Niagara Falls and Milstein may figure in future of Buffalo Bills

The NFR footprint may be the home turf for the Buffalo Bills and part of a large scale entertainment complex hosting a multitude of attractions to keep the site constantly in use.

Ralph Wilson, 93, says he won’t sell team during his lifetime.

Howard Milstein, wealthy businessman and real estate developer, owns enough property in downtown Niagara Falls to accommodate an NFL football stadium and much more..

The Hall of Fame QB, Kelly has always been interested in being part of an onwership group to buy the Bills.

Is the common thread Trevino, the man who brought us Wallenda? Executive Vice President of NFR, was Kelly’s former agent.

Mayor Paul Dyster says he wants Bills to stay in Western New York.

Sports financier Gillet is close to Kelly.

Where will the Buffalo Bills call home in five years or less, or more to the point, after Ralph Wilson’s passing?

That’s the question on a lot of people’s minds these days with stalled talks on a new stadium lease deal with Erie County and New York State, an ailing 93-year-old owner who says the team will be sold after he departs, and no commitment from the franchise, with or without owner Ralph Wilson, to stay here.

With that cloud of uncertainty hanging over a team that hasn’t had a winning record since 2004, the Bills are still worth an estimated $805 million in 2012, according to Forbes magazine, up 2 percent over last year and still rank as the 29th most valuable NFL club.

So what’s next for the Bills, which Forbes calls “arguably the most troubled franchise in the NFL” which has had difficulty selling out Ralph Wilson Stadium (three recent blackouts) despite having the second-lowest ticket price ($59) last year? But don’t feel too bad for this franchise. The Bills are subsidized $7 million a year by county and state taxpayers for stadium operating and capital improvement costs. And the team is expected to renew and improve a lucrative deal with Rogers Communications to play regular season games in Toronto, an agreement that brought in $78 million over the last five years and is due to expire at the end of this year.

But the lease deal between the Bills and Erie County expires next July and the team, as part of its lease talks with Erie County and the state, wants upwards of $200 million in stadium renovations to stay viable. But the state, which would bear the brunt of those costs, wants a commitment from the Bills to stay in the area before committing to a new deal. So what’s next, beyond the one-year extension that is in the works that is likely to keep the team here through at least next season?

Here’s where things get very interesting, and Niagara Falls may be emerging as a potential home for the Bills, according to several sources who tell us Howard Milstein, the Manhattan real estate developer with close ties to Gov. Cuomo, may be the big player who could put the deal together.

Let’s take a look at what we do know for sure. The state has been stalling on moving forward on a new lease agreement, with the Cuomo Administration publicly saying it wants a commitment from the Bills before signing any new deal. Behind the scenes, sources in the building trades tell the Niagara Falls Reporter that even $250 million in renovations to 39-year-old Ralph Wilson Stadium would be, according to one of our sources, like putting a Band-Aid on an elephant. Infrastructure cracks and leaking boxes in the stadium built to last 30 years when it opened in 1973 would require much more to fix over the long term which under no circumstances is presently guaranteed.

Would the governor want to put a $200-million plus Band-Aid on a deteriorating stadium in Orchard Park, especially given no assurances the Bills would even stay there? So whatever happens with the Bills ownership, a new stadium is almost a given.

Some developers and potential suitors have been pushing the Buffalo waterfront as a stadium site, but environmental issues and parking problems are potential roadblocks to that scenario. So now what? Well, it just so happens that Milstein, a generous campaign donor to Cuomo who the governor tapped to head the Thruway Authority, owns more than 140 acres of prime land adjacent to the Falls and the state park, could be the go-to player to develop a new home for the Bills, either in an ownership agreement with former Bills’ players including Jim Kelly, or by selling his property to a new owner or to the state under eminent domain, as was done with the Indian casino property.

Milstein’s Niagara Falls property is under the control of his private company, Niagara Falls Redevelopment, and the executive vice president of NFR is none other than Roger Trevino, the deal maker who brought Nik Wallenda to Niagara Falls and who also, in a previous life, used to be Jim Kelly’s agent.

Trevino would not comment on Milstein’s potential involvement in bringing the Bills to Niagara Falls, saying only that it is well known that NFR has been openly courting entertainment groups to develop some type of arena project in Niagara Falls, including a group from Florida about possibly developing a sports museum. The NFR property is estimated to be worth between $125 and $150 million and Trevino says several serious proposals have made to the city about development opportunities for the property over the last several months.

Mayor Paul Dyster also declined to comment on the possibility of the Bills coming to Niagara Falls or what he may know of such a possibility, but he said he hopes things work out and the Bills stay in the area and that Niagara Falls would help in any way it could. If our sources are correct about a possible Milstein ownership role with Kelly after Wilson's passing and the team is put on the market, it is highly unlikely any of the parties will say very much at this time with so much uncertainty still out there: no lease, a declining stadium, no commitment from the team about staying here and questions about Wilson's health. Trevino, who would seem to be a link between Milstein and Kelly, refused to comment on any of the possibilities when interviewed by the Reporter on Saturday, the marketing guru shuffling back in his seat when the subject was brought up.

Dyster must be privately thrilled at the possibility of the Bills coming to his ailing city which is a financial victim of the gaming war between the state and the Seneca Nation with Niagara Falls owed about $58 million in casino revenue. If the Bills wind up in the Falls, what a win for Cuomo who would save the city and the team in one fell swoop, aided by his Thruway Authority chairman Milstein who has been unsuccessful in two previous attempts to buy an NFL team.

Jim Kelly has long been involved in trying to put together an ownership group to buy the Bills but Wilson has declined to talk about what happens down the road other than to say the team would be sold by his heirs. Kelly has from time to time been seen with potential partners in a Bills ownership group, including George Gillett, a financier who has been involved in a number of sports business ventures and who in 2001 purchased an 80 percent interest in the Montreal Canadians of the NHL.

So for now, anyway, with Wilson stating the team will not be sold in his lifetime, the Bills’ future will remain in limbo and the key parties involved may choose to say little until the time comes. Wilson was hospitalized recently in Detroit and his condition was closely guarded. But sources say he has never fully recovered from hip surgery and that he later developed an infection.

Some observers say a stadium-based entertainment complex in downtown Niagara Falls featuring the Bills would be the best tonic for the cataract city sitting on an international border and could attract visitors from around the world, creating the excitement generated by Nik Wallenda’s historic walk in June. It would be a win for the entire region, saving the Bills for Western New York and opening up prime land for development in Orchard Park where the stadium now sits, used for little more than football. For now, the reality is nothing will happen for sure until the Bills are sold. And nobody knows when that time will come.