Inside The Bills

Brandon: Buddy Nix is our GM

Although CEO Russ Brandon has assumed organizational control of the Buffalo Bills from owner Ralph Wilson, but he’s going to allow the football people to do their jobs and that includes Bills GM Buddy Nix.

“Buddy Nix is our general manager and will run the football operation much like he has the last three years,” said Brandon.

Brandon: Sunday’s game will be blacked out

Bills CEO Russ Brandon, in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 Wednesday morning, confirmed that the team’s season finale on Sunday against the Jets will not be on local television this weekend.

“Unfortunately the game will be blacked out,” Brandon said when asked if the game would sell out by 1 pm on Thursday.

Buffalo’s home game against Jacksonville was the only other blacked out game this season.

Committed to Buffalo

All parties involved in the new lease agreement were encouraged by the Bills renewed commitment to Buffalo with the new 10-year lease agreement. Though the Buffalo media wondered about the $28M buyout, Bills CEO Russ Brandon assured it’s a non-issue.

“The assurance is that we are standing here right now,” said Brandon. ”The unwavering commitment of Ralph Wilson. The unwavering commitment of Governor Cuomo, Mark Poloncarz, our business leaders and our community leaders. This is, as I mentioned early, this is a monumental day for us. The Buffalo Bills are right here in Western New York—where we are going to be for many decades to come.”

When asked if that was a guarantee by him, Brandon offered the following.

“Guarantee. We are in Buffalo, Western New York. We are committed to this region,” said Brandon. ”Mr. Wilson’s belief in this region 50 years ago is the same as it is today. We are excited about it.”

Brandon’s comments were subsequently supported by Lt. Governor Bob Duffy.

“The Buffalo Bills have never wanted to leave,” Duffy said. ”They have wanted to stay here. They are a huge part of this community. It has been clear from day one. Looking at the realities, I think you take us through seven years. That is a great commitment right there. That gives us a chance as the County Executive mentioned, this community gets to look at options for a new stadium. I think anyone if there is ever an ownership change in the future, they look to how much is the community going to support this team. I do not think you can get a better support system than in Buffalo and Western New York for this team.”

Buyout option window is brief

While the exact length of time for the Bills to exercise a buyout option in Year 7 of the lease agreement with Erie County and New York State is not specifically spelled out in the memo of understanding signed by the Bills, the county and the state Friday, it is said to be brief. Here is why that is significant.

The exact time frame for the buyout option, in which the Bills would have to pay a termination fee of just over $28M, will be spelled out once the Memorandum of Understanding is ratified by the NFL as well as the state and county legislatures. But once that brief buyout window closes, the remainder of the term of the deal (3 years) will still operate under the $400M relocation penalty.

So essentially the $400M relocation penalty exists for almost the entire length of the deal, not just the first seven years.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz also stated that under the previous lease agreement the Bills could’ve left for a paltry sum in comparison to the $28M buyout in the new deal.

“Right now that the Bills could probably leave for two million. Last year, they could have left this community for two million dollars based on the prior lease,” said Poloncarz. ”I know we have a strong commitment from Mr. Wilson and the Bills organization. As Russ has noted, if they wanted to leave they could have left for peanuts in the last few years. They have been committed to this community and continue to be committed to this community through the life of this agreement.”

Lease deal still needs ratification

The announcement Friday of a new lease agreement between the Bills and Erie County for the next 10 years was welcome news for Bills fans. It is only an agreement in principle at this point and still needs to be ratified by the NFL. Here’s a timeline for ratification.

The NFL is expected to ratify the new lease agreement at the owners meetings in Arizona in March. It is expected to be approved by NFL ownership.

The lease agreement also needs to be ratified by the state and county legislatures, but that is considered a mere formality.

“We will spend time with the legislatures and make sure everything is worked out,” Bills CEO Russ Brandon told Buffalobills.com.

Brandon with lease update

Bills CEO Russ Brandon in his weekly appearance on Bills flagship WGR Sportsradio 550 provided the latest on lease negotiations Wednesday morning not long after expressing a desire to have all three parties (Bills, Erie County, New York state) sitting down at the negotiating table together.

“It has been positive. We’ve have great dialogue with the governor and lieutenant governor Duffy, who I’ve known for close to 20 years when he was the police chief of Rochester and then the mayor,” said Brandon. ”We’ve had some excellent dialogue and I anticipate the pace will quicken over the next few months and look forward to sitting down and starting the discussions and resetting the calendar.”

Brandon said he’s expecting an initial meeting to take place very soon and that all three parties will be represented.

“I feel very good about where the future of this is going to take us,” said Brandon.

Dareus not with team today

Bills DT Marcell Dareus is still back home in Alabama today as he attends the funeral for his younger brother.

That according to Bills CEO Russ Brandon. Making his weekly radio appearance on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550, Brandon said he was flying down to be at the funeral today as a Bills representative for Mr. Wilson.

