So far no money has been allocated for the project.
In 1984, there was a hamburger chain that aired a commercial featuring an older woman played by Clara Peller that asked. “Where’s the beef?” The National Football League’s Buffalo Bills franchise and New York State officials have apparently decided on building a new facility for the team adjacent to the Bills present home in Orchard Park. But there is the question that needs to be asked. “Where is the beef or money allocated for construction? It is not in New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s $216.3 billion budget proposal. Initially, the Bills ownership was going to ask New York State taxpayers to pick up a large portion of the estimated $1.4 billion cost to build a 60,000-seat facility in Orchard Park. The negotiations between the franchise owners, New York State and Erie County officials are ongoing. Hochul is a new face at the bargaining table. Hochul is running for governor and the Bills stadium might become a campaign issue. Buffalo is a small regional market that includes Rochester and Syracuse, New York and parts of southern Ontario including Toronto and Hamilton.
The Buffalo market is not big enough to handle an NFL franchise. There aren’t many Fortune 500 companies in the area and that is problematic. In 1959, when Ralph Wilson purchased an American Football League franchise and placed it in Buffalo, instead of Miami, the area had heavy industry, steel mills, flour plants and a major port. Wilson only paid $25,000 for the business. The Bills’ lease to use the Orchard Park facility ends in 2023. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo was in the Bills ownership camp in 2012 with a new lease agreement which included renovations and taxpayers handing over a couple of million dollars annually to Bills owners. Bills ownership has claimed all it wants is an Orchard Park stadium that would open in 2027. Where is the beef?
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
