A Toronto Sun report detailing the current state of affairs for a Jon Bon Jovi-led group attempting to purchase the Buffalo Bills gives the clearest indication yet that the franchise won't be sold to an entity planning to move the team.
John Kryk reports on Tuesday that the Bon Jovi group has been asked by Morgan Stanley, the firm orchestrating the sale of the Bills, to re-submit their initial bid. Their reasoning is twofold: the bank wants a more competitive offer (Kryk says that the group's initial bid may even have been below $900 million), and they want stronger assurances that the franchise won't be relocated.
"Until or unless they resubmit (their bid)," writes Kryk, "they are out."
Separately, Tim Graham of The Buffalo News is reporting that Bon Jovi's contacts in the NFL are already advising him to bail on his attempt to purchase the Bills.
Bon Jovi, as you are undoubtedly by now aware, wrote an open letter to Bills fans on Sunday in an attempt to reassure people that his intention was to keep the Bills viable in Buffalo. Per Kryk, Bon Jovi wrote that letter as a face-saving measure at a time when he believed his bid for the franchise to be dead.
Morgan Stanley, however, has afforded the group another opportunity, likely because their pool of candidates is so small. The idea that ironclad directives to keep the team in Western New York is newsworthy and undoubtedly exciting to fans of the team, but the bank's job is still to drive up interest in (and the price of) the team as much as possible. Without a Bon Jovi group in the running, Terry Pegula will have little to no competition for the team - and while that would be good for the future of the Bills in Buffalo, it wouldn't be good for the group trying to yield as much profit in the sale as possible.
The Bon Jovi group is still alive in the race, then, but this is the latest in a series of bad signs for the bidders from north of the border.