Husband and wife team Terry and Kim Pegula have a “definitive agreement” to buy the Buffalo Bills, according to the Buffalo News. The agreement will be submitted October 8 for approval by the NFL, which is expected to approve it. The Bills have been owned by the Wilson family since 1959. Ralph Wilson died in March at age 95. (The Pegulas will purchase the team from the Wilson trust.) Donald Trump and rocker Jon Bon Jovi issued congratulations to the Pegulas–both men had also bid to purchase the franchise. The final price, not immediately disclosed, is assumed to be well over $1 billion since the Bon Jovi group confirmed it had bid at least that.
The Pegulas, who already own the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL, are deeply entrenched in Western New York and the Buffalo community and were the fan favorites to win the bidding. The Pegula billions come from the ownership and subsequent sale of much of the Pegula-founded oil and gas company East Resources Inc. to Royal Dutch Shell in 2010 for $4.7 billion. The Pegula assets gained immensely in value due to advances in the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technique used to remove gas from the deep shale. Earlier this year Pegula sold another $1.75 billion worth of East Resources assets to American Energy. Pegula and East Resources still holds significant oil and gas resources in multiple states.
