Kathy Hochul: San Diego was interested in taking the Bills away from Buffalo

[AuntieEm]

1 hour ago, machine gun kelly said:

Well they won’t now, given a state of the art stadium that NYS and the casinos paid for the construction. With the increased expense in construction materials since that word we can’t say (sounds like BOVID) has made things so expensive.

 

Just a handful of years ago, Lincoln Financial in Indy was half the cost, and a retractable dome.  I’m fine with having that covered awning though as it should really cut down on the wind as well or completely above ground vs. mostly underground.  You Buffalo guys will get shielded from most wind, snow, and rain.

  Yea they will design it so wind may be very rarely a factor.  Likely have to be a blizzard which would be a reschedule or emergency game site switch like the one we played in Detroit due to snow years back.  2013 wasn't it?  And open stadium allows for the natural grass playing field which is safer for our players.

Edited April 13, 2022 by AuntieEm

[The Jokeman]

San Diego? First they take the Braves than the Bills?

[TheBrownBear]

As a San Diegan for more than a decade, I can assure you that San Diego would never have been able to make a serious bid for the Bills.  

2 hours ago, BillsfaninSB said:

The City/County was fully supportive of a new stadium near Qualcomm.   Spanos sabotaged it by insisting on a downtown site that was really tight.  traffic and parking would have been difficult.  It wasn’t very popular.

 

Plus, in CA, those types of tax measures need a super majority (2/3) to approve.   Very hard to do.  That referendum to raise hotel taxes had two strikes against it.  Bottom line: Spanos wanted to leave.  SD wanted to keep the the Chargers.

 

San Diego was probably not a veiled threat. 

This is all true, but the political will was barely there for the Qualcomm site.  The Spanos family did an amazing job of killing San Diegans enthusiasm for NFL football.  

[PonyBoy]

2 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

I know there are some loyal Bills fans in SoCal, but overall people out there are interested in other things than the NFL.

 

I do love San Diego as a city, and it’s beautiful, but they are nothing like a group like Buffalo people.  We eat, breathe, and bleed red, white, and royal blue.

 

San Diego deserves a team for no other reason than to at least host SuperBowls. I lived there a long time, fans are not fanatical, etc.. like Buffalo (who is?) I was never so proud to live in San Diego when the locals middle fingered the owners voting no for the hand out. The land that Qualcomm was on was worth billions to sell and more billions to build on. Life went on in San Diego without NFL, hopefully in my lifetime other cities will just say no to the corporate greed in unison. If a few, dozen or more say no, where else would the NFL go? However, I can see the headline now. NFL sues multiple states and cities for collusion, conspiring against a "poor" little Not For Profit entity. 🙄

[RocCityRoller]

2 hours ago, AuntieEm said:

 

   And  a large chunk is money made from the seneca casino  in wny so its fitting that money is spent in wny.

 

The new stadium will of course come with a Seneca (Iroquois) curse against the Buffalo Bills who are ironically named after a Wild West entertainer.

Heard a political hit piece on radio this morning about how the money is being spent. (Sponsored by the Seneca)

 

I'm sure there was some interest from other places, but Hochul and this deal are getting blasted all over the country. She had to say something.

The Bills Beat on the TBD landing page was full of critical story feeds the past 2-3 days.

 

Very ugly situation. I'll leave it at that.

[Don Otreply]

1 hour ago, Warcodered said:

Yes because spending 24% of what your net worth is, isn't an absurd idea at all.

Like anyone gives a rats azs that a multi billionaire has to spend 1.6 billion dollars of their own money for a stadium, and still be a multi billionaire after the fact, those poor Pegulas, get your head on straight, this is tax payers paying for private corporate infrastructure, I don’t understand how people are so gullible as to thinking that giving their wages via taxes to billionaires, is some how a great idea…, 

 

 

nuthin but luv, no really, 👍
 

 

[BillsfaninSB]

1 hour ago, TheBrownBear said:

As a San Diegan for more than a decade, I can assure you that San Diego would never have been able to make a serious bid for the Bills.  