“Hopefully we’ll get Marcell back with our Bills family soon,” he said.

Brandon: Not done with regionalization

Bills CEO Russ Brandon in his weekly appearance on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550 Wednesday morning was asked if the club has exhausted their regionalization efforts.

Brandon said there are still other options to explore.

“I think there are another couple of shoes to drop on that front,” said Brandon. ”We do have a radio agreement through the Entercom family in Syracuse. Syracuse is definitely a Bills town. I grew up there and it was certainly split between Giants, Jets, Bills back in the day, but it is certainly a Bills town now. I think there’s more that we can do there as well. It’s just a two-hour and 15 minute drive. There’s more opportunity, but we need to continue to strengthen Rochester and Toronto and Southern Ontario.”

Brandon: No multiple games in Toronto

Despite reports to the contrary last week, Bills CEO Russ Brandon in his weekly appearance on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550 explained that there will not be a scenario in a new Toronto deal that will have more than one regular season game a year played at the Rogers Centre.

“We’re continuing those negotiations and we’re close to an agreement,” said Brandon. ”But the one thing that I will say is the report in the Buffalo News was not accurate. The one thing I want to make clear is we will not be playing multiple regular season games in Toronto.”

Brandon explained how despite fan opposition to the initial Toronto agreement that the club has seen positive results from it.

“You look at the past five years and the what the Toronto initiative has done and we talked about bringing our fans from Southern Ontario back to Ralph Wilson Stadium,” said Brandon. ”That’s been the biggest positive. Five years ago roughly 11 percent of our fans came from Southern Ontario. Now literally 20 percent of our fans are from that location each and every Sunday.  So it has worked and it’s about keeping the team viable in Western New York and it’s a huge part of it.”

Team consoling Dareus

Bills CEO Russ Brandon appeared on the Howard Simon show this morning and expressed the organization’s condolences for DT Marcell Dareus, who lost a younger brother in an act of violence over the weekend.

“Obviously, it is a tragic situation and as an organization we are behind Marcell and his family 100-percent. That is our main focus,” said Brandon.

“I have been in contact with him and many people in our organization have. The most we can do is stand by him. He has obviously had some very difficult times throughout his life. It is amazing what he has accomplished on the football field and the kind of person he is off of it. All we can do is stand by and band together as an organization and a community.”

Dareus has experienced more loss than most in his young life, losing his father at age 6, a grandmother that helped raise him at 13, his high school coach and mentor at 18 and his mother at 20.

Here’s a closer look at the hardships Dareus has had to work through in his young life.

Tickets still moving

Bills CEO Russ Brandon appeared on SiriusXM NFL Radio and said fans are still gobbling up tickets in the wake of the club’s aggressive free agent period.

“I think when you look at the numbers it was very interesting,” said Brandon. ”I looked back at 2003 when we signed Drew Bledsoe. In that week we sold 1,263 new season tickets in the entire week, which was very positive. In two days, 48 hours after signing Mario, we sold over 1,400 new season tickets. When you look at it in totality where we sit today, we’ve sold close to 5,000 new season’s already and our renewal rate right now is at 82% which is very early and that’s much improved from where we were a year ago. The fans are definitely responding. We could see that over the last year, even before free agency. Fans have been very pleased with the direction, under Buddy and Chan and feel good about where the franchise is headed. We look forward to having eight games sold out here, because as you know there’s no better place in the NFL than Buffalo when this place is rocking.

“I think people feel very comfortable in that we’ve got a solid football guy in Buddy Nix running the football side of this organization and what Chan’s been able to do with this team offensively. I think there’s a lot of excitement and I think people understand the commitment that we’re making moving forward. I think it was a little bit spotlighted with what we were able to receive in free agency.”

Brandon on lease progress

Bills CEO Russ Brandon made an appearance on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550 Friday and was asked about the state of the team’s comprehensive study on stadium improvements, which are a precursor to stadium lease talks with Erie County. Here’s what Brandon had to offer.

“We’re coming down the conclusion,” said Brandon. ”We’ve had some discussions with County Executive Poloncarz and his team. We’re coming down to the conclusion by the first quarter of the year of our master plan study with Populus. We have some thoughts and ideas on how to improve the facility, and improve the experience for our great fans. In short order we’ll be spending some significant time looking at that and hopefully moving forward with it.”

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz recently stated that it’s his goal to have a new lease agreement in place before training camp in late July this summer. Brandon said he shares that optimism.

“We do,” Brandon said. ”When two parties are motivated and we all have the same vision and we’re working towards that… it’ll take a lot of time and effort, but everybody is on the same page and we looked forward to working on it.”

The Bills lease with Erie County expires on July 31, 2013.

Resources will not be an issue

Bills CEO Russ Brandon in an appearance on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550 reinforced GM Buddy Nix’s statement that the team will be aggressive in free agency, and went into a bit more detail concerning the fiscal side of the equation.

