State of the Bills: New executive Pete Guelli – 'Smart' business to explore adding limited owner (2024)

Editor’s note: Last week, new Buffalo Bills/Sabres chief operating officer Pete Guelli met with The Buffalo News. In the first of a three-part series, Guelli discusses the Bills.

The way Pete Guelli immediately saw it upon his hiring March 19, the decision by Terry Pegula to seek limited ownership partners made perfect business sense for the Buffalo Bills.

“If he wasn’t considering doing this, I would have recommended it,” said Guelli, the Rochester native who joined the Bills/Sabres as executive vice president/chief operating officer after working for the New York Giants. “Any owner would be smart to take a look at it. If you can create some liquidity from that explosive growth that you can use to invest in other places, I don’t know why you wouldn’t take a hard look at it.”

The Bills hired Allen & Company on April 21 to seek and vet interested parties.

Pegula bought the Bills for $1.4 billion in 2014; last September, Forbes valued the club at $3.7 billion.

“I can tell you that interest has been high,” Guelli said. “You don’t know what the market is and there are only so many people in play at this level. It’s been very active, which has been encouraging. A lot of people have reached out proactively who would like to be a part of what we’re building here so we’re taking a very deliberate, strategic approach.”

Guelli said the Bills have not set a deadline for finding a limited partner.

During an interview with The News on Friday in his second-floor office at the Bills’ facility in Orchard Park, Guelli addressed many Bills topics.

Open to multiple partners

Based on Forbes’ valuation of the Bills, Pegula could sell 20% of the club for $740 million or 25% for $925 million.

Guelli said the Bills have “kicked around” selling 20%-25% of the Bills, “but again, it’s fluid.”

The Bills also are open to adding multiple limited partners.

“I think there are people who could come in and be one perfect partner, but we would consider a syndicate if it was the right group of people,” Guelli said.

If one limited partner invests in the Bills, would that person have a right of first refusal if Pegula wants to eventually sell more or all of his equity?

“I don’t think that’s necessarily on or off the table – it hasn’t really been discussed,” Guelli said.

Once Pegula announced he was open to selling a piece of the Bills, the natural perception was that he wanted new cash to pay for cost overruns for the new stadium – the Bills are responsible for every dollar over the original price of $1.4 billion (it is believed to now be in the range of $1.7 billion, although the team has not confirmed the current price or projected end price).

“I don’t think it’s based on that at all,” Guelli said. “He’s invested a lot into this market and wants to continue to do so. This is the perfect opportunity to look at.”

The process is not quick and has several layers, even after Pegula and a buyer reach a financial agreement.

“There is a massive vetting process,” Guelli said. “The league takes these transactions incredibly serious.”

Laura Pegula’s role

The NFL held its spring meeting May 20-21 in Nashville, Tenn., and the Bills were represented by Guelli and Laura Pegula, one of Terry’s two children from his first marriage. Terry stayed in Buffalo to attend Sabres draft preparation meetings.

Laura publicly debuted as a member of the Bills’ contingent at the league’s March 2023 annual meeting in Phoenix.

Laura recently became an alternate governor of the Sabres along with Guelli and General Manager Kevyn Adams. She is not listed on the Bills’ online front-office roster but clearly is a primary adviser for her father.

Last month, The Athletic reported that Terry transferred a “small percentage” of ownership to Laura.

Asked if Laura owns a stake in the Bills, Guelli said: “I don’t have specifics on the ownership structure. I can tell you she’s actively involved.”

Laura was the only Pegula child to be involved in the interview process to hire Guelli.

“Terry has been very specific in that family is going to be a part of this moving forward,” Guelli said. “Laura was a critical component to filling the gap in the seven months they were going through the process to put me in place and I’m thankful that she was because she has a ton of institutional knowledge on both teams (Bills/Sabres). She’s helped me get up to speed and I think our skills complement each other well.”

Does Terry Pegula, 73, have a succession plan in place?

“Nothing we’ve discussed specifically,” Guelli said. “I just know that I’m spending a lot of time with Laura and she’s been active in the business and it’s been great to work with her.”

Setting the tone

Guelli met with Bills employees in the team meeting room five days after he was hired. It is his second tour with the team – he was a senior vice president from 1998-2009.

“We did a little (question-and-answer) and I enjoyed it – there were a lot of people I recognized and some of the memories kept flooding back,” he said. “There were questions about the future and where we were taking things. I just tried to be as transparent as I could with everybody and wanted people to understand my personality and I’m here to be an additive.”

Upon Guelli’s hiring, the Bills also announced that interim chief operating offers Josh Dziurlikowski (Bills) and Rob Minter (Sabres) would remain as senior vice president of finance and business operations and senior vice president of business operations, respectively.

Guelli has not made any additions to the Bills or Sabres front offices.

“There are a lot of great things going on here,” he said, citing the Bills. “What (Terry Pegula), General Manager (Brandon) Beane and (coach) Sean (McDermott) have built on the football side is pretty incredible. That type of consistency, now that I’m witnessing the culture firsthand, you see how professional and collaborative they are and that’s what we’re trying to create across the entire organization. It was nice to walk into a foundation like that.”

Play-by-play voice search

On May 9, John Murphy announced his retirement as the Bills’ play-by-play voice, 16 months after he sustained a stroke that caused him to miss the 2023 season.

The Bills have had only two full-time radio voices since 1977 – Van Miller (1977-2003) and Murphy (2004-23). Chris Brown, a Bills employee who hosts the “One Bills Live” program, served as the interim play-by-play voice during Murphy’s absence and is a candidate for the full-time post.

Guelli said he is “absolutely” involved in the search for Murphy’s replacement and the Bills will have a full-time announcer in place for the preseason opener Aug. 10 against Chicago.

“We’ve started that process and it’s more of a soft posting to gauge interest,” Guelli said. “It’s an important job because they are synonymous with the brand and they become almost a daily voice of the team. We’re trying to take our time and do a deliberate search and come up with the right person.”

Guelli said the Bills’ preference is that the play-by-play announcer is based in the Buffalo area.

“They’re more than a play-by-play person – they’re integrated with the team,” he said. “We’ve been very lucky in the past – I was here (with the Bills) when Van Miller was at the tail end of his career and to see the run (Murphy) had, we’ve been pretty fortunate.”

International reach

In 2022, the NFL launched the Global Markets Program, which awarded clubs international marketing rights to build their brand awareness and fan base. The Bills are one of seven teams with no official affiliation agreement, joining Baltimore, Cincinnati, Green Bay, the Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee and Washington.

Detroit, Minnesota and Seattle have rights to Canada and the Bills – for now – are comfortable with having Canada in general and Ontario in particular as an unofficial focus.

“I feel like we do have an international affiliation with (the) Toronto (area) and that’s an area we feel is a part of our territory,” Guelli said. “We may not be specifically tied into the league program, but we’re investing and spending a lot of time on it. That’s our international focus for now.”