NYPOST: Congrats to Terry Pegula for moving up 60 spots on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans, to No. 128. His estimated net worth is up to $6.7 billion, from $5.7 billion last year.
Of course we wouldn’t normally care about the good fortune of a Florida billionaire — except that Pegula owns the Buffalo Bills. And the team this year nabbed $850 million in New York taxpayer largesse for a new stadium thanks singlehandedly to the iron will of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who muscled the Legislature into OK’ing the deal.
Why she made it such a priority remains a mystery, even though Buffalo’s her home town. Then again, her husband’s company, which handles Bills concessions, surely liked the deal too.
Hochul put taxpayer giveaways to rich sports franchise owners ahead of all other priorities. more
We went through this three times in Pittsburgh when they got rid of three rivers stadium and the Civic Arena and replaced them with HEinz Field and PPG Paints Arena.
PArt of the problem is the teams MIGHT threaten to relocate. CAn you imagine the Oklahoma City Steelers? It is a matter of civic pride to have these teams locate here and help provide the city with a ‘professional’ image. Very few politicians, R or D, are going to let ANY of these teams leave their cities, regardless of what it costs. Its the not on my watch syndrome.
All that said there are ancillary benefits (mostly jobs, both direct and indirect) to having these teams in your city. THere is also ticket tax revenues, rent (albeit usually very team friendly), and other revenues collected.
The biggest problem i have is the TEAM getting the money for the naming rights. Acrisure just ponied up $150M over ten years to rename Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium. THe Steelers are getting all of that cash. In my mind THAT is money the state/city government SHOULD get since they built the damn things.
Do the benefits of having a professional sports team outweigh the cost to build a stadium?
She was saving our Democracy don’t ya know.
IF her husband’s company does do Bills Concessions, she should have never been allowed to get anywhere near this deal let alone push for it’s approval since has a direct economic benefit to the project moving forward….but then again this is New York so anything goes if you are a Dem……compare this to the Trump family witch hunt and the billions in taxes wasted on the racist pig chasing him……
Years ago, a couple of groups in LA decided to finance their own stadium in order to bring a team to Los Angeles. The NFL objected to the private financing – they didn’t want some teams financing their own stadiums because other cities may get the idea they don’t have to kick in municipal funds for this purpose. So in order to not incur the wrath of the NFL, team owners need cities to build the stadium.
There have been numerous studies on the financial impact of having a professional sports team in a city. In almost all cases, the financial advantage is minimal at best, and generally the costs outweigh the financial benefits. Successful teams, like the Yankees, do draw the crowds but other franchises – particularly if they are less than successful – frequently play to a bunch of empty seats.
I am a huge sports fan, but I also observe the “Seinfeld rule” which means fans of any particular professional team are basically rooting for laundry. The vast majority of players will play for whatever team will give them the best contract, and teams typically make most of their money from advertising and media rights. I find it enjoyable to root for a particular team in a particular sport, but I’m not fanatical about it and if a team wants to move – so be it. Even if I move, I generally switch my interest to the local team.
To come full circle, I lived in SoCal for the 20 years they had no professional football team. There wasn’t a huge ground swell of public support to being a football team back to the area, and you could basically watch any game you wanted because there were no blackout rules for local teams. When the Rams moved to St. Louis, there were about 100 fans watching the moving vans leave. A sports team is part of a business (the “company” is actually the league) who are in it to make a profit, and in my view this should include financing their own stadium.
On the other hand, “bread and circuses” is still a viable political strategy to maintain power.
The NY State taxpayers will get the Bills.
Nothing to see. Just typical Dirty Dem behavior.
She is so fucked up looking. Beyond ugly
They just did a major renovation to Highmark Stadium in 2012. But, the Bills are the only NFL team that plays in NY. The Giants and Jets play in Jersey.
Like Wyatt, I’ve read that the financial impact of a stadium/team is minimal. Why are the taxpayers giving welfare to billionaires? Because it helps them get reelected.
and her husband is in charge of the concessions at the stadium