Terry Pegula is worth $6.7 billion.
That’s the first thing everyone should know whenever any discussion of the Buffalo Bills getting a new stadium comes up. Sure, what you’re worth doesn’t mean you have a Scrooge McDuck vault that you can swim in (though if you had that much money, why wouldn’t you?). But it does mean that you have the ability to pay for what you want, no matter the cost. So yes, Terry and his allegedly bullying shithead wife Kim can easily pay for a new Bills stadium all themselves, and then reap the profits guilt-free.
Ha, as if ghouls like this could ever feel guilt. They never think twice about taking hundreds of millions of dollars that could have improved the lives of thousands, if not millions, in public money and watch how it sets them up to keep all the goodies. The public never sees it. Which is what’s setting up in Buffalo and New York state.
Erie County, the state, and the Bills have an agreement on the proposal for their new stadium that’s going to cost $1.5 billion (for now). The Erie County lawmakers now have a month to approve it. It would take $800 million (for now) out of local and state coffers to pay for it. Lord knows what Western New York could do with that amount of money, or how residents in other parts of what is a gargantuan state feel about coughing up for a team that has nothing to do with them, but no one authoring this gives a shit.
The deal is more crooked than a dog’s hind leg. The husband of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, William, just happens to be the vice president of the company that provides the concessions at the Bills’ current stadium, and would be likely to get the concessions deal at the new one, which will be even more lucrative. Needless to say, neither of the Hochuls can be considered an impartial arbiter of any of this.
Hochul’s weak-ass attempt to justify the expenditure that will eventually line her own pockets is, “...how important it is for the identity of Western New York.” The Pegulas would have no problem making the Bills the identity of whatever area would give them more money than Buffalo and New York will. Certainly the NFL as a whole doesn’t care about a team’s and city’s identity together as far as how much they can cash it out. This is just playing on fans’ emotions to justify a deal that will do them no good. It does not make fans part of the deal, or part of the ownership. It’s manipulation.
These stadium deals don’t work out for the areas they take place in, especially an outdoor stadium outside of Buffalo. How many events can you hold there per year? 20? 30?
Another question is, where exactly are the Pegulas gonna go? What major metropolitan area is screaming out for not just an NFL team, but the pleasure of paying for a new stadium still very much in the aftermath of a pandemic and all the economic horrors that brought on? Austin? Please. London? Munich? A move to Europe isn’t as simple as playing two American cities off each other. There are way more logistics involved, and even the NFLPA that’s always so eager to have its belly tickled by the NFL owners might actually get out of their chair to fight that one. St. Louis isn’t in a rush to deal with another NFL owner’s bullshit, and San Diego might not be either.
If a fuckwit like Stan Kroenke can manage to build a $5 billion stadium with only private money, why can’t the Pegulas? New York should make them ask themselves that question.
Certainly thousands of Western New Yorkers would have to stomach the pain of losing a team. But how many people does that really affect? NFL Sunday Ticket allows fans to watch every game. How many go to every game? 40,000? 50,000? Is that enough people to rob the state and county blind for decades?
One day someone’s going to call the bluff of assholes like the Pegulas. Erie County can start that conga line this month.
Way to go West Ham
Usually when a team, especially a Premier League team, gives away a goal through sheer idiocy, they take extra care to lock things up defensively and at least not look like morons twice in a game. So let’s give it up to West Ham for giving up two of the dumbest goals in the same half yesterday:
Never a good sign when your keeper is stunned into standing completely still 40 yards from his goal.