Will NY State Be Revealing The Bills Stadium Study?

Negotiations can often be a long and tedious process.  When it comes to the stadium situation for the Bills, the Erie County legislature thinks all parties need to be informed.

A couple months ago, The Buffalo Bills (Pegula Sports Entertainment) announced that they were going to be needing a new stadium.  The stadium they are playing in currently was built in the 70s and has seen its fair share of wear over the years.

While many people think they need to just upgrade the current stadium, PSE has shown that it isn't cost-efficient to do that.  The amount of money it would cost to upgrade the current stadium would almost be the cost of a brand new stadium.

So how do they pay for it, and where should they build it?

That is the $1.4 billion question.  Should the new stadium actually be downtown in the city of Buffalo?  Should it stay in Orchard Park?  Is there a better option for the location?

PSE has proposed a new stadium directly across the street from the current stadium and they're asking for public funding.

Here's where it gets tricky.

They also announced that the negotiations would be behind closed doors.

Well...how can you do that?  If they're asking the public to be involved in paying for it, shouldn't they have a say in what stadium gets built, and where it goes?

New York State is in the process of conducting a study to determine the best options.  They are still waiting on the results of that study, but the Erie County Legislature has requested that the results of that study be released.

“This is a positive step toward transparency in dealing with a new stadium. Taxpayers we represent deserve to know what’s going on, especially surrounding a project this size that will likely involve public dollars." - Minority Leader Lorigo

 

The lease on the current stadium ends at the end of the 2022 season.  The Bills have said that they will not be signing a new lease until an agreement on a new stadium has been reached.