Binding bids for the purchase of the Bills are due today, and the vote on a new owner is "on pace for the October owner's meeting," according to sources cited by Jason La Canfora of CBSSPORTS.com. Sabres Owner Terry Pegula "is viewed as the most viable option." Sources said that he is "poised to handle" the $1.1-1.4B expected price tag. Pegula "has strong public support." Sources said that even if the NFL "finds a party to enter the equation late and push the sale price further above" the $1B range, Pegula has "expressed a willingness to confidants to do whatever he has to do to get the team" (CBSSPORTS.com, 9/7). SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel Kaplan reports a potential new Bills owner "is expected by insiders to be chosen in time for a scheduled NFL finance committee vote on Sept. 17." There remain bidders "not yet publicly identified as of late last week," and the final price is "very likely" to top $1B (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/8 issue).
BORDER WARS? In Buffalo, James Fink writes while most people "agree that chances of the Bills leaving the region are slim," that "still doesn't stop the worriers." Former Bills coach Marv Levy "knows all about the hold the NFL team has on the region." Levy: "It's almost legendary in the NFL, probably up there with the way Green Bay feels about the Packers." He added, "The Bills are so strongly identified with Western New York. I believe that will be a significant factor and consideration with whoever buys the team" (BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST, 9/5 issue). Meanwhile, SPORTSNET.ca's Michael Grange wrote if the city of Toronto "ever does get to be the first international entry in that most American of pastimes ... then the opportunity that came and went over the past six months should be remembered as the time the city missed its moment in the most Toronto of ways." The only move "was to do something financially crazy, and those trying to bring the NFL" to the city "aren’t that." As a result, they "were never really in the running to get their hands" on the Bills. On the surface, the Toronto group bidding for the team "had all the elements of a serious player," but in reality, the contest "is there to be won by Pegula." MLSE Chair Larry Tanenbaum and Rogers Communications Deputy Chair Edward Rogers "are serious bidders, but not nuts, which is why they won't get this team" (SPORTSNET.ca, 9/4).
