The latest entry in the Buffalo Bills stadium cost pool is in, with the Associated Press reporting that Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula indeed want to build a $1.4 billion stadium, which would hold 60,000 fans and be open by 2027. And, you know, who wouldn’t want to? It’s paying for a $1.4 billion stadium that’s the no fun part, and so the Pegulas are trying their damnedest to skip as much of that part as possible:
At issue is how quickly a deal can be approved, and how the construction costs would be split between the team and taxpayers. The Bills have already said team owners Terry and Kim Pegula are committed to sharing part of the cost, but have not identified how much.
The expectation is the state and county will be asked to cover more than 50% of the project, raising concerns about the potential for taxpayer funding.
The AP story doesn’t specify how much in cash the Pegulas are asking for, but with some advanced math we can, let’s see, $1.4 billion times 50% is … let me get a calculator … at least $700 million. And “more than 50%” can be anywhere up to 100% — or beyond, why not? — so really that’s somewhere between $700 million in public money and the sky’s the limit.
Now, I have to insert some caveats: “The expectation is” is the worst kind of journalistic weasel words, covering anything from “an insider source told me” to “this is what I’m guessing and the guy at the next desk agrees,” so this figure is far from canon. Still, it looks like we’ve gone from the Bills owners not even being sure they wanted a new stadium to a highly placed rumor that they would demand $1.5 billion to speculation that maybe they’ll settle for a little under a billion — if this wasn’t all just an anchoring dodge, the Pegulas look to have gotten really, really lucky with how the arc of scuttlebutt all is turning out to make $700 million look like a relative bargain.
And speaking of how it’s all turning out, New York has a new governor following Andrew Cuomo’s resignation in disgrace, and the AP asked freshly installed Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday about the $1.4 billion price tag, or just about a Bills stadium in general, it isn’t clear — seriously, did anybody at the AP even bother to edit this article? Anyway, here’s what Hochul’s office had to say in a statement that refers to the governor in the third person, Rickey Henderson–like:
“No one is more committed to keeping the Bills in Buffalo than Gov. Kathy Hochul, a long time Buffalo Bills fan. Negotiations are ongoing, and her administration looks forward to sharing details with the public as soon as negotiations are completed.”
That’s not exactly reassuring about public cost, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Also, the AP Stylebook requires that “longtime” be written as one word, as do all the dictionaries I’ve checked. Shopping list for the governor: one copy editor, one sports economist, one spine.
I’d say this is about as close to a done deal as you can get. “We’ll let you know how much you owe after we decide it.”
Why should the Pegulas bother to put in anything?
This story is a dead horse. Not sure why FoS is covering it.
Believe J Bladen put it best with his August 31, comment.
It’s the same old game… “you just start piling money on this table and when we raise our hands that means it’s enough. No, we haven’t raised our hands yet. Well, we did, but that was just to cover our mouths while we laughed… keep going, we’ll let you know when the money pile is enough.”
May I add, “more, more, more, keep going. Still not enough. Keep going. We’ll let you know when the pile is high enough and spilling out all over the floor.” Terry to Kim, “can you believe this? They’re giving us the whole store. Lock, stock and barrel. We didn’t even have to mention Greensboro.” Kim to Terry, “I know. Let’s sneak that Bengals clause into our new contract!”
You can only get away with cutting your nose off to spite your face in cities like Oakland and San Diego. In the rest of America, you can’t push high profile stimulators of economic activity out of town just because you want praise from econ profs and media sycophants. In other words, New York state’s political climate isn’t self-destructive enough to stone wall the Bills and send them to Austin.
I count seven falsehoods in Ben’s comment. How many did the rest of you get?
I thought it was an attempt at hilarious irony???
