Jon and the Buffalo Bills

Didn't Doc McGhee say the same about the reason why he sent the band on such extensive tours in the late 80's?

I've just read the statement he made regarding the proposed purchase. Being an Aston Villa fan, our club has seen misfortune at an incredibly quick rate since Randy Lerner stopped attending games and seemingly not doing the same level of "ground work" he did in the first few years he was our owner. Which brings me to my main point:

"My family and I are prepared to make this life-changing commitment to be part of the Bills, This is not a hobby or an acquisition. Building a winner on and off the field will be job one, and I intend to spend as much time on the ground in Buffalo as needed to accomplish that goal.”

Owning a sports team is a very demanding job, and with a statement like this, JBJ appears to want to be as hands on as possible. So where does this leave the band. If he was just an investor, who left the work to other people, I'd see how the two can fruitfully work together. But, realistically, how is he meant to pull off any good, new music when his life is going to be consumed with the complexities of running a huge sports franchise. Creativity and being "committed to working with state and local officials and the business community to identify a new stadium site in the region" don't go hand in hand.

If Richie leaving the band didn't signal the end of Bon Jovi, then him buying the Bills does.

That was exactly my point. Goes hand in hand with the comment about him being retired now, which he made in some radio interview a couple of weeks/months (?) ago. He laughed at it while saying it, but maybe he really meant it

If he were putting up more then fifty percent of the franchise fee, I'd agree. But if the reports of his net worth are accurate (approximately $400M), Jon has only a third of the franchise fee at most, meaning that he couldn't possibly be a controlling owner -- all he CAN be is "just an investor" who would have to rely on his Canadian partners LETTING him "do the work."

Just because he's not putting up the majority of the money, doesnt mean he wouldnt be doing the majority of the work. He clearly wants to run a franchise, he's publicly acknowledged it as part of his life plan for years, i'd be shocked if he would invest an amount that requires a family life change to just sit back.

I'd hazard a guess his share of the money acts as a buy in to be the acting face of the franchise ownership.

Putting up the majority of the money would give Jon the majority of the power, that's all -- it would be built-in unemployment insurance!
Also keep in mind that running a sports franchise doesn't end with being able to buy one -- you also have to have enough money to be able to sustain it, even after it becomes profitable.

With the income from their other sports franchises and media holdings, Jon's partners can afford to keep investing in the franchise: He doesn't have that kind of money. But as the face of the franchise, Jon would be held accountable for all the moves his partners made -- especially the move that moved the Bills to Toronto!

Last I heard, McGhee was helping Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley run an Arena Football League team in Los Angeles! So this is all this a plot on Jon's part to top them?

Two things:

1- Jon is worth a lot more than what is reported here. The .5Bn would be enough if all his net worth was the income from music/touring/merchandising over the last 30 years, no interest, no investments, no nothing. Let's take a very very conservative scenario:

Jon was worth $100M in 1996, after the These Days tour, after 75 Million sold records, after a very successful solo album, after all the income from Skid Row, after having all affairs run by his own management company.

Let's say he gets all his assets managed by AN AVERAGE private wealth advisor who achieves 10% year on year growth. 10% is nothing by the way. Top private bankers get you upwards of 20%. Now with a 10% growth rate, he'd be worth $560,000,000 today. That is not considering ANY additional income from music since 1996. Not ANY other investments such as, say, NYC property which could have easily tripled over the last 18 years. Etc. etc. Now of course, he'd have to pay taxes for all of that, and he spend a good chunk as well. There was a Financial crisis in the mid time too. Still, I'd bet you, Jon is worth close to 1 Bn than 500 M. But even so, not enough to just be the principal investor.

2- I can't believe anyone would even think that Jon is a naive little muppet that some Canadian guys would use without him noticing. Rocknation, maybe you should try to get a job to warn him that it's all a PR gag, orchestrated by some, yet unknown billionaire, who really WANTS to add an NFL team to their portfolio of stuff. What the hell?

I agree that Jon is worth a lot more than is being reported. Keep in mind that within a relatively small geographical area, he owns 3 homes worth over $100 million. His NYC penthouse up for sale for $37.5 million and he has been reported looking at more expensive property in NYC. He lives the luxurious life of a very wealthy man (nothing wrong with that).

With estimated 400 - 500 million $ you can easily live the life of a very wealthy man, there's no doubt about that. But it's pretty unrealistic, that he spends 90 % of that money to buy a football team.
500 million $ compared to 7 billion $ is nothing. To us it's an incredible amount of money. A seven-time billionaire probably can't understand how somebody can make a living out of this.
So Jon may hold his face into the cameras, talk about his philantrophic work and what a good fella he is, win as much favor as possible for that project...but the real decisions are made by the people with the real money who really can afford a NFL team. A cheap some-hundred-times rockstar millionaire got nothing to say in that billionaires-business.

Just my two cent.