevant", they have to build one. By the way, The Giants have some Super Bowl wins in their history. The Bills have had one good season in 25 years...

1. Dallas gets what you mentioned because networks like ESPN, FS1, etc. can't stop talking about them. Go look at any of their talk shows and you'll see what I mean.

2. The Giants haven't won a Super Bowl since 2011, and have been to the playoffs only twice since then. They've only had 3 winnings seasons in that time frame, too. As for the Jets...only 1 winning season since 2010 and one playoff appearance. How about Buffalo? 4 winning seasons, 3 playoff appearance(all in the last 4 seasons).
 
1. Dallas gets what you mentioned because networks like ESPN, FS1, etc. can't stop talking about them. Go look at any of their talk shows and you'll see what I mean.

2. The Giants haven't won a Super Bowl since 2011, and have been to the playoffs only twice since then. They've only had 3 winnings seasons in that time frame, too. As for the Jets...only 1 winning season since 2010 and one playoff appearance. How about Buffalo? 4 winning seasons, 3 playoff appearance(all in the last 4 seasons).
How about New England? 6 Super Bowl wins in the past 20 years. What is your point?
The Bills have sucked since the 90s and have never won a Super Bowl. They had a great season last year and got blown out in KC when it mattered. Fact check - Buffalo was 6-10 in the 2018 season and no playoff game.
They currently have 2 consecutive winning seasons. The NFL also expanded the playoffs to 14 teams.

Seattle, LA Rams, New Orleans, Green Bay, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and other teams have have surpassed what you are crowing about. Dallas generates ratings and revenue even when losing. $$$ is the bottom line in the NFL...
 
Wow. That's a lot of football talk for a radio thread. Surprised it didn;t get moved to TIO wasteland.

This reads like what WGR sounded like the day the story broke. There are known knowns and known unknowns. The Pegula clan has assets. The state has assets. It's a matter of how much each contributes their assets to the project. This is high stakes negotiating, phase one. The stadium, if built, will be in Orchard Park because the county owns plenty of land, and there are no acquisition costs. A city stadium would be great, but it's not likely. Then again, all this is...

Just speculatin'
 
There are two advantages to moving the stadium downtown. It would move the stadium out off the snow belt, and it would force the city to take down the derelict buildings in the Perry Projects. Otherwise, you're taking up valuable development space in an expanding area near the Buffalo River and the waterfront area for a facility that's used less than a dozen times per year (assuming that you cannibalize events from the downtown arena). The Pegulas have also established a world-class training facility in Orchard Park. Moving that downtown simply isn't going to happen. It would not be reasonable to train in your own stadium if it's 20 miles from your training facilities. Not to mention issues with parking, access, loss of tailgating, and tying up the rest of downtown on game days. The downtown land can be used for much better development projects if the city used some of the Covid windfall to clear the land and make it available. If nothing else, clear the Perry Projects and build decent affordable housing there.
 
There are two advantages to moving the stadium downtown.

It's all a very interesting discussion, and it will all be discussed in front of the public during city council meetings. If the city decides to offer bonds, it will be brought to a public vote, and the voters will decide if they want to support such an idea. Same if demolition is involved. The city can't commit public funds without input from the public. If Buddy Shula objects, he should plan on attending the meetings. As a prominent businessman, he could even volunteer to be part of a local committee.
 
It's rather remarkable and curious that a broadcast station owner, individual, local or corporate, would presume to believe that they owned the frequencies on which their stations operate. At best, they own the apparatus, equipment, land that is used to broadcast on the assigned frequencies. As has been pointed out earlier ↑ in this thread, operation of a radio station is a licensed procedure. A licensee retains the right to broadcast pursuant to the rules of the FCC, and that license (privilege) must be renewed. (It happens that 2022 is license renewal year for stations in NY state.) Broadcasters should be familiar with landmark FCC and court decisions such as the Red Lion case, or the Star Stations owned by Don Burden, or the WHDH-TV case in Boston.
 
It's rather remarkable and curious that a broadcast station owner, individual, local or corporate, would presume to believe that they owned the frequencies on which their stations operate. At best, they own the apparatus, equipment, land that is used to broadcast on the assigned frequencies. As has been pointed out earlier ↑ in this thread, operation of a radio station is a licensed procedure. A licensee retains the right to broadcast pursuant to the rules of the FCC, and that license (privilege) must be renewed. (It happens that 2022 is license renewal year for stations in NY state.) Broadcasters should be familiar with landmark FCC and court decisions such as the Red Lion case, or the Star Stations owned by Don Burden, or the WHDH-TV case in Boston.
Out of about 15,000 radio stations, how many have ever lost licenses? In fact, how many have been challenged, even back in the 70's when strike applications encouraged by certain religious and activist groups were promoted?