Maybe I misread his intent…
but the suggestion that a billionaire family that wants to be gifted $700M+ just to (at least notionally) not move their 200 employee entertainment business out of state are “high profile economic stimulators” literally had me ROFLMAO…
Oakland lost Raiders – fact
SD lost Bolts – fact
NFL is high profile – fact
NFL games are economic stimulators – fact (despite what the econ profs who ignore job numbers in their biased studies say)
Lefty pols cite econ profs – fact
Media in big cities are sycophants to lefty pols – fact
NY state politics are right of their nationwide rep – fact
NY state won’t stone wall the Bills – we’ll see; almost certainly a fact
Bills will relocate if they don’t get a new stadium – we’ll see; almost certainly a fact
Austin will get a relocated NFL team – we’ll see; if relocation happens, then almost certainly a fact
I count seven facts and three unknowns which will likely become facts.
Oakland and San Diego “cut off their noses to spite their faces” – false
Other cities can’t get away with that – false
NFL teams stimulate a lot of economic activity – false
Politicians decided to reject stadium plans in those cities to placate econ profs – false
Politicians decided to reject stadium plans in those cities to placate journalists – false
New York state’s political climate is less self-destructive than literally anything – false
The Bills could move to Austin – false
Oakland and San Diego absolutely cut off their noses to spite their faces. They both turned down solid economic deals to score political points and protect the entrenched; Oakland because of the A’s and San Diego because of the hotels and the Padres.
We have all seen elected officials agree to stadium deals to protect their political prospects. Calgary is but one recent example. So, it is true that other cities can’t get away with stonewalling the way SD and Oakland did.
Show me where I said “a lot” of stimulated economic activity.
The lefty press suckles the teet of econ profs on any and all financial issues. You know this well, Neil.
“NY’s political climate isn’t self-destructive enough” was a euphemism for “NY state is a lot less left wing than people think. My bad for the unclear communication. But it’s a true statement.
The Bills will move, likely to Austin, if Buffalo stonewalls them. Even if you don’t think they will, it doesn’t make the statement false.
“The lefty press suckles the teet of econ profs on any and all financial issues” is probably the single most wrong thing I have ever seen written about the news industry, based on everything I have researched and experienced ever.
(And that’s before even getting into what a “teet” is, and whether econ profs share one collective one.)
Hold on a sec, Neil. You really don’t see econ profs quoted regularly on financial topics in NYT, WaPo, et al.? I get that they get called “economists”, but in reality these are econ profs. They’ve never held a job where there was any risk whatsoever for their employer if they made a bad call on economics.
I see all sorts of people quoted in the New York Times and Washington Post (which are only “lefty” in the same way that. I dunno, Bill Clinton is). Those kinds of outlets are *way* more likely to cite business and political leaders on economic issues than either academic or private-sector economists.
If by “suckles the teet of econ profs” you mean “occasionally bothers to quote them on issues where they have expertise, alongside lots of interested parties,” then okay. But that’s a severely off-label use of the English language.
Ben,
While I strongly disagree with your opinions, I’m comfortable hearing them.
It’s amusing to me though that you say “lefty press” and didn’t include any Murdoch entities.
I actually think the media now more than ever is in the hand of business and the wealthy.
But that’s my opinion I hope that you have a great day and that your daughter(s) don’t live in Texas.
Thought I typed Greensboro, not Austin.
Well, guess it doesn’t really matter. Birmingham (not West Midlands), Memphis (not Egypt), San Antonio (not Cuba), Shreveport (not Boise :-o) or any other city that’s ever hosted a WFL, USFL, WLAF, CFL, XFL I & II, UFL and AAF franchise (not already an NFL franchise) will do as a move threat. Unfortunately, Los Angeles, the “ULTIMATE” move threat was removed from the bored game.
