Tim Graham of the Buffalo News reports that the Bills’ financial advisers, Morgan Stanley, have begun granting access to interested parities to review the team’s financial information, which will allow them to determine the value of the franchise.
Billionaire Donald Trump is among the potential bidders who have access to the Bills financial information.
“I can confirm that Mr. Trump received yesterday information contained in the virtual data room provided by Morgan Stanley for application to purchase the Buffalo Bills,” executive vice president of the Trump Organization Michael Cohen said.
Terry and Kim Pegula, the owners of the Buffalo Sabres, recently hired Steve Greenberg, managing director of elite investment bank Allen & Company, to aid their bid for the team, so they appear to be a serious candidate.
Other candidates to purchase the team include: Tom Golisano (former Buffalo Sabres owner), Jon Bon Jovi and MLSE and C. Dean Metropoulos (owner of Pabst Brewing Company).
Forbes most recently valued the Bills at $870 million, but given the skyrocketing value of sports franchises, there is a chance that they could sell for something closer to a $1 billion.
There has been a lot of talk regarding the possibility of building a new stadium in Buffalo, but New York governor Andrew Cuomo has done his best to pump to the brakes a bit regarding this idea.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Cuomo earlier this week, per Dave McKinley of WGRZ.com. “Everyone wants the Bills to stay in Western New York. And, if everyone agreed that the only way the Bills could stay was a new stadium, then we should talk about a new stadium. But I don’t know that that’s the case.”
Cuomo mentioned that the state has already pumped $100 million into the team’s current stadium, so it appears as though they would prefer to wait before even broaching the topic of public funding for a brand new stadium.
“I know there’s a lot of anxiety and a lot of expectation,” said Cuomo. “But the process just has to play out. We have to find out who actually bids, what the offer actually is, who the NFL and the family actually wants to do business with, and what the terms are.”
We’ll have more updates regarding the Bills sale as the news is available.
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