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

[shaunta53]

So the Bills are getting 130 Million in renovations...

They're ALSO getting from County and/or state: (Per Czech54)

$3 Million per year as "Working Capital Assistance"
$3 Million per year as "Operating Expense reimbursements"
$2 Million per year in "Game Day Expense reimbursements"
$4 Million per year in "Capital Improvement Allowances"

So the Bills are getting 12 Million per year from State/County in assistance/reimbursements/allowances...

[TheWien]

This is nothing new, business as usual.

[nateodoms'bff]

Man oh man. $6/person!? Thats what you all are complaining about? If the team left and moved to LA how would you feel about the extra $6 you'll have in your pocket?

[pete]

Call your landlord and demand thousands of dollars in improvements or you're leaving. They'll laugh and tell you to leave.

Bills dont own the ralph. Why would they pay to fix it?

Besides that is c how cities draw and keep sports teams. "If you build it they will come".
If you don't like it vote they guys out of office who signed the deal and let the bills leave.

[gadzod]

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.

These are the same people that was happy about the publicly funded $1B portion for the New Yankee Stadium

[forever 7-9]

Bills dont own the ralph. Why would they pay to fix it?

Besides that is c how cities draw and keep sports teams. "If you build it they will come".
If you don't like it vote they guys out of office who signed the deal and let the bills leave.

Since it seems like 95% of the politicians get swindled by sports teams all over, I'm instead just trying to change the mindset that makes fans defend a system that gives businesses with assured massive revenues handouts based on lies and blackmail.

Not that it will succeed, of course...

[forever 7-9]

Great point..but if i may add something. Our son doesnt attend the Maryvale school district..he is a Canisius Graduate,has been out of HS for 6 years now..however, we still pay school tax to the Maryvale Distict. New state of the art assembly center and buses that are 1/4 full..school "advisors" that make over 100k a year..the beat goes on. Why are we (me/wife) paying into that..where is the return?

Well I'm OK with people w/o children in school paying school taxes (the education of the community's children in in the best interests of the community paying taxes) but there are absolutely major issues with how schools spend and budget money.

My problem w/ the publicly funded stadiums is that people continue to get fooled by this argument that stadiums "bring business" when, time and again, it's been proven that they simply DO NOT.

Think in terms of the Bills: EIGHT games a year. EIGHT times. And the stadium-related jobs are middling, minimum-wage part time positions or part-time traveling vendors spending money out of town. Throw in the massive tax funding, ongoing tax breaks and lack of in-community revenue streams on a daily basis and these things cost cities through the nose.

Everyone should check out everything about this: http://www.fieldofschemes.com/

[pete]

Since it seems like 95% of the politicians get swindled by sports teams all over, I'm instead just trying to change the mindset that makes fans defend a system that gives businesses with assured massive revenues handouts based on lies and blackmail.

Not that it will succeed, of course...

I would agree with you more if the bills owned the Ralph. I have no problem with the county paying to upgrade the Stadium. They own it. They have to maintain it. I would be more upset about all the operating expenses the County is giving the bills.

[nateodoms'bff]

7-9. Just read that field of schemes site, specifically the blurb on the Bills. You keep harping on the issue of the money, but the one thing you are overlooking are the number.

$226 million over 10 years to be paid to the Bills for renovations and maintenance. $200 million to be paid to the state BY the Bills. So the state of NY has been blackmailed by the Bills for roughly $26 million. Or about $2.6 million annually.

Thats an obscenely low number. I think people in WNY forget just how lucky they are to have such a low cost of living compared to the rest of the nation. Those numbers are stagaringly low to keep an NFL franchise afloat in an economically challenged area.

Be glad that you can afford to go to a game for under $40 a ticket. You can't even park at MetLife Stadium for $40! And that money goes right to the owners.

[NYCBillsFan]

While true, almost all of the tax revenue generated by Upstate and Western NY goes to subsidize NYC.

Also, the $90 million in state funds that will go to the Bills will be repaid back to the state within the first 7 years of the lease in terms of sales tax revenue, personal income tax revenue from the players, and property taxes paid by both players and the team itself.

State funding of stadiums is a good investment by state officials. It costs almost nothing per person, and is a long term investment in regional infrastructure.

But, the "best fans in the league" will find just about anything to complain about.

Insanely incorrect statement. See link below....

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.

This really is the main problem with NYS Government. Both Upstate and NYC/Long Island/Westchester/Rockland need to have different rules applied in order to generate and sustain growth statewide.



Here's the link for nateodomes'bff: http://www.rockinst.org/pdf/nys_gove...nd_Getting.pdf

[Thurman#1]

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

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

Yeah, the laughingstock.

Becuase none of the other NFL teams do things like this. Except, you know, all of them.

[Thurman#1]

Great point..but if i may add something. Our son doesnt attend the Maryvale school district..he is a Canisius Graduate,has been out of HS for 6 years now..however, we still pay school tax to the Maryvale Distict. New state of the art assembly center and buses that are 1/4 full..school "advisors" that make over 100k a year..the beat goes on. Why are we (me/wife) paying into that..where is the return?

Better-educated kids in your town equals fewer kids without hope equals fewer juvenile delinquents and larger chances for those kids to find successsful careers and not end up on the government teat, not to mention a chance for some of them to maybe start their own businesses and create economic growth. Not to mention that good schools attract better people to move there.

Better schools equal better communities.

Yeah, some kids will move away. Some won't.

[BUFF BANDIT]

no, that moniker belongs to the Jets, Mets

they are hardly the trainwreck that this joke of a team has become since the failey/nix regime took over !