As for Buffalo (another small market city), 3rd party, independently, verifiable facts speak for themselves.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas
USA MSA Population: Buffalo – Niagara Falls, 49th. 1,166,902 (with a growth rate of 2.76%)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_North_America_by_media_market
USA MSA Media Markets: Buffalo – Niagara Falls, 53rd.
https://policom.com/rankings-metropolitan-areas/
USA MSA Economic Strength: Buffalo – Cheektowaga – Niagara Falls, 117th (beats out Las Vegas – Henderson – Paradise at 118th)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP
USA GDP per MSA: Buffalo – Cheektowaga – Niagara Falls, 50th. $69.8 billion (Honolulu, Hawaii is 51st, with $69.3 billion)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP_per_capita
USA MSA per Capita GDP: Buffalo – Cheektowaga – Niagara, 143rd. $44,843 (below the USA’s metropolitan portion of $54,410).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_by_adjusted_per_capita_personal_income
USA MSA per Capita Income: Buffalo – Niagara Falls, 49th. $52,331 (goes to GDub August 3rd comment and GDub and J Bladen’s August 24th comments. Few bills left to be squeezed from Buffalo’s lemon)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/longform/fortune-500-companies-revenue-us-cities-business-revenue/amp/
Fortune 500 revenues per USA MSA: Buffalo – Cheektowaga – Niagara Falls. $6.45 billion.
https://www.city-data.com/forum/city-vs-city/3050709-2019-fortune-500-1000-msa-city.html
Fortune 500 companies per USA MSA (2019): Buffalo, 1 (M&T Bank Corporation – https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2019/05/22/m-t-bank-remains-western-new-yorks-only-fortune.html )
http://proximityone.com/metros_fortune1000.htm
Fortune 1000 companies per USA MSA (2018): Buffalo – Cheektowaga – Niagara Falls, 3. 25th (tied with 13 others, Allentown, Boise, Des Moines, Evansville, Fayetteville, Knoxville, Madison, Oshkosh, Oxnard, Raleigh, Reading and Rochester. Other than Raleigh, the big 4 major leagues have no professional franchises in these smaller than small markets).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_New_York_(state)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_New_York_City
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(state)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada
The economy of New York State (pop. 20,215,751) is $1.751 trillion the 10th largest economy on the planet, just a tad behind Canada (pop. 38,151,728), of which New York City MSA (pop. 20,140,470 – MSA includes New Jersey) accounts for $1.550 trillion (remember Buffalo’s economy was $70 billion, barely ahead of that of a tourist destination).
10! Analysis complete. As neither Buffalo nor Erie County has the necessary funding to finance a new Bills Stadium for the Pegula’s (Pegula’s certainly don’t have the necessary financial resources or contacts to fund a stadium build – https://www.forbes.com/profile/terrence-pegula/?sh=16dc894a3cc7 ), “it’s up to you New York, New York!” https://youtu.be/EUrUfJW1JGk
Mr. Pegula done very well for himself with the fracking oil (nee poisoning our groundwater) business he sold to the next sucker.
Did you know spell check doesn’t like Pegula? It defaults to Petulant. Wonder what those people know.
My main thought is why haven’t the New Orleans Saints been picked on by NFL commish to saber rattle for a new stadium? It’s over 40 years old! Horrors!
It may fall down any day now, what with all the hurricanes constantly beating on it…..
The Saints owners have gotten $1.4 billion over the last 20 years to stay at the Superdome. With subsidies like those, they don’t need to demand a new stadium.
I didn’t know that. Thanks Neil!
Thanks for this website Neil!
I don’t know where else I would find all this information. I sent you a contribution as a thank you. It was an old link. I hope you got it. Many thanks and blessings to you!
Yep, thanks! I sent a couple of replies.
In other Coyotes-related arena news.
The City of Tempe website has the RFP 22-030 posted on the Bid Results/Solicitation Status page.
www.tempe.gov/government/internal-services/finance/procurement/bid-results-solicitation-status
RFP 22-030 – Purchase and/or Lease and Development of City-owned Land Consisting of Approximately 46 acres located at the NE Corner of Rio Salado and Priest Drive
09/02/2021 – Under Evaluation (Lisa Goodman)
Submitting Firm – Bluebird Development
Arizona Coyotes submit bid to build new arena in Tempe as team seeks new home
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2021/09/02/arizona-coyotes-submit-bid-build-new-arena-tempe/5702952001/