This is all true, but the political will was barely there for the Qualcomm site.  

 

The Mission Valley site never was given a real shot.  If the Chargers were motivated enough it would have been possible.  But we will never know.

 

Point is I think the SD threat, where ever it originated from, had merit. 

[Rock-A-Bye Beasley]

San Diego has succeeded in taking me from Buffalo. Not sure if there was any interest. 

[Warcodered]

Just now, Don Otreply said:

Like anyone gives a rats azs that a multi billionaire has to spend 1.6 billion dollars of their own money for a stadium, and still be a multi billionaire after the fact, those poor Pegulas, get your head on straight, this is tax payers paying for private corporate infrastructure, I don’t understand how people are so gullible as to thinking that giving their wages via taxes to billionaires, is some how a great idea…, 

 

 

nuthin but luv, no really, 👍
 

 

and I don't get how people think just because they have multiple billions of dollars means they just have billions of dollars lying around waiting to be thrown at a massive project like this. Large amounts of their NetWorth is going to be tied to assets and investments. This isn't private corporate infrastructure either they won't own the Stadium they'll lease it. If the taxpayers are paying for anything it's to keep the team in their city. Also at what point did I imply I'd feel bad for the Pegula's if they had to spend money? What I said it's not realistic to think they could just drop 1+ billion dollars on something like this.

[muppy]

buffalo bills errrr san diego charge...no wait LA Charge-what?

 

**** That Owner and double for trying to steal my football team. You cant have em HA!~!

 

dont get me started.

[BillsfaninSB]

51 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

Like anyone gives a rats azs that a multi billionaire has to spend 1.6 billion dollars of their own money for a stadium, and still be a multi billionaire after the fact, those poor Pegulas, get your head on straight, this is tax payers paying for private corporate infrastructure, I don’t understand how people are so gullible as to thinking that giving their wages via taxes to billionaires, is some how a great idea…, 

 

 

nuthin but luv, no really, 👍
 

 

The State/County is not giving them anything.   The State will own the stadium.  The Bills will lease it.  The State will get their money back by year 22 of the deal.  After that it is new revenue.

 

I don’t understand why everybody thinks this is a handout.  It is no different than a commercial developer building a property and leasing it to Starbucks.   No one thinks  greedy Starbucks is getting a handout. 
 

Edited April 14, 2022 by BillsfaninSB

[BillsFan4]

4 hours ago, Greg S said:

A very legitimate source said there were cities interested in taking the Bills away from Buffalo before the team struck a deal for a new stadium.

On Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said via WNYC radio that cities that specifically lost teams wanted to land the Bills had there been a possibility.

She went on to indicate that San Diego was one.

“I was aware that they were being reached out to by other cities that have lost teams before. That is real,” Hochul said.

“My whole life there was talk of them going to Toronto… Buffalo is a very small market. It is quite extraordinary that they have a team at all,” she added. “Because there’s a lot more money to be had in those larger cities like San Diego and others who would love to have a team. So, that’s a reality most people probably aren’t familiar with.”

Hochul, a western New York native, would be well aware of the Toronto subject.

On March 28, it was officially announced that a $1.4 billion venue would be built for the Bills in Orchard Park next to their current home. The team will be locked into playing there for at least 30 years and will begin in 2026.

The building will officially be an open-air stadium with about a 62,000-seating capacity.

The Bills and the NFL will front $550M for the project. The $850M total from taxpayers covers 61 percent of the total cost of construction.

Other markets that lost NFL franchises in the past include St. Louis and Oakland.

very true, and if we ever lost the Bills we would likely never get another NFL team again.

 

So glad the stadium deal got done.

[BringBackFergy]

Jacksonville has tarps over 1/3 of the stadium. Let San Diego have the Jags. 
 

