Eli Zaret: Jeff Bezos could be in talks to buy Detroit Lions
Please, please, please let this be true...
December 17th, 2019 at 9:35 AM ^
Yes please. Or use eminent domain as part of the greater good for society. Whatever it takes.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:39 AM ^
That would be amazoning / amaizoning?
December 17th, 2019 at 9:44 AM ^
They should pay him....
December 17th, 2019 at 9:47 AM ^
The Detroit Amazons. The mascot will be a 7 foot tall woman. Has a nice ring to it.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:34 AM ^
They'll just change the logo to the Amazon-Phallic Arrow
December 17th, 2019 at 9:53 AM ^
I really don't know why super wealthy people would ever sell their NFL franchise. It's a money printing operation. I hope for Lions fans that it does sell though
December 17th, 2019 at 9:55 AM ^
Good luck. If there's one thing a professional franchise cannot overcome it's a shitty owner. Here in Cleveland we've got one of the worst NFL owners in Jimmy Haslam so I definitely feel your pain.
To me the Ford family seems like the polar opposite of Haslam. The Ford's are disengaged and let the football people make the football decisions. They just make poor decisions on which football people they hire.
The Haslams (husband and wife) think they are fucking brilliant even though their only real claim to fame is having rich parents and managing to avoid a federal corruption probe somehow. They dont let the football make decisions and we have hell to pay for it. In fact Freddie Kitchens is the FIRST head coach who didnt report direct to the Haslams instead of the GM.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:14 AM ^
Bezos will commission a smart football for the Lions.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
This thread is about the Lions, but cool.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
You know I could set my extremely expensive watch to your snarky responses to me that I bought when one of the three companies I had equity in sold or went public recently (I cant remember which one though - sorry) but I cant find the damn thing right now. I either left it on one of my boats, or in one my cars or maybe in one of my homes but either way the damn thing is gone right now so I guess I'll just have to go buy another one while i look for it.
December 17th, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^
Oh cool, yet another response that has nothing to do with the subject at hand.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:55 AM ^
Oh sweet baby Jesus....
December 17th, 2019 at 9:58 AM ^
So as a distant NYer, my main reaction to this is: Eli Zaret is still around?
I now expect to see a thread with Amyre Makupson breaking the news that Elon Musk is putting his name on our aero program.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:06 AM ^
Well if anyone would know it's Eli Zaret.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
The Drew and Mike fake Bezos drops will be out of control.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
Eli??
December 17th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
This scares me....Would rather have the Ford family continue failing then have Bezos move the Lions to another city.
Imagine living in St. Louis or Oakland and having your team leave.......
December 17th, 2019 at 10:27 AM ^
The London Lions...
December 17th, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
There's no good reason why Bezos would feel compelled to move the Lions, who exist in a strong sports market. Seattle already has a team. So do most major cities. A successful team in Detroit mints money. Christ, a bad football team makes money. And the NFL wouldn't want to the team moved out of Detroit anyway. Bezos owns properties all over the place. He doesn't care about the where. He cares about profitability.
December 17th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
The NFL would strongly disapprove of moving the team out of Detroit. They have made literally billions of dollars in advertising revenue from the Big 3 over the years.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
William Clay Ford was the sole owner of the Lions for 51 years. For better or worse, the team is his legacy. And people expect Martha, who was married to Bill for 67 years, to sell her husband's legacy?
Color me dubious. I'd love to be wrong, but this sounds like wishful thinking.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^
This is not good for Detroit. Bezos has zero ties to Detroit that I'm aware of. There was no threat of the Lions ever moving from Detroit with the Ford family as owners.
Given all of the moves in recent years in the NFL, this is probably Bezos' method of being the guy who owns the first NFL team in London.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:29 AM ^
At the opening press conference, Bezos will promise a Lombardi trophy in two days, but it will actually take four, and after they tell Lions fans to pick it up in a Pontiac locker facility, it will show up on the Ford Field porch just in time to be stolen by the Packers
December 17th, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
First I’m bringing my fingers together. Then I’m kissing them. Then I release the fingers as my arm extends outward and upward. Bravo to this.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:07 AM ^
At least you'll have a picture of it at the doorstep, before it was stolen.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
The chances that this has any truthness to it are so slim lol, but I guess you can hope it's true. You have to imagine he would be more willing to spend considering his much higher earnings.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
More willing to spend on what? The Lions are over the salary cap, and they pay the front office and coaches competitive salaries with the rest of the league. They have dedicated training facilities that are as good as any other in the NFL, and a stadium that is nicer than most.