“Our philosophy is to draft, develop and retain and add key pieces to the organization that we feel can make a big impact,” said Brandon. ”We plan on being aggressive and resources will not be an issue whatsoever. And we will be out there trying to do our best to bring players into Buffalo that are the right fit. It takes two to tango and we’ll see how it all comes out.

“We feel we’re at a point where we have some specific needs and there’s excitement that we’re close. And that’s a credit to Buddy, the personnel staff and coach Gailey. So if we can add a couple of new pieces to this team that we’re ready to make a significant run.”

The Bills have been criticized in the past for not being aggressive enough when it comes to doling out big contracts, but Brandon explained their fiscal approach.

“Our goal is to have sustained success and one of the things when we talk cash to cap, that’s not a budget tool, it’s a roster discipline tool, so we’re not dumping money this time of year and cutting players,” said Brandon. ”We’re trying to build this for the long haul.”

Bills CEO on WBEN

Bills CEO Russ Brandon will be on the local airwaves this evening (Tuesday).

Brandon will appear on Newsradio 930 WBEN at 6:40 PM where he’ll address the announcement about Bills 2012 ticket prices.

You can listen online at http://www.wben.com

Buddy presser today

Bills GM Buddy Nix will be holding his season wrap up press conference today (Monday) at 11 am. We’ll have full coverage here on Buffalobills.com.

Nix and Bills CEO Russ Brandon met with Mr. Wilson in Detroit late last week for their assessment of the 2011 season and plans for the 2012 offseason.

Talk with Fisher continue

Bills CEO Russ Brandon continued discussions about a contract extension with St. John Fisher as the training camp home of the Bills for the foreseeable future on Saturday night.

“We’re continuing discussions,” said Brandon. ”I met with (SJF President) Dr. Bain tonight and we’re going to meet with him again on Wednesday, but we’re thinking within the next month we’ll have an extension done to be there long term.”

The reconfigured grass fields are what posed a big problem for the team and coaching staff this summer. Brandon is confident that issued has been resolved based on his discussions with the college.

“We’ve come to a pretty good consensus on what we need to get done there, and I don’t think the field will be an issue anymore,” he said. ”I think we’re pretty pleased with what they’ve done.”

Revenue sharing improved

With respect to the new CBA, Bills fans were interested in the state of the supplemental revenue sharing plan agreed upon by the NFL owners. Bills CEO Russ Brandon was asked about it in his press conference with GM Buddy Nix and head coach Chan Gailey.

“As you know, (revenue sharing) was important to our organization and many of the small markets throughout the league,” Brandon said. ”Mr. Wilson supported it and we voted for it so we’re pleased and we’re moving forward.”

 When asked if it could be characterized as an improved plan to the revenue sharing plan in the previous CBA, Brandon answered in the affirmative.

“It’s fair to say. I think we need to go through the agreement and see how it applies, what the mechanics are moving forward but obviously we voted for the agreement in totality, Mr. Wilson did, so we’re pleased where the agreement is,” said Brandon. 

“We talk about it all the time as an organization, we need to be regional. We’re a volume business here in Buffalo because our price points are what they are. We have a large stadium, we have a lot of suites and we need to be filled to capacity as much as possible. That, coupled with what the core economics of the agreement (are), we’re focused on the field and providing Buddy all those resources.”

Bills brass on the radio

Bills CEO Russ Brandon and Bills GM Buddy Nix will be on the radio airwaves this afternoon. Here’s the rundown on when and where they’ll be appearing.

Russ Brandon – The John DiTullio Show; 1280 WHTK & FM 107.3 (Rochester) at 3:45 PM (listen online)

Buddy Nix – Shredd and Ragan; 103.3 The Edge at 4:00 PM (listen online)

Buddy Nix – Prime Time Sports w/ Bob McCown; Fan 590 at 5:20 PM (listen online)

New turf has new elements

The new turf going in at Ralph Wilson Stadium is going to have some new elements.

Bills CEO Russ Brandon mentioned some of them, which appeared on the Buffalo Bills twitter account.

Bills-Toronto Series update

Bills CEO Russ Brandon covered the whole gamut of items on Buffalo’s table this offseason and beyond during local media interviews this week. That included comment on the future of the Bills Toronto Series.

When asked if negotiations have begun on a new agreement to stretch beyond the current five-year deal here was Brandon’s comment.

“We have had discussions with them right now about where the agreement is with the CBA and with the game this year,” said Brandon. ”Our focus right now is playing the Redskins up in Toronto.  They have some new leadership there, obviously Phil Lind is their vice chairman and Keith Pelley is their new president.  Keith and I have had some conversations relative to our current agreement.  We anticipate having some discussions moving forward.”

Buffalo’s current agreement lasts through the 2012 season. Brandon also said that Toronto has to be part of the franchise’s regional footprint for the long term.