Apr 1
2024
Pegula aided and abetted by Poloncarz & Hochul
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncrz says he’s hopping mad at the Buffalo Bills for the way they’re treating season ticket holders. Says the team should be more transparent in its roll-out of personal seat licenses and that Gov. Kathy Hochul shares his concerns.
Sorry, but Poloncarz and Hochul are enablers. They capitulated to Terry Pegula’s demands that the new stadium be located in Orchard Park and that taxpayers foot most of the bill.
Along the way, Poloncarz took the ridiculous position that the stadium didn’t require an environmental impact statement and bargained a weak community benefits agreement with the team. He demanded secrecy every step of the way and never pushed the team to spell out the cost of PSLs.
In short, Poloncarz and Hochul set Pegula up to screw the team’s fan base. And now he is, with the assistance of Jerry Jones and his Legends Hospitality, who is providing Pegula with tone-deaf ticketing advice.
Fans are not taking well to this, as evidenced by this Facebook page. As one fan put it: “I for one am not going at these rates, I will have paid for season tickets for 40 years at that point, other things in life start to take priority. Rather than paying for $20 beers and $30 nachos I will buy a 100 inch ultra 4k HD wall beast and still enjoy my team.”
Another expression of outrage: The holder of eight suite seats upon learning his PSL bill is $400,000.
Season ticket holders looking for inspiration can look west to Oakland. Fans of the baseball A’s last week tailgated outside of opening day without attending the game. They were expressing their unhappiness with the team’s decision to relocate to Las Vegas once a new stadium is completed there.
Meanwhile, The Browns in Cleveland are demanding $500 million in public funds to dome their lakefront stadium or $1 billion to help build a stadium in the suburbs.
What is it with these NFL owners? Or the politicians who enable them?
In January we reported on high absenteeism in Buffalo schools. It turns out the city is not alone. Chronic absenteeism has soared nationwide, The New York Times reports.
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