A name can be removed from the list of potential buyers of the Buffalo Bills. Howard Milstein, who previously tried to purchase franchises in Washington and Cleveland, won’t try to acquire the Bills from the family of Ralph Wilson.
In a written statement released to the Buffalo News, Milstein said he plans to help try to keep the team in Buffalo by, among other things, selling land to the new owners for the construction of a new stadium.
“We are prepared to put substantial personal and business resources behind that effort, including our land in Niagara Falls, but this does not include participating in the sales process or making a bid to purchase the team,” Milstein said.
Milstein’s decision is not surprising. While he owns plenty of real estate, the question becomes whether he has the cold, hard cash required by the NFL to purchase a team. The league strictly limits the amount of debt that can be incurred and the amount of percentage points that can be sold to investors. Potential franchise owners need to be able to plunk down a substantial amount of dollars, and plenty of people who are rich enough to own a team don’t have the liquid assets to buy a team.
That reality could be an impediment for other potential owners of the Bills (cough . . . Trump . . . cough), especially if the effort to sell the team will be placed on a track that moves faster than potential buyers can convert land and other holdings into money, money, money, money . . . money.
