The Buffalo Bills have proposed a new $1 billion stadium and it will cost the city more than $85 million annually to support it, according to an estimate released by New York state. The plan is part of a public financing proposal that would pay for construction with taxpayer money while recouping up to 50% in naming rights and other revenues over the 20-year life of the lease.,
The “Buffalo Bills stadium capacity” is a public cost that will be paid over the next 30 years. The public cost of the new Buffalo Bills stadium will top $1 billion over the lease period.
ALBANY, N.Y. (WABC) — According to records revealed Wednesday, the public’s part of the cost of constructing and sustaining a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills would surpass $1.1 billion after long-term maintenance expenditures are taken in.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday that the state and county governments will contribute $850 million toward the projected $1.4 billion cost of the stadium in a Buffalo suburb.
However, such statistics only included building expenditures. According to a 14-page memorandum issued by the Hochul administration, the team’s leasing deal would also force the state to pay into a fund to maintain the new facility in Orchard Park in tip-top condition.
This would include $100 million in maintenance and repair payments over 15 years, as well as at least $180 million in capital upgrades payments over 30 years. Actual yearly state contributions to the capital fund may be larger, since the consumer price index is adjusted upward.
The state and county contributions would amount to one of the most significant public subsidies ever offered to a new NFL stadium.
Hochul, a Democrat who grew up in Buffalo and is a Bills fan, has hailed the arrangement as a win for western New York. It would bind the franchise for at least 30 years to Buffalo.
Others have criticized it as a waste of government money given to the team’s owners, Terry and Kim Pegula, whose riches is related to natural gas drilling.
“Buffalo, like other communities in the state, is coping with a housing problem, food shortages, an increase in crime, and much more. Consider allocating almost a billion dollars to these problems “Jumaane Williams, the Public Advocate of New York City, who is running against Hochul in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, tweeted about it.
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, another Hochul primary opponent, slammed the size of the subsidies as well as the haste with which the state legislature is being asked to accept the procedure. The first day of April is the deadline for passing a new state budget.
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Suozzi said, “You can’t ram through a billion-dollar taxpayer subsidy in four days.” “This isn’t right.”
The governor stated late Tuesday that a delayed casino-related payment from the Seneca Nation would account for more than $418 million of the state’s $600 million share. The county of Erie will contribute $250 million to the project.
The Seneca Nation’s payout represents a portion of earnings from three of the tribe’s western New York casinos over a five-year period. In 2017, the tribe ceased making payments, claiming that its responsibility to share money with the state and municipal governments had lapsed.
The Seneca Nation Council approved the transfer of $565 million held in escrow this week, putting an end to a years-long payment dispute with the state.
Hochul stated in a statement, “These money were created in western Future York, and I am directing the state’s portion, which is more than $418 million, to the new Buffalo Bills stadium.” “The Bills will be able to stay in New York state and sustain 10,000 construction jobs as a result of this.”
New York state and Erie County would be permitted to stage certain events at the stadium while the Bills aren’t playing, but they would have to utilize the Bills’ approved vendor to sell any tickets, according to Hochul’s proposal.
The Bills will be required to pay $900,000 in yearly rent, which will be put into the capital improvement fund.
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