Tag: Buffalo Bills

Mar 4

2022

iPost sues over suppressed stadium records

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Investigative Post filed a lawsuit Monday in state Supreme Court seeking the release of an engineering report that assessed the condition of Highmark Stadium. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Pegula Sports and Entertainment have asserted the stadium is in need of replacement. But the county, which commissioned an engineering study completed in 2021, has refused to provide details. The study, conducted by the engineering firm DiDonato Associates, identified problems with the upper deck and water and electrical systems while concluding that the 50-year-old stadium “remains in overall fair to good condition.”  Investigative Post requested a copy of the report[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 28

2022

State historically not a big funder of stadiums

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Many fans and politicians are expecting, even counting on, the state to put up most of the money the Buffalo Bills want from the public to help finance construction of a new stadium.   The state has played no such role, however, in the construction or renovation of major league stadiums and arenas in the recent past.  The Bills have proposed a $1.4 billion, 60,000 seat stadium in Orchard Park and published reports have suggested the team’s owners want public financing to cover the “vast majority” of the cost.  “That’s certainly a step beyond anything else that’s been going on in[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 7

2022

NFL stadium rush is on

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The Buffalo Bills aren’t the only NFL franchise interested in replacing or upgrading their stadium. Seven other teams are working on plans. While the Bills stadium plan – expected to cost $1.4 billion – is the most expensive at the moment, the other stadium deals won’t come cheap. Like the Bills plan, most of the stadium deals involve large sums of public money.  Here’s a look at the other plans in the works:  New England Patriots. Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, which opened in 2002, is getting a $225 million makeover starting this year. Owner Robert Kraft and his family[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 3

2022

Stadium benefits campaign goes public

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 A coalition that wants a community benefits agreement attached to public subsidies for a new Buffalo Bills stadium has taken their campaign public, after months of quiet organizing. The coalition held a press conference Tuesday morning at Johnnie B. Wiley stadium on the city’s East Side — the old Rockpile, the original home of the Bills. The speakers included community activist Karima Amin, Tanvier Peart and Miles Gresham of Partnership for the Public Good, Bridge Rauch of Buffalo Transit Riders United, and Dr. Myron Glick, the founder and CEO of Jericho Road Community Health Center. The coalition wants a legally[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 28

2022

CBA proponents here seeking first win

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Third in a three-part series. Western New York has never adopted a community benefits agreement the likes of which is being proposed for a new Buffalo Bills stadium. Twice, coalitions of community groups and elected officials have tried to attach CBAs to big, taxpayer-funded development projects in Buffalo. Those efforts — the first for Canalside, the second for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus — yielded mixed results: Both campaigns coaxed concessions from developers, but neither yielded the kind of legally binding agreement that has become common in other communities across the country over the past 20 years.  Now, many of[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 27

2022

Linking community benefits to a Bills stadium

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This is the second of a three-day series in our continuing in-depth coverage of issues related to a proposed stadium for the Buffalo Bills. Erie County Legislature Chair April Baskin doesn’t concern herself with whether a new Buffalo Bills stadium will be built in Buffalo or Orchard Park.  She’s not particularly worried about its cost. What matters most, Baskin told Investigative Post, is what the community gets in exchange for the taxpayer dollars the team’s owners want from the state and county.  Pegula Sports and Entertainment has made it clear the team expects significant public subsidies — as much as[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 26

2022

Heaney discusses Bills stadium on ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney covered a lot of ground regarding the proposed Bills stadium in his interview on The Capitol Pressroom. Heaney updated host David Lombardo on recent developments and reporting by Investigative Post, including a story last week that detailed how taxpayers are on the hook for about $13 million a year of stadium expenses.  

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 25

2022

How a stadium can benefit the community

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This is the first of a three-day series in our continuing in-depth coverage of issues related to a proposed stadium for the Buffalo Bills. Before the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers broke ground last summer on a new arena, the team’s owners, elected officials and civic groups made certain the $1.8 billion project would benefit the entire community. In September 2020, the parties signed a community benefits agreement, or CBA, that outlined who would get jobs and contracts during and after construction, how much those jobs would pay, what the project would look like, and how the city and its residents[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post