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

[Rubes]

 

"Go ***** yourself, San Diego."

 

[bigK14094]

I am somewhat amused at those who were against state funding of the new stadium, predominantly NYC folks.  And, NYS did not help with the reno of Yankee stadium...it was NYC that did the public financing of the Yankee stadium project.  Does NY State help the  city with other matters regarding their budget, you bet!  So, the state  taxpayer indirectly helped with the Yankee Stadium project, whereas the state tax payer will be helping directly with the new WNY stadium.   No difference imho.   

 

As for the downtown initiative, as a former season ticket holder (to old to walk in now) I would never try the traffic disaster that a downtown Bills game would be....I have been to Sabres games, and multiple the  cars by5.  That might take all night to clear out of the  city.

[Nextmanup]

21 hours ago, Bruffalo said:

Taking the Chargers to LA was such BS.  As if Los Angles needs two NFL franchises to be uninterested in. 

It's all about the Benjamins! 

 

[wppete]

2 hours ago, Rubes said:

 

"Go ***** yourself, San Diego."

 

[Matt_In_NH]

15 hours ago, djp14150 said:

 

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.

Can you provide more information on how you get to top 10?  Why are tickets so cheap?

[RunTheBall]

It was a perfect situation for Pegs. Once Hochul became governor, there was no way she was going to let the Bills walk on her watch. She’d never be able to visit back home again. Pegula had all the leverage and used it.

 

I no longer have the pleasure of paying NYS taxes, my money goes into the RI black hole which is 10x worse than NY, but I appreciate all you taxpayers coughing up some ducats to keep the Bills in WNY!

[Billschinatown]

8 minutes ago, BUFFALOBART said:

Taxes are how things get done. Nobody wants to pay them, but everybody wants the benefits from them.

If you've ever been to a third world so much this. Everybody hates taxes but they keep this place from falling apart.

 

I don't know if it equals-- but the Bills bring A LOT of money to NY that wouldn't be there. Whenever I go to a game I accidently end up spending a ton and bring friends most of the time. I think the deal probably keep a ton of "tourist" money that wouldn't be coming in to New York. 

[Helpmenow]

Nice hochul wrong again

[Helpmenow]

23 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.

Haven’t been to national city and San ysidro

5 minutes ago, BUFFALOBART said:

Oh, I agree, 100%. I've been to several third world countries.

My feeling about the Stadium financing, is that it puts gambling revenue, to good use.

Upstate New York has the economy of Mississippi, when the five Boroughs, Westchester, and Long Island are removed from the picture. It's about time, that the Queen City got something of substance, in return.

No. She isn't.

Yes she is

I have lived out there they are football fans just Alex Spanos was the one

[muppy]

just as a PS: I have heard zero in regards to this story in any of the mainstream sports channels, CBS nothing here locally. I think it was all a big bunch of hot air . Plus it is baseball season and San Diego IS a supporting MLB town #Padres

[Helpmenow]

Padres got the downtown gig and chargers couldn’t get a deal

[eball]

WHO.  CARES.

 

We have our Bills.  We have a stadium deal.  We have the best QB in the league.

 

LIFE IS GOOD

[muppy]

22 minutes ago, BUFFALOBART said:

Yeah, because they are going to go public, with an unborn private transaction. We know everything going on behind the scenes, don’t we???

We have our football team for 30 years onward, so go ahead, and assign some vague political feces, to a great outcome for Bills fans, and Western New York.

well no Im not disparaging the fact the Bills are staying more the insinuation they would ever leave.  geesh @-@ as if I would ever crap on the bills mafia. a big reach right there. I am a 30 plus years resident of san diego lifelong bills fan. ANYTHING in local media I would have noticed. and there was zero talk of this that I saw thats IT.....

Edited April 14, 2022 by muppy

[muppy]

3 minutes ago, BUFFALOBART said:

Do you *live* there, or have you *lived* there????

I bristel at people who throw dog crap, on a great outcome. The Gov., who is a Buffalo native, got it done. 

piffle to the first part and hallelujah to the second. Im out geesh...

 

 

[Helpmenow]

I don’t care if she is a native.

32 minutes ago, BUFFALOBART said:

Do you *live* there, or have you *lived* there????

I bristel at people who throw dog crap, on a great outcome. The Gov., who is a Buffalo native, got it done. 

So you haven’t lived there 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Helpmenow

[djp14150]

5 hours ago, 13 Second Prevent Defense said:

Can you provide more information on how you get to top 10?  Why are tickets so cheap?

media markets only include US population. It does not include the Canadian population.  Advertisers know Buffalo is a big market.  Buffalo radio and tv broadcast area includes most of Toronto- Hamilton area.  You add that population…buffalo is in the same ballpark as Bay Area and DC- Baltimore innthe top 10.

