On Thursday, the Buffalo Bills announced that they have a new name for their stadium after jointly agreeing with New Era to remove their name from it earlier the offseason. The new name is, albeit, a temporary one.
That name? Bills Stadium.
An easy way for clubs to make a buck is off naming rights in the NFL. Sell them to a company, perhaps not New Era, and that’s a few million in your pocket.
But going the route of Bills Stadium makes it appear that the club did not receive any realistic bids for it at this time. New Era and the Bills had their split back in July. Makes sense considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused an economic down turn. However, it appears there might have been one bid that’s at least en route.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said via his social media account that his company plans to make a bid for the naming right on the Bills stadium:
After a brief conversation with those who matter I am here to say we are very serious about buying the naming rights of the @BuffaloBills stadium and will enter the process.
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 20, 2020
Barstool Sports and Portnoy, specifically, has had a grudge with the NFL for several years. The outlet’s most-popular podcast, Pardon My Take, does often interact with the league’s players and employees. They’ve had Bills quarterback Josh Allen and even general manager Brandon Beane on for interviews.
But the show, along with Portnoy, have attempted to sneak into league events, such as the Super Bowl and Scouting Combine in that past and are kicked out by security. The feud runs even deeper than that, so it remains to be seen if there’s an actual attempt by Barstool Sports at any sort of naming rights.
Not a bad play though, some free publicity, at minimum, with a social media message via a mentioned bid for the naming rights as Portnoy likely knows would not be accepted due to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s personal stance against the blog/ company.
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