The future of the Buffalo Bills is up in the air. Who will own it and where it will be located are all unknowns.
Buffalo is one of the few cities in the NFL in a unique position: a small market with large number of die-hard fans. About the only city in a similar position is Green Bay. In the long run, most traditional forms of single- or joint-ownership are untenable for such cities.
Well, there’s a solution. Combining aspects of Green Bay’s shareholder approach and the British MyFootballClub’s mass-ownership, one possibility is to sell the team to its fans. One person, one share, and intriguingly, one vote. Each owner can vote on draft picks, starting lineups, and so forth.
No more Monday morning quarterbacking and no more armchair analysis. Each member-owner can participate in the decisions that affect the Bills. While this sort of thing has been done for sports teams before (minor-league soccer and baseball, for instance), it has never been done on such a large scale.
This site, The People’s Bills, will be devoted to examining the viability and details of such a proposal. Of course, such a shareholder plan is currently in violation of the NFL rules, but perhaps not for long: Representative Higgins is trying to get the league head to allow Buffalo to also be shareholder-owned.
If and when, mass fan ownership of the Bills becomes a possibility, this site will act as a clearinghouse for all of that.
We recommend you peruse our site and read our blog for the latest updates about this concept. But first, here’s some numbers that might interest you:
Estimated Value of the Buffalo Bills: $821 million
Population of Buffalo Metropolitan Area: 1.1 million
Median income in Buffalo area: $38,400
Possible full spread of Buffalo Bills market:
If you have any interest in helping us, or can provide information or other types of support for this proposal, please contact us. And apparently, Jim Kelly wants to help buy the Bills. If you are Jim Kelly, we also want to hear from you. Thanks.
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