[Matt_In_NH]

15 minutes ago, djp14150 said:

media markets only include US population. It does not include the Canadian population.  Advertisers know Buffalo is a big market.  Buffalo radio and tv broadcast area includes most of Toronto- Hamilton area.  You add that population…buffalo is in the same ballpark as Bay Area and DC- Baltimore innthe top 10.

Toronto is not the Buffalo market.  No way  Buffalo is a tiny market.   It’s ok

[Mr. WEO]

San Diego right now:  "huh?"

 

Austin:  "I know, right?"

[purple haze]

15 hours ago, BarleyNY said:

Was the city’s interest news to the government in San Diego like it was to the one in Austin?  This “revelation” is just Hochul playing politics and giving herself cover for a sweetheart deal to the Pegulas.  While I am happy that the Bills are staying in WNY, it could’ve been done with a deal that wasn’t nearly this dirty. 

Maybe, maybe not.  You assume Hochul wasn’t  telling the truth and those other  government officials were.  The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  The intel she divulged probably came from the Pegula’s reps and is that game of chicken one you would have wanted her to play?  I wouldn’t.  As opposed to folks jumping on this deal ask why Buffalo and the other parts of the state continue to trail behind downstate decade after decade.  Hasn’t been a new football stadium in 50 years.  So where have all those tax dollars for more important things gone?  Under Democratic and Republican leadership at that.  Just a rhetorical question.

 

 The Bills are going to be where they belong going forward.  Good for Bills fans.  This is one instance where I don’t particularly care how it happened 

Edited April 15, 2022 by purple haze

[BarleyNY]

11 hours ago, purple haze said:

Maybe, maybe not.  You assume Hochul wasn’t  telling the truth and those other  government officials were.  The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  The intel she divulged probably came from the Pegula’s reps and is that game of chicken one you would have wanted her to play?  I wouldn’t.  As opposed to folks jumping on this deal ask why Buffalo and the other parts of the state continue to trail behind downstate decade after decade.  Hasn’t been a new football stadium in 50 years.  So where have all those tax dollars for more important things gone?  Under Democratic and Republican leadership at that.  Just a rhetorical question.

 

 The Bills are going to be where they belong going forward.  Good for Bills fans.  This is one instance where I don’t particularly care how it happened 

Well we KNOW Hochul lied about Austin.  San Diego makes little sense too.  I am just being realistic about that.  I also think we should all be realistic about the necessity of building the Bills a stadium.  Something had to be done or the Pegulas would have moved them somewhere.  Zero argument there.  Ditto WNY getting state funds.
 

But there is a lot to hate about this deal.  $850M in public funds for construction plus another $280M for upkeep is very, very steep.  Of the remaining $550M in construction costs the NFL is footing $200M and the Pegulas will be responsible for $350M.  But that won’t be from their pockets, it will come from fans in the form of PSLs.  Their investment will be zero or close to zero. 
 

Then there’s the very dirty mechanics of the deal.  The state money isn’t coming from downstate, $565M of the $600M is coming from Seneca Nation.  NYS is forcing them to pay 25% of their gross (not net) revenue to run their casinos.  They had a contract for that where payments ended in 2016 after 14 years.  In return SN was supposed to get exclusively on most of their gambling operations.  NYS did not uphold that end of the bargain and the period of payment had ended anyway so SN has not had contractual obligations to pay since 2016.  NYS contested that and thus the money was put into escrow.  NYS did get a judgement in the case, but SN appealed.  Rather than allow the legal proceeding to continue SN was forced to pay when Hochul froze all of the SN accounts.  Not just the account where they escrowed the disputed funds (which weren’t being spent anyway), all of SN’s accounts.  Oh and it’s Key Bank that did that.  The same one whose name is on the Sabres arena.

 

Then there’s Delaware North’s involvement.  Not only do they run concessions for sports teams, including the Bills and Sabres they are huge in the gaming industry.  They have a big interest in the expansion of that industry and the continued payments of SN certainly hinder their ability to compete in that industry.  25% of gross sales is crippling.  Oh and Kathy Hochul’s husband, William Hochul, is general counsel and senior Vice President and Secretary at Delaware North.

 

I know most people don’t know any of that (the mainstream local and national medias sure isn’t talking about it) and that most won’t care anyway.  And I know how I will get treated here as the messenger.  But this really makes me sick.  It’s just the wealthiest getting richer off of the poorest people.  The big winners here are the Pegulas and Delaware North.  The Hochuls are personally going to do very, very well too.  The WNY fans get to keep the Bills.  That is something at least, but they’ll pay for it with PSLs (I’m guessing about $350M worth) and an additional $250M in taxes.  A bunch of poor Seneca Nation people will just have to stay that way though.

 

I was hopeful that Hochul would be better than Cuomo, but somehow she might actually be worse.  There’s my rant so I’ll leave this here.