Burden bribed congressmen. The Red Lion stations patently refused to grant equal time. We have to go back 50 or more years for those two.

Others: There was a station in rural SC that had a very profane morning show and paid the price. A station in Tucson as well as one in Miami rigged contests. KRLA in Los Angles had illegal foreign ownership. Richard Eaton allowed illegal gambling "numbers games" on WOOK in DC and did double billing on WFAB in Miami and lost licenses. Convicted felons in IN and MO lost licenses. And a few... very few... others.

All these were serious offenses, not an inadvertent failure to give the legal ID or not having the public file up to date or having a broken lock on the fence around the tower base.

No, licensees don't "own" their station licenses. But they have reasonable expectations of renewals. In Buddy's cases, being a local owner with community involvement is pretty much a guarantee that he'll have the license as long as he wants it.
 
No, licensees don't "own" their station licenses. But they have reasonable expectations of renewals. In Buddy's cases, being a local owner with community involvement is pretty much a guarantee that he'll have the license as long as he wants it.

Which may be why some owners get lulled into thinking they DO own the frequency, until something comes up. If you've ever buy stock in a radio company, the prospectus will warn you in extreme detail about all of the limitations to owning radio stations, and all of the things that are not under the control of the owner. Of course, who would ever buy stock in a radio company, but that's another subject.
 
It's all a very interesting discussion, and it will all be discussed in front of the public during city council meetings. If the city decides to offer bonds, it will be brought to a public vote, and the voters will decide if they want to support such an idea. Same if demolition is involved. The city can't commit public funds without input from the public. If Buddy Shula objects, he should plan on attending the meetings. As a prominent businessman, he could even volunteer to be part of a local committee.
For the record, A, the City of Buffalo has nothing to do with Bills stadium negotiation. That would change if the Bills were considering a downtown site. But from what we know, the Pegulas are proposing the new stadium for suburban Orchard Park, adjacent to the existing one. The primary level of government during the past two stadium lease negotiations (in 1998 and 2012) was New York State. That appears to be the case this time. Erie County government does play a role as the official owner of the stadium. County Executive Mark Poloncarz wrote a book about the last stadium negotiation, which I should read to be able to address this issue. Still, I don’t recall there ever being a public vote in past negotiations. The state and team came to an agreement. The Erie County Legislature gave its approval, and construction began.
 
For the record, A, the City of Buffalo has nothing to do with Bills stadium negotiation. That would change if the Bills were considering a downtown site.

If you notice I was responding to a comment about a downtown stadium. It's directly above my post.

I don’t recall there ever being a public vote in past negotiations.

There likely would not have been unless there was a bond issue to fund the construction.
 
Out of about 15,000 radio stations, how many have ever lost licenses? In fact, how many have been challenged, even back in the 70's when strike applications encouraged by certain religious and activist groups were promoted? Burden bribed congressmen. The Red Lion stations patently refused to grant equal time. We have to go back 50 or more years for those two.
Others: There was a station in rural SC that had a very profane morning show and paid the price. A station in Tucson as well as one in Miami rigged contests. KRLA in Los Angles had illegal foreign ownership. Richard Eaton allowed illegal gambling "numbers games" on WOOK in DC and did double billing on WFAB in Miami and lost licenses. Convicted felons in IN and MO lost licenses. And a few... very few... others.
Concur. License challenges and revocations aren't an every day occurance. But they do in fact occur, and the incidents you mention add further testimony and instructive examples to the fact that frequencies are not owned. They're licensed.

One more for the record, in Western New York for that matter. 1570 WBUZ, Fredonia, a little daytimer that at one time had a terrific Top 40 sound and sent more than a few guys to bigger markets like Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester. A few went to the majors, Detroit and Philadelphia. So egregious was the station's EEO offense in the 70s, a manager/owner who blatantly discriminated against a woman of color, that the FCC pulled the license and it went dark.
 
If you notice I was responding to a comment about a downtown stadium. It's directly above my post.
Yes, but even in the city of Buffalo, a new stadium would be owned by Erie county, as Buffalo (ta-dahh) is within the county. The city would have a (little) say over some aspects regarding land rights/purchases and infrastructure, but because of the government structure here, Erie county and New York state would be the driving and controlling forces behind any deal. All this said, much of the land around the site that for years has been talked about as the site of the stadium, has been bought by large, local private developers who were ... just speculatin'

The new stadium, should it materialize, will be built in Orchard Park. One very important development that lends itself to this theory occurred last month when plans to scuttle the Skyway were themselves ... scuttled. The Skyway provides integral and alternative access to the south towns and Orchard Park.
 
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