New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

[Fletch]

Just posting this because no one has yet.

If the Bills and the NFL want the taxpayers of New York to chip in on a new stadium in order to keep the Bills in Buffalo, they’re going to have to work on convincing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/01/new-york-governor-skeptical-of-taxpayers-building-bills-a-stadium/

[Night Train]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/25/report-cuomo-isnt-completely-sold-on-bills-needing-a-new-stadium/

Welcome to a week ago.

[Fletch]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

This seems to have been a development. We went from saying that he doesn't think we need one, to he won't let the taxpayers pay for one.

I think he needs to qualify that by saying on for the Bills. Since when is Cuomo against spending of any sort.

I'm against taxpayers paying for any business expense for any business, but unfortunately that's not how most politicians and many people think.

Anyway, it sounds like now they'll have to battle the state too, and if they come out on the losing end of that one the slim hopes that I had of the team staying over the long term get even slimmer.

[trapezeus]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

this is all the dance that governors on both sides of the aisle will do.

"against taxpayers paying for any business"? Despite government spending having a multiplying effect on GDP?

i am against building a stadium that can do nothing but host football games in a suburb of buffalo and provide all the profits to the owner.
i am for building a football stadium in downtown that is multi-purpose, and is aided by incentives for businesses to develop around the stadium. anything to keep building on the vibrancy returning to downtown.

[better days]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

Jacobs has said he would build a Stadium to keep the Bills in Buffalo.

If Pegula buys the Bills, I should say when Pegula buys the Bills, I am sure he would contribute to a new Stadium as well.

I think a new multi use Stadium downtown will be in the works after Pegula takes ownership of the Bills.

[Bill Cody]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

This seems to have been a development. We went from saying that he doesn't think we need one, to he won't let the taxpayers pay for one.

I think he needs to qualify that by saying on for the Bills. Since when is Cuomo against spending of any sort.

I'm against taxpayers paying for any business expense for any business, but unfortunately that's not how most politicians and many people think.

Anyway, it sounds like now they'll have to battle the state too, and if they come out on the losing end of that one the slim hopes that I had of the team staying over the long term get even slimmer.

The new owners needs to build the stadium themselves. Bob Kraft did and he's not as rich as Pegula. That's not to say the state won't contribute to the project. There may be significant infrastructure costs. That's what the state should pony up for and I expect it will.

[Guest]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

Minny state cut a cheque for $500M. I have difficulty believing NY would not do the same.

[DraftBoy]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

The taxpayers in NYS will have to contribute to any new stadium project. That's above and beyond whatever tax breaks they are already going to get.

[coastal]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

Let the fracking king pay for it. Good for Cuomo and hold that ****ing line.

[Historian]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

I disagree.

All new stadiums have been built downstate...in the middle of the worst recession since the big one.

Yanks, Mets, Devils, Giants-Jets, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.

I call Bull****.

The rotten apple can fund our team for a change.

[Fletch]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

i am against building a stadium that can do nothing but host football games in a suburb of buffalo and provide all the profits to the owner.
i am for building a football stadium in downtown that is multi-purpose, and is aided by incentives for businesses to develop around the stadium. anything to keep building on the vibrancy returning to downtown.

The first part of that is the reality.

On the second part, what brings vibrancy is low taxes, not higher ones.

If you had a business, are you going to locate it next to an NFL stadium that has major events 8 days out of 365, quite possibly several of them in miserable weather, although that's pretty insignificant considering that we're talking about fewer than 3% of days, none of which are business days, and hope that it propels your Buffalo business to a profit?

The kind of stuff that you're talking about takes years and is more complex than simply building a stadium where you want econonic development.

Rochester thought similarly years ago with that idiotic Fast Ferry idea. Canadians, they said, were going to flock over from Canada to shop in Rochester's wonderful malls and come visit the beach. Yeah right. Anyone with a brain knew that that wasn't going to happen.

Anyone know whatever happened to that 99-year lease that Rochester was on the hook for with Toronto?

Rochester also has done a lot with that High Falls area but that hasn't resulted in any kind of economic boon. This stuff is wishful thinking most of the time. There's a reason why all of the businesses that once were in WNY are now gone, and it's not because of what a stadium will bring.

[Fletch]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

The new owners needs to build the stadium themselves. Bob Kraft did and he's not as rich as Pegula. That's not to say the state won't contribute to the project. There may be significant infrastructure costs. That's what the state should pony up for and I expect it will.

Hope you're right. Most stadiums are taxpayer financed however. I just posted a link to an article in another thread about that from a major magazine. There are numerous articles on that.

NFL owners are business owners. As business owners they should pay for their own expenses. Having a tax exempt status and on top of that having taxpayers pay for their expenses, in this case stadium financing, is the reason why player salaries and contracts are so inflated.

Think about it, if someone owned a brick and mortar business, and somehow managed to get tax exempt status for it, and on top of that managed to have the community pick-up the financing on a new expensive building that it bought and one with all the bells and whistles, how would those taxpayers react?

Except when it's pro sports they all look the other way.

- - - Updated - - -

Minny state cut a cheque for $500M. I have difficulty believing NY would not do the same.

According to Cuomo it's not going to happen.

[Guest]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

No owner would be stupid enough to spend close to $1B of his own money on a new stadium in Buffalo.

Never going to happen.

The most they will invest is $300M as their share of the $1B and then they will finance half of that $300M through PSLs.

The Minny owner invested less than that and the twin cities don't look as bad as what a two hour tour of Buffalo looks like.

[Guest]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

The rotten apple can fund our team for a change.

There it is!

[Fletch]

Re: New York governor skeptical of taxpayers building Bills a stadium

I disagree.

All new stadiums have been built downstate...in the middle of the worst recession since the big one.

Yanks, Mets, Devils, Giants-Jets, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.

I call Bull****.

The rotten apple can fund our team for a change.

Besides the Yankees, which according to this piece http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...4-billion.html claims it was only $321.5M which I'm not sure I believe is that low, which other major ones were in NYS?

The Jets/Giants stadium is in Jersey as are the Devils. According to that same piece the Jets/Giants was privately financed, but unlike Wilson they sold the naming rights to Met-Life for $20M annually for 25 years. That's $500M. That ain't happening in Buffalo.