Bills Blackmailed New York tax Payers into Covering 84% of Stadium Renovations

[BklynBillsFan17]

Lol Ralph Wins Again. We truly are the official Laughing Stock of the Sports World

http://deadspin.com/buffalo-bills/

[lightsxout]

I don't know if you've noticed the current state of government spending, corporate welfare, or professional sports but this is the general way of doing business anywhere for all big business.

[Feeling On Youboty]

Where's the hysteria when Upstate NYer's pay their share for the Barclay's Center, MSG renovations and the construction of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field?

[BillsFanHoustonTX]

I stopped reading the article when I got to the part where the Bills play one game a year in Toronto to high priced tickets (true) and huge attendance (I actually laughed pretty loud at that one).

[Brueggs]

LOL. If we are the laughing stock of the sports world, its about what happens on the field, not because they use taxpayer money.
The author acts outraged by this and ends the article with some tidbits about other NFL teams in the process of trying to do the same thing, showing it is commonplace. He makes a mention of how this might be good for econimics but has seen no study. The state has enjoyed the windfall of tax monies coming from the player and staff salaries, hotel, food, travel expense, ect. for years. They are in this for the money too. They played around with a calculator before commiting to this deal, and I would imagine it is to their benefit as well.

[HappeninNow]

everything the guy said in the article is true aside from his gaff about toronto attendance.

but the team is leaving without it, so are you happy overall or not?

I am happy

[SJ-Billsfan77]

I really sometimes wonder if the people on these boards actually pay attention to the sport of football in general outside of the Buffalo Bills?? I mean this is the same thing that happens in EVERY SINGLE Pro Football city. The City and State pays the majority of stadium renovations, New stadiums being built, etc. This isnt anything new and to try and spin it like Ralph pulled the wool over peoples eyes is boring and pathetic!!

[BillsFanHoustonTX]

I really sometimes wonder if the people on these boards actually pay attention to the sport of football in general outside of the Buffalo Bills?? I mean this is the same thing that happens in EVERY SINGLE Pro Football city. The City and State pays the majority of stadium renovations, New stadiums being built, etc. This isnt anything new and to try and spin it like Ralph pulled the wool over peoples eyes is boring and pathetic!!

Actually it doesn't happen in every single NFL city. The trend has been towards moving the cost more to the owner. That is what they are trying to do. Jerry Jones paid 2/3 of the cost of Jerry's world. That is hardly what is happening in WNY.

[DaBills4Life]

I didnt read much into the lease agreement, I thought the renovations were only about $130 million. $271 million is a lot of money, why not go for the stadium? How much more would a stadium cost today?

[longshot21]

I stopped reading when he started *****ing about how we are getting public money. Seriously? It's not even close to even after the Bills build a new stadium compared to the amount of money poured into NYC. The Yankee's got a freaking parking garage built for them, it cost a billion dollars and it was largely public money.

[bilzfancy]

Lol Ralph Wins Again. We truly are the official Laughing Stock of the Sports World

http://deadspin.com/buffalo-bills/

no, that moniker belongs to the Jets, Mets

[Big B]

It sucks for that guy and other NYC people who aren't Bills fans. But honestly, I don't care. If it really is $6 per person, then I'm comfortable with having others pay to keep my team here. I don't exactly know what gets done with our tax money, but I'd assume a ton of it gets dumped into NYC. This is not something specific to the Bills, and we are not a laughing stock because of it.

[NYCBillsFan]

Where's the hysteria when Upstate NYer's pay their share for the Barclay's Center, MSG renovations and the construction of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field?

I stopped reading when he started *****ing about how we are getting public money. Seriously? It's not even close to even after the Bills build a new stadium compared to the amount of money poured into NYC. The Yankee's got a freaking parking garage built for them, it cost a billion dollars and it was largely public money.

You should check out where most of NYS tax dollars derive from (hint, it's not upstate NY).....

[buffaloftw]

Where did this guy get his numbers from? It was widely reported that the stadium costs were $130 million and that the Bills were paying about 35% of that...

[SpillerDownTheSideline]

Yeah deadspin.com yeah pffffffffffffffft

[Lynch Mode]

Those numbers in the article are not even correct.

[longshot21]

You should check out where most of NYS tax dollars derive from (hint, it's not upstate NY).....

Fair enough, but it's not like they're dumped money into Buffalo. At some point we derisive some treatment you know?

[Savior77]

Where did this guy get his numbers from? It was widely reported that the stadium costs were $130 million and that the Bills were paying about 35% of that...

There's a copy of the lease in the article. From the numbers the lease agreement gave, it looks like Bills are paying about 27%, unless there are some other costs the County is paying that I'm not seeing.

[Savior77]

You should check out where most of NYS tax dollars derive from (hint, it's not upstate NY).....

When everyone in the state is paying for it, it costs a lot less for the $130 million project we have than, say, the $1.2 billion that taxpayers had to give for the new Yankee Stadium. Or the Barclays Center, which I think taxpayers were only on the hook for about $150 million but that's estimated to go up. However, I am pretty sure that Citi Field was funded by the city of NYC with the Mets paying it back, and I think MSG renovations were privately funded.

But you are right, Upstate does receive more in state funds than it pays for in taxes, and the reverse is true for NYC. It really doesn't make sense for either region to have to fund stuff for the other, but that's just how these deals seem to work now, which is bull. And that's not even getting into how both regions really need different taxes and regulations to thrive, but being tied together largely prevents that.

[Sniper]

Seriously one of the least informative pieces I have ever read. I can't take Deadspin seriously when it published articles like this.

This dude knows nothing, or the fact that they are making 70 million on the agreement. OH and that we are the only team that pays income tax to NYS.