Maybe he would spend more on general rank & file employees - cleaning staff, security guards, the office administrative pool... Sure, because Amazon pays top dollar to warehouse workers and delivery drivers!
December 17th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Lions are not over the salary cap. They will have $45 million to spend this off season.
December 17th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
Fair enough. But since Russ Thomas retired the cheapness of the Lions has been more meme than reality. I can remember several years in the 90's where they were worried about cap room.
No, whether they spend that wisely or scout talent wisely is entirely open to question.
December 17th, 2019 at 2:45 PM ^
They have that because salaries are finally coming off the books from Calvin Johnson's days (not all him). They had loads of cap debt for years due to bloated salaries and long contract terms. The mini-fire sale in mid-season helped, too.
I never said they spent it well, but they do spend.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:37 AM ^
Eli Zaret knows a guy ... who knows a guy ... who's predicting that Bezos will buy the team? In the unlikely event that there's any basis to Bezos's interest in the Lions, it's a ploy in negotiations to buy the Seahawks.
December 17th, 2019 at 4:51 PM ^
The Seahawks may well be available for the right price. Paul Allen died and who knows the desires of the heirs or their tax situation.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:40 AM ^
Please God yes!
December 17th, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
Normally I'd see a guy like Jeff Bezos, if he was interested in purchasing a team, in picking them up and moving them out west, but I can't imagine the kind of backlash he'd face for moving the Lions specifically. Its not like you're trying to move the Jags, the Bucs, the Panthers, or some other small-market team that won't really rock the boat. The Lions, for all of their many faults, are not a small-market franchise.
That being said, if the Lions want to truly have a chance at changing their fortunes, a change in ownership is what you have to do at this point. If you have one bad year, you can blame the players. Two to four bad years, blame the coaches. Five to seven-ish bad years, you've got a problem in your front office. When you are this bad for this long, and not just bad, but historically inept year in and year out, you've got poor ownership. And unfortunately, unless the owners themselves want out or do something truly egregious that requires them to be forced out (i.e. criminal activity) there's absolutely nothing you can do about something like that.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:07 AM ^
If Bezos ran the team like Paul Allen ran the Seahawks I'd be all for it
December 17th, 2019 at 11:07 AM ^
Alexa, tell the D-line to crush Aaron Rogers.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:15 AM ^
If Bezos buys the Lions and moves them to Portland or whatever I won't have to care about them anymore, so that will be nice.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
Honestly, this could go either way. He wouldn't be the first bored billionaire to try purchasing an NFL team just to get his competitive juices flowing.
But every indication is that Sheila Hamp is all-in on the team and continuing her parents' legacy of ownership.
There would be no incentive to relocate the franchise, because the stadium and practice facilities are top notch, and the local market would be heavily invested in the team's fate with new ownership.
Bezos could do wonders for the SE Michigan economy with even just a minimal Amazon footprint.
But at the end of the day, I just don't see the Fords selling. They seem to wear the fact that Lions fans detest them as a badge of honor.
December 17th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
Christmas comes early this year, gents.
December 17th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
Mexico City Lions or London Lions by 2024
December 17th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
SO----Mr. BEZOS is throwing his name in the hopper along with so many other BOZOS who would even think of buying that uranium-turned-critical mass of an NFL franchise????
December 17th, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
Jerry ball
December 17th, 2019 at 12:54 PM ^
Ah so Amazon is coming to Detroit after all, just not with the infusion of jobs and investment everyone hoped. Lol
December 17th, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
Gavin Belson will be jealous
December 17th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
That's not very Tethical...
December 17th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
I'm going to miss that show.
December 17th, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^
"Two free Lions tickets with an Amazon Prime membership" is the new "free tickets to the Michigan game when you buy a Coke".
December 17th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
"Merry Christmas. Have fun sucking Jeff Bezos' dick ya bunch of cunts." - Santa Claus
December 17th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
Cool, glad I don’t live in Detroit. Let the public welfare of Billionaires...CONTINUE
December 17th, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
I'd rather see him bring far more business to Detroit.