Likely franchise shifts

[Troy_McClure_SF]

You guys know that the Florida Marlins are getting a new stadium, where they’ll be the Miami Marlins?

[Quintas]

@Omniscient

Not to mention sticking the other expansion franchise just up the road in Charlotte. If not for the Panthers, Jacksonville might have laid claim to a goodly portion of the Carolinas.

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Atlanta is closer to the carolina’s. And as far a S.C goes, they are too concerned with college football (Clemson / USC) to actively care about the NFL. IMO

[Quimby]

@Little_Nemo

The Buffalo Bills are almost certain to move. Owner Ralph Wilson is 92 (he’s the team’s original owner from 1960). When he dies and his daughters inherit the team, they will have to pay an inheritance tax on the team’s value. The only way they will be able to afford that payment will be to sell the team. Attempts to find a potential buyer in the area have been unsuccessful. So when Wilson dies the team will almost certainly be sold to somebody in another city who will relocate the team.

I’m not an accountant but couldn’t they get a loan using the team as collateral and then use the revenue from the team to pay back the loan?

[zamboniracer]

@Little_Nemo

The Buffalo Bills are almost certain to move. Owner Ralph Wilson is 92 (he’s the team’s original owner from 1960). When he dies and his daughters inherit the team, they will have to pay an inheritance tax on the team’s value. The only way they will be able to afford that payment will be to sell the team. Attempts to find a potential buyer in the area have been unsuccessful. So when Wilson dies the team will almost certainly be sold to somebody in another city who will relocate the team.

The Wilson daughters could avoid the estate tax if Ralph dies before December 31, 2010 - the Steinbrenner/Bush tax cut exception.

[Omniscient]

@Munch

I’d like them to stay (there are good sports fans there), but they need to redo their entire organization structure as it relates to ticket pricing and packages, which contributes heavily to their abysmal attendance. Currently as I understand it, they have 3 or 4 different pricing structures. And not just for Level 1/2/3/4 in the stadium, but for the types of games they play. A game against the Royals, and the ticket for seat 13/1/5 is $9. A game against the Red Sox, and that same seat is $25. Do that with ticket prices AND parking prices, and you have a fan base that has no idea what it’s going to cost to take the kids to the game, or want to just stop by for an afterwork evening tilt. Terrible.

Every team does that with pricing. The issue isn’t with fan confusion, it’s with the fact that there’s even an option to walk up to a game at all. Most viable MLB cities have nothing but nosebleeds and single seats available day of game. Advance sales are where teams live and if a team is depending on day of day sales they have more fundamental problems.

[Duke]

@zamboniracer

The Wilson daughters could avoid the estate tax if Ralph dies before December 31, 2010 - the Steinbrenner/Bush tax cut exception.

Better not tell any Buffalonians that…or I hope that Wilson has a bodyguard or two.

Anyway I have a hunch that local buyers will be found. Keep in mind that the current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a Western New York guy.

[Musky_Moon]

I think Southern New Jersey could support an NHL franchise. Perhaps based in Vorhees. It would take a few years to overcome the overwhelming Flyers bias there, but there are few areas in the country that can claim such a rabid hockey culture without a team of thier own.

[soulmurk]

@Musky_Moon

I think Southern New Jersey could support an NHL franchise. Perhaps based in Vorhees. It would take a few years to overcome the overwhelming Flyers bias there, but there are few areas in the country that can claim such a rabid hockey culture without a team of thier own.

You’re kidding, right?

There’s a team ~30 miles to the north of Voorhees in Newark.

[brianjedi]

There’s actually a movement building on Facebook to try to convince the Kings to move to Louisville and bring Boogie Cousins and Francisco Garcia home. A sparkling new downtown arena just opened, this state loves basketball and the nearest franchises are the Pacers (a couple of hours away), the Grizzlies (really far away) and the Cavs (equally really far away.)

[zamboniracer]

@Duke

Better not tell any Buffalonians that…or I hope that Wilson has a bodyguard or two.

Anyway I have a hunch that local buyers will be found. Keep in mind that the current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a Western New York guy.

The tax law has led to some morbid humor at estate planning seminars. “The best end of the year estate tax move you can make is to smother dear old dad with a pillow before New Year’s” etc, etc.

[fiddlesticks]

I wonder how the London NFL franchise is going to work in practice…I wonder if the team would permanently time-shift their lives so that they live on American East Coast all the time so that jet lag isn’t a problem when they go to North America 8 times a year. Either way, its one hell of a burden to put on one team.

They’ll never get to host Sunday or Monday Night Football either, unless they want to live with kicking off at 2am. But their home games would be prime time in the UK so maybe they won’t mind.

[Duke]

I’m not sure why London is considered the best place for the NFL to expand. The London franchise of NFL Europe folded for lack of interest, and during the later part of the league’s existence five of the six teams were in Germany. Honestly, Germany seems like a better bet…although I wouldn’t put any money on the NFL expanding there either.