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The Bills Are Getting $1 Billion In Public Funds For A New Stadium
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Hey Friends,
Buffalo Bills owner and fracking mogul Terry Pegula previously threatened to move the team to Austin, Texas, if they did not receive public funding for a new stadium.
And it looks like that threat worked, with the New York Post reporting that Governor Kathy Hochul—a Buffalo native—is now willing to play ball with state funds.
Gov. Hochul is “expected to announce in the next several days a deal in which New York State and Erie County agree to pay nearly $1 billion toward a new $1.4 billion stadium that will be located next to the current one.”
That would be the most public money ever spent on building a US stadium, and the Bills have already hired architecture powerhouse Populous to complete the project.
NFL Stadiums Designed By Populous
Gillette Stadium (New England)
M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore)
Heinz Field (Pittsburgh)
State Farm Stadium (Arizona)
Populous hasn’t built an open-air NFL stadium since Gillette Stadium (Patriots) opened in 2002. But they recently completed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, and it’s believed to be one of the most beautiful sports venues in the entire world.
Given this project has been in the works for multiple years now, the Buffalo Bills and Populous have already realized renderings of what a new stadium might look like.
Maybe these change over the next few months, but the current proposal is for a new, open-air, grass stadium that will cost about $1.4 billion in total.
And here is a map of where the new stadium would be located — it’s directly next to the current stadium in Orchard Park.
I also think there are probably three more things worth noting:
The new stadium is expected to have 60,000 seats & 60 luxury suites. That’s about 12,000 fewer seats and only half the number of suites they have today.
The new stadium won’t be completed until 2027, and with the Bills’ current lease ending in July 2023, they will still have to extend their lease for a few years.
Populous has deep ties with both the city of Buffalo and the Pegula family — they designed the 2008 NHL Winter Classic at Ralph Wilson Stadium and were later hired by the Bills to plan $130 million in renovations to their stadium.
But the recent uptick in publically-expressed displeasure involving the new Buffalo Bills stadium isn’t because it has fewer seats or won’t be ready for another five years.
It’s because an owner that is personally worth more than $6 billion is about to receive $1 billion in public funding for a team that has seen its valuation increase from $1.4 billion in 2014 to over $2.25 billion today — that’s an $850 million markup in 8 years.
The truth is that $1 billion in taxpayer funding is unprecedented regardless of how you frame it. The Cowboys received $400 million in public financing for their new $1.1 billion stadium in Dallas. The Vikings received $500 million in public financing for their new $1.1 billion stadium in Minneapolis, and the Raiders received $750 million in public financing for their new $1.8 billion stadium in Las Vegas.
But Bills will be the first sports team in history to receive $1 billion in public funding.
Of course, the flip side of this argument is that this is just business as usual. Sure, $1 billion in taxpayer funding would be unprecedented, but 28 out of the NFL’s 32 teams currently play in stadiums that were partially funded by taxpayer dollars.
Most people spend their time attempting to determine if the cost of a new stadium provides enough local economic benefit to make the transaction profitable.
But I’m not sure that’s even an argument anymore. Nearly all academic research suggests that using government funds to build a multi-billion-dollar stadium is a bad investment, especially when it’s located in a city like Buffalo, which doesn’t receive nearly as many out-of-town visitors as places like New York City or Los Angeles.
My take on this is that spending more money will just become par for the course. NFL teams are scare assets—there’s only 32 of them—and politicians around the country know that they need to comply or run the risk of losing their team to a city that will.
Does that make it right? No, of course not. Many people couldn’t care less if an NFL team existed in their city, and millions of other projects could use 10-figures of government resources.
But the reality is that $1 billion in funding represents just .4% of the $216 billion budget Governor Kath Hochul recently proposed, and the Bills aren’t going anywhere because they have been a cornerstone of the Buffalo community for 60+ years.
Still, my guess is that this won’t be approved without a fight.
Have a great day, and we’ll talk tomorrow.
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Huddle Up is a daily letter that breaks down the business and money behind sports.
Join more than 55,000 professional athletes, business executives, and casual sports fans that receive it directly in their inbox each morning — it’s free.
The Joe Pomp Show: A new episode with Patrick Mouratoglou is live!
Patrick owns and operates the largest tennis academy in Europe and has coached Serena Williams for the last decade, helping her win 10 of her 23 Grand Slams.
We discuss:
How he built his business
Growing the sport of tennis globally
The qualities that make Serena Williams great
How people can improve their mental strength
Patrick also tells some epic stories about the world's best tennis players — this was a great one.
Listen, subscribe, share, and enjoy!
