Re: NFL Market Study: Radio Considerations
> Shed no tears for Ralph Wilson or any of the owners. Just as
> well, shed no tears for the players, a majority of whom are
> well, if not over-compensated for their skills.
Thinking about a certain QB as you post that? ;-)
> The greater consideration for Bills fans is "what happens to
> the team" when Wilson passes. The estate taxes will be
> considerable. His daughter, although involved with operation
> and management, appears not interested in inheriting the
> team. Some have speculated that the estate taxes have
> already been placed in escrow. Wilson's no fool, for sure.
> It's quite conceivable that he's already planned for the
> team's ownership transition.
Estate taxes aren't what they used to be...I'm sure he has already provided a cash cushion to soften whatever blow does fall.
> Whenever potential local ownership of the Bills is
> mentioned, the Jacobs, Rich and Gallisano families are
> mentioned. All have experience with ownership of sports
> teams and would be responsible stewards of the team.
The buzz around the region centers around the interest of Robert Rich, Jr. in the team...his dad purchased the first 25 years of naming rights to the Ralph and it's not much of a stretch to think that he (who is now family patriarch following his father's recent passing) might well be interested in putting his name back on the place.
Tom Golisano has the bucks, for sure, but I know him, and know that next to business, family, charitable projects and public policy issues, hockey is his passion. Wouldn't surprise me if he brings a Stanley Cup to Western NY long before we ever see a Lombardi Trophy at 1 Bills Drive...hey, it could even happen this June.
> Now, one more jingoistic point: As much as the team is a
> regional attraction, it's still called the BUFFALO Bills.
>
> I'll now return to being my regionally-centered and
> objective self.
>
> > People make a mistake by looking at it just in terms of
> > the
> > Buffalo/Niagara Falls metro market. It's really a regional
> > team which also takes in metro Rochester (1.1 million
> > population, almost identical to metro Buffalo) and the
> > Niagara Falls/St. Catharines, ON metro market (another
> > 400,000+). 1/3 of every game's attendance comes out of the
> > Rochester metro. The Bills are really a regional team
> This brings to the table another issue, that being the size
> of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls market, listed as market number
> 52 by Arbitron. Consider how much larger the market would be
> if, as was pointed out in another post in this thread, the
> Niagara Peninsula of Ontario was included.
At one point Nielsen and Arbitron DID include the Canadian side in the Buffalo radio and TV markets, which doubled the size of the TV market and increased the radio market by at least 50%. That stopped for two reasons. One, Canadian viewing and listening habits changed as they got more of their own local stations and began to prefer them---sharply reducing their use of US media. Two, starting about 30 years ago, Canadian advertisers no longer could deduct as business expenses, most of what they spent on American TV and rasio advertising except in those areas where no comparable Canadian signals operated, and that clearly didn't include southern Ontario. So whatever Canadian listenership or viewership American stations got, was only worthwhile to American national spot advertisers who marketed their products on both sides of the border...not to Canadian companies trying to reach primarily Canadian viewers/listeners.
