Analysis: Pegula exploring sale of minority stake in Bills should be viewed 'as a positive'

Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Bills Owner Terry Pegula is exploring the potential sale of a minority interest in the team, according to a statement released by the Bills last week.

While it would appear on the surface that one of the main reasons for selling a minority stake in the team could be to raise capital to help cover the rising costs of the new Highmark Stadium, one financial advisor suggests that now is just a better time than later to search for minority partners.

"There may be some reason that they want to do this for tax purposes right now while the tax rates are as low as they are for this year and next year, maybe taking some money off the table and defraying the ownership cost," said Jill Schlesinger of 'Jill on Money' during a recent appearance on WBEN. "And doing so when the capital gains rate is as low as it is currently, that may be a great incentive."

"There seems to be a pattern in the NFL where people buy minority interest," added Larry Quinn, former minority owner of the Buffalo Sabres in an interview with WBEN.

"Miami [Dolphins'] got a number of [minority owners]. We just recently saw Tom Brady exploring, buying a minority interest in the [Las Vegas] Raiders, the valuations are so high. There's probably a lot of tax shelter opportunities that come with building the stadium. So it makes us makes a lot of sense I think for them to raise some cash."

John Cimperman of Barnstorm Sports and Entertainment agrees that there's no time like the present. He notes sports teams bringing on minority owners has become a common practice in sports franchises, and while it is somewhat of a novel concept for Buffalo sports, the valuation of the Bills and many other NFL teams right now is at an all-time high.

"The Bills have almost quadrupled in their value since, since [Pegula] originally purchased the team. I think it's smart to just take a look and see what's out there, having a minority owner could be a positive," said Cimperman with WBEN.

"It's additional resources that could come to the organization, but it's also additional thinking and having more people around the table bouncing off ideas. If you found the right partner, they could potentially, in addition to adding dollars, add expertise."

Marc Ganis, a sports consultant and CEO of Sportscorp Ltd notes that Pegula currently owns the team outright, which gives him a variety of options, and that minority ownership doesn't just have to be one party. However, per the rules of the NFL, the number of partners that own a stake in a team cannot exceed 25 entities.

"They certainly have a lot of flexibility to bring in a larger number of people taking smaller pieces each," Ganis told WBEN.

Ganis believes "Bills Mafia" should see Pegula looking into minority owners for the team as a positive.

"It seems pretty clear that a substantial amount of whatever is raised is going to go into building a stadium that is affixed to the ground right there in Orchard Park, it's not going anywhere," he said.

"That investment, by selling piece of equity, is a demonstration of a greater investment by Terry for the team to be in Buffalo and to be successful in Buffalo, not taking on even more debt for the stadium that could restrict some things that they want to do in the future and not looking to price things even more to get more money out of the stadium to help pay for the additional costs of it. Those are all very good things for 'Bills Mafia'."