[BillsfaninChicago]

Ron Burgundy VS. Bruce Nolan 
 

No holds barred falls count anywhere to determine who gets the Bills!

[BillsfaninSB]

31 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

very true, and if we ever lost the Bills we would likely never get another NFL team again.

 

So glad the stadium deal got done.

And that tax and lease revenue go away forever.  Plus the cost of dealing with an empty Highmark stadium. 

[klos63]

3 hours ago, Warcodered said:

Yes because spending 24% of what your net worth is, isn't an absurd idea at all.

I'd say there was probably a 100% chance they would secure a loan and not have to liquidate their assets, while the value of the franchise continues to rise and with the new TV deals coming into play after the season, they'll be raking in hundreds of millions more a year than they are now. They're fine, don't worry about them.

[JohnNord]

5 hours ago, Greg S said:

A very legitimate source said there were cities interested in taking the Bills away from Buffalo before the team struck a deal for a new stadium.

On Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said via WNYC radio that cities that specifically lost teams wanted to land the Bills had there been a possibility.

She went on to indicate that San Diego was one.

“I was aware that they were being reached out to by other cities that have lost teams before. That is real,” Hochul said.

“My whole life there was talk of them going to Toronto… Buffalo is a very small market. It is quite extraordinary that they have a team at all,” she added. “Because there’s a lot more money to be had in those larger cities like San Diego and others who would love to have a team. So, that’s a reality most people probably aren’t familiar with.”

Hochul, a western New York native, would be well aware of the Toronto subject.

On March 28, it was officially announced that a $1.4 billion venue would be built for the Bills in Orchard Park next to their current home. The team will be locked into playing there for at least 30 years and will begin in 2026.

The building will officially be an open-air stadium with about a 62,000-seating capacity.

The Bills and the NFL will front $550M for the project. The $850M total from taxpayers covers 61 percent of the total cost of construction.

Other markets that lost NFL franchises in the past include St. Louis and Oakland.

My feeling is that the interest might be a slight embellishment.  But her point about a market like Buffalo having an NFL team is spot on.  That’s why I don’t really care that NYS and the county are pitching in so much to keep the Bills in Buffalo with a new stadium.  

[djp14150]

6 hours ago, Greg S said:

A very legitimate source said there were cities interested in taking the Bills away from Buffalo before the team struck a deal for a new stadium.

On Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said via WNYC radio that cities that specifically lost teams wanted to land the Bills had there been a possibility.

She went on to indicate that San Diego was one.

“I was aware that they were being reached out to by other cities that have lost teams before. That is real,” Hochul said.

“My whole life there was talk of them going to Toronto… Buffalo is a very small market. It is quite extraordinary that they have a team at all,” she added. “Because there’s a lot more money to be had in those larger cities like San Diego and others who would love to have a team. So, that’s a reality most people probably aren’t familiar with.”

Hochul, a western New York native, would be well aware of the Toronto subject.

On March 28, it was officially announced that a $1.4 billion venue would be built for the Bills in Orchard Park next to their current home. The team will be locked into playing there for at least 30 years and will begin in 2026.

The building will officially be an open-air stadium with about a 62,000-seating capacity.

The Bills and the NFL will front $550M for the project. The $850M total from taxpayers covers 61 percent of the total cost of construction.

Other markets that lost NFL franchises in the past include St. Louis and Oakland.

 

buffalo is not a small market…it’s a top 10 market if you factor in the southern Ontario metro area that gets buffalo stations.

[chongli]

4 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

 

 

Just a handful of years ago, Lincoln Financial in Indy was half the cost, and a retractable dome. 

 

You mean Lucas Oil? The Linc is in Philadelphia. [Grin!] 😅

[Doc Brown]

5 hours ago, Big Turk said:

So SD wasn't willing to build a stadium to keep the team there when they had a chance but they'd happily pay for one now? Makes no sense.

She could’ve used Portland, San Antonio, Omaha, Salt Oklahoma City, etc…. All realistic possibilities.