'Donald Trump is behind this!': Jon Bon Jovi's doomed 2014 bid to buy Buffalo Bills may have been thwarted by current Commander in Chief
- '12th Man Thunder' campaign played on fans' fears that singer Jon Bon Jovi would move the team to Canada and called for a boycott of the band's music
- Trump, too, wanted to buy the Bills and keep the team in Buffalo
- Buffalo-area PR consultant: 'Mr. Trump was convinced that the community wouldn't stand for a move... So he sent me off to try to organize something'
- Jon Bon Jovi previously owned the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul
President Donald Trump was reportedly behind the grassroots campaign to block singer Jon Bon Jovi from purchasing the NFL's Buffalo Bills back in 2014, when Trump himself was trying to buy the franchise.
Ultimately it was Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, who submitted the winning bid of $1.4 billion.
In 2014 a fan group called '12th Man Thunder' emerged, which was ostensibly aimed at keeping the Bills in Buffalo and out of the hands of Bon Jovi, who reportedly wanted to move the team to Canada, TSN Radio and The Buffalo News reported.
'At the time I wish I could have told people,' said Charles Pellien, one of the group's leaders. 'I just wanted to blurt out, "Donald Trump is behind this!"'
(Left) Jon Bon Jovi previously owned the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul before trying to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014. Donald Trump (right) also tried and failed to buy the Bills
A Buffalo Bills fan displays a shirt and a sign in protest of Jon Bon Jovi's interest in the Buffalo Bills, during an NFL preseason football game between the Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers in 2014
Among the group's antics in the spring of 2014 were the collection of thousands of petition signatures and distribution of 'Bon Jovi Free Zone' posters calling for a boycott of the band's music in bars, shops and on radio stations. All of it received widespread media coverage, including from The Associated Press.
Neither the White House nor the Trump organization responded to requests for comment on the claim, which was first mentioned on a Buffalo-area radio show in March and reported last month by GQ magazine.
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But according to Michael Caputo, a Buffalo public relations consultant who would go on to work on Trump's presidential campaign, Trump himself came up with the idea for the group at a Trump Tower meeting in early 2014 as a way to tap into widespread fan anxiety at the time over a potential Bills move to Canada.
'Mr. Trump was convinced that the community wouldn't stand for a move,' Caputo told the AP. 'So he sent me off to try to organize something with local fans to get that rolling.'
Once back in Buffalo, Caputo enlisted Pellien, a truck driver who lives near the Bills' stadium in Orchard Park, and others to form the volulnteer group, which quickly amassed an email database of 15,000 fans.
Speculation that Bon Jovi's group intended to move the team was fueled by the fact that it included two Canadian heavyweights, Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, and the Rogers family which controls Toronto-based Rogers Communications.
Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor fumbles during Thursday's loss to the New York Jets. Buffalo sits at 5-3 and has a chance to reach the playoffs for the first time this millennium
And with the Bon Jovi group expected to bid more than Trump was willing to pay, Caputo said, Trump believed tapping the fan emotion would improve his position.
'He wanted to be the hometown favorite because he would keep the Bills in Buffalo,' Caputo said. 'It was always his intention to come in here on a white horse and save the team.'
The group's first move was the petition drive that had people vowing to wash their hands of the Bills - no buying tickets or jerseys or watching games on TV - if the team moved.
Bon Jovi celebrates the Philadelphia Soul's ArenaBowl XXII title at City Hall in 2008
Organizers said Trumped stepped away from even behind-the-scenes involvement after signing a non-disclosure agreement attached to the bidding process that barred him from doing public outreach around it.
Bon Jovi, whose representatives declined to comment for this story, responded to the 2014 campaign with a letter to The Buffalo News that said his ownership group's objective was 'to make the Bills successful in Buffalo.' The letter came a little more than a week after AP reported that the singer's ownership group conducted a feasibility study into building a stadium in Toronto.
After the sale to the Pegulas, the fan group, now known as Bills Fan Thunder and still led by Pellien, transformed into a charitable group that brings underprivileged children to their first Bills game.
As for Pellien's feelings about Bon Jovi today, 'some people forgave and forgot and other people will never forgive. I'm kind of one of them.'
The Bills are currently 5-3 after Thursday's loss to the New York Jets. The franchise has not reached the playoffs since 1999.
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