Cuomo will be involved.
The Buffalo Bills National Football League home playoff game has been sold out. There were not that many tickets available, just 6,772 customers will be allowed into the Orchard Park, New York stadium. Those people who snagged tickets will be required to take a COVID-19 test administered by the NFL’s testing partner and test negative to see the game inside the stadium. The customers who plan on attending the game have to pay $63 per test. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wanted people in the stadium and there will be follow up testing after the game. Cuomo is an important figure here and it is not just for letting people into the stadium for a game. The Buffalo Bills ownership’s lease agreement with Erie County, New York is up after the 2023 season. Cuomo will be an active participant in the talks that could yield one of three endings. A new stadium for the team, a renovated stadium in Orchard Park or the team could move to another city. The NFL would like to see the team remain in Western New York.
The stadium negotiations between Bills ownership, Erie County and the state should start sometime this year. Cuomo is a big public project guy. He recently was in Manhattan for the opening of the Moynihan Train Station. He pushed for the New York Islanders arena at the Belmont Park Racetrack site on the New York City-Nassau County border. He greenlighted the LaGuardia Airport reconstruction. He pushed for a new Hudson River Bridge. He was also part of the 2012 negotiations that extended the Bills lease with Erie County through 2023. In 2019, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell put Buffalo and western New York on notice saying it was his opinion that the Bills franchise needed a new stadium.
