Bills(70)

Use the creative thinking skills of your brain.

Very correct JohnC. That is why I stated my opinion on the domed stadium for this region. 200 million dollars in facility upgrades at Rich Stadium does nothing in the way of offering any significant use for the stadium outside of housing an NFL franchise, that may, or may not stick around. Building a domed stadium in downtown however, offers the advantage of year round use of a facility that can do more than just house an NFL franchise. Yes the cost is more, substantially more, but in the interest of keeping a facility at least viable to pay off the bond issuance, you'll need multiple uses. It's just sound financial practice as opposed to throwing 200 million at a facility that may, in the future, sit dormant for many years. Risk analysis all day long.

Let's start with the Rockefeller Institute Report you referrence here. It is not, in point of fact, an actual factual detailed spending analysis in so far as state funding, it is a what if scenario generator. I am very familiar with it and do not agree with it at all given several factors. But in the interest of summarizing, it's in the report itself. "The study uses the “state-funds” basis of revenues and expenditures. Thus it includes, for example, payments that are funded from the state’s own taxes, fees, public university tuition, hospital and other charges, but not those supported by federal aid. We exclude proceeds from state bond issuances, given the difficulty of allocating such revenues by region. To offset that exclusion (conceptually if not dollar-for-dollar), we also omit disbursements for debt service. Capital expenditures funded through tax and other state-funds revenues are included. The basic data for analysis are from the Comptroller’s Annual Report to the Legislature on State Funds Cash Basis of Accounting, for the fiscal year ended March 31 2010.1 Revenue and expenditure categories in this report follow those in the cash report. Additional data sources include the state Department of Taxation and Finance, the Division of the Budget, and other agencies." For your information, bond issuance, specifically at the state level, is actually very significant when taken in the context of economic development and state infrastructure expansion/maintenance. By definition of the geography of the greater NYC area as opposed to the next 3 largest NYS cities combined, NYC receives the lions share of such, and they are also "taxpayer" monies. And there are literally hundreds of other issues left out of the loop in this report for the state level. And finally, the report itself clearly states the following: "We do not attempt to determine whether regions pay or receive their “fair share.” We do, however, present relevant demographic data for each region so that our factual findings on the geographic distribution of payments may be considered in a useful context." Basing the information on population demographics is problematic to say the least. And I give this prime example. By 1900, Buffalo was the 8th largest city in the United States, and went on to become a major railroad hub, and the largest grain-milling center in the country. One could argue that technology advances, taxation rates and free trade agreements have primarily offset WNY's population numbers to the extent they are now, the period from 1960 to current day, also known as "The Great Exodus from Buffalo". But let's not be naive enough not to realize that downstate political power played just an overwhelming enormous part in this tragedy based largely on the need of down state to mitigate the power of WNY in state government to garner favorable returns at the state level in revenue. To discount such is akin to wearing blinders in a glass retailer as you run the aisles. As for giving more than taking, Upstate and Western New York really don't have a choice in the matter in the modern era as NYC based power politicians such as Sheldon Silver have put such business killing policies in place and mandates to the county/municipal governments that the balance ostensibly was shifted in the late 80's/early 90's as the Exodus was repeatedly ignored at the state level by those same NYC interests and politicians. I.E. They looked out for their own asses downstate for decades, yes, decades, while these areas of manufacturing hubs and bastions of blue collar populations were plundered and purged by aforementioned policies and mandates. So, it's more than fair to state that downstate get's the lion's share of the state funding, when bond issuance's, tax revenue from all sources and Federal Funds (which were not included in these reports remember) which are stipend to Albany are taken into consideration.

It's ok to be overly optimistic given the rebuild that is under way at 2 Bills Drive, but, and I must caution, it's just that.....a rebuild. Fans should be very excited, but with measured expectations for this coming season. It will be interesting to see how the new members on D gel and find chemistry together. I'm also very happy to see the players getting into it. Let's just hope the injury bug doesn't bite hard on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive backs. I am looking forward to this season for sure, but I'm going to be really excited for the following season, when more components are added. I truly believe we'll be in contention then.

While it is true that a majority of the percentage of all state taxes garnered in WNY do end up down state, it was not my intent to say that all of downstate would be opposed to it, but with projects being looked at in such a large population corridor, they almost always take precedent over WNY. As for the actual numbers, I haven't looked it up this year, but I do know in the past decade the number is roughly 66% of state funds to the NYC corridor and the remainder of the state divides what was left over.

Roanoke, VA for 4 months out of the year. Englewood, FL for 4 months out of the year. Town of Tonawanda, NY for 4 months out of the year. But born and raised in NT.

Well, this is about as short sighted a view as they come. Let's see, where to begin? Ah yes, how about the "even if it means the taxpayers have to pony up" comment. First of all, it's a great deal of "State" funds, not local, that are in contribution on the Minny deal. I think I'll go out on a limb here and say most of the residence of eastern New York State don't give a dam about whether or not the Buffalo Bills remain here, given they are predominantly fans of other teams, in-particular New York City teams. Then there is the "the stadium is fine, needs upgrades, and is more than adequate for the Bills" comment. Let's just say for arguments sake that the state and local government's pony up, as you put it, the necessary funding to achieve those upgrades. What benefit other than keeping an NFL franchise in Western New York does the stadium actually achieve on any type of a relevant scale? Whether it be economic or otherwise. I would have to believe a domed stadium downtown, at roughly 5.1 times the cost of the current upgrades necessary achieves multiple goals in multiple categories that extend far and reaching beyond what Rich Stadium ever did, is currently or will ever achieve. Politicos delivering money (and my personal favorite), loudmouths who will complain about their "tax dollars". Jeez Mr. Hitler, we tax payers would "never dream" of questioning your Authoritative view of our wallets. After all, we enjoy working ourselves to the bone and then giving "YOUR ILK" the money to spend as "YOU SEE FIT". Just an overall bad post with no thought what so ever to any other individual or groups of individuals points of view on the subject.

There is no reason to move up. Randle isn't worth giving up the depth picks for. People need to realize the rebuild will still be going into next years draft as well. We don't need to nor are we going to grab every need this draft with stud players. There may be a surprise in the later round picks, who knows. Brady was a late rounder. I understand the feeling to compete at an elite level now, I, along with many, many other fans lived through the late 70's and entire 80's era, so the last 10 to 12 years are nothing new to us aged fans. Have patience, it appears to be a solid build out by Nix and company.

Many of my peers from USC would tell you otherwise, but, I'll digress and see how the youngster goes after a starting position.

The Gilmour pick is a pick for the future for sure. Although he may get some starting time this season. Glenn however, was a steal in this position. Very flexible player position wise on the OL. My only concern is his ability to adjust to the increased speed of the game at the pro level combined with his ability to adjust in Line traffic for blocking assignments. Appears to be a solid 1 v 1 defender, but is that weight going to be an issue with the increased speed of the game, only time will tell.

Right, because the Bills have shown us time and again in the past 15 years of drafting that a reaction like this is hardly warranted

Actually, you asked, and yes, Buffalo does have the roughly 1 to 1.5 billion needed to build a stadium, it's called a bond issuance. What many fail to understand is that although Buffalo never had the growth boom in the past 20 years, it's remained fairly stable, proving to be one of the more attractive areas for bond issuance given it's ability to weather the recession storm due it's stability. That is not to say the lack of growth during the boom was a good thing, it is merely to say that the region here has finally stabilized and the exodus of people from the area is tailing off finally. It is very possible to do this, will the cities current leadership "think outside the box" and mortgage some of the cities future for a civil project such as this in order to keep a valued asset such as the Buffalo Bills in the region? I don't know, but the mere mention of it at least being discussed is a very positive sign indeed.

I would gladly vote yes for a bond issuance on a 1 to 1.5 billion dollar facility in downtown Buffalo. And it's about time the leadership in the area started thinking outside of the box on this as well.

Mr. Pegula bought the agency because of the record label attached to it. It had little to do with the player agency side of the business. Remember, Mr. Pegula already owns a country music label.

You mean like a Maybin? I kid...I kid...