The Buffalo Bills made some big free-agency additions in recent
weeks, getting top pass rusher
Mario Williams for a cool $100 million and then
picking up another defensive end with strong credentials, Mark Anderson, who had 10 sacks last season with the New England Patriots.
Last week, the faithful appeared to have a few
more reasons to get on the Bills bandwagon, as the
team got generally high marks in drafting South
Carolina cornerback Stephon Gilmore, seen by many
as the second-best corner in the college ranks, and 345-
pound Georgia offensive tackle Cordy Glenn.
The off-season action has already paid off for
the Bills, as the team announced that 1,400 new season tickets were purchased and over 4,000 season
tickets were renewed shortly after the Williams deal
was announced in March.
While all this was going on, negotiations on a
new stadium lease deal between the Bills and the
county and state were moving along quietly in the
background, and at this point very little progress has
been made.
There have been three meetings so far, beginning in January, and talks about what level of taxpayer pain might be required have not been on the
agenda.
“At this point, we’re just at the entry-level
phase,” said County Attorney Michael Siragusa during an interview with the Niagara Falls Reporter.
“The Bills are presenting to us what they want, what
renovations they would like done.”
And while the projected costs of those renovations are in the $200 million range, Siragusa, who is
County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s point man in
the talks, said there has been no discussion yet on
where the money will come from.
The current 15-year lease between the county
and the Bills expires in July of 2013, and the county executive is hoping to get an agreement on a new
lease before the start of Bills training camp this
summer, a deadline that may prove difficult to meet,
given the heavy lifting that will be required. The
county has hired the law firm of Nixon Peabody to
help in the negotiations. The county executive himself and Deputy County Executive Rich Tobe, a veteran of the last lease negotiation under Dennis
Gorski, are also taking part in the talks.
Sam Hoyt, senior vice president for regional
economic development, and Steve Gawlik, in-house
counsel for Empire State Development, are representing the state in the lease discussions. For the
Bills, CEO Russ Brandon, Treasurer Jeff Littman,
and local counsel Mike Schiavone are carrying the
ball, hoping, as Brandon has stated, “to make this
franchise as viable as possible” in the least costly
way, by renovating the stadium as outlined in a
study they commissioned by the Populous group.
Now, the question is, who is going to come up
with the dollars to get the renovations done, with an
expected price tag north of $200 million? County
Executive Poloncarz wants the longest lease possible — at least 10 years — and he’s hoping the state will
pay for the majority of the costs associated with the
new agreement. But the state has said little so far about
what level of pain it will take on — and where the
money will come from — to help get the deal done.
One of the key ingredients of the negotiations
will be whether there will be an early-termination
clause for either or both parties. In other words,
should taxpayers put up some, most, or all of the
$200 million in renovations the Bills say they want
made to the stadium, will the lease allow the Bills to
sell or relocate before the lease is up? If so, what
happens to the taxpayers who have renovated what
will be — compared to the investment made — a
largely worthless stadium in Orchard Park?
The last agreement, 15 years ago, called for $63
million in state-funded stadium renovations and
annual upgrades by the county that so far have
totaled more than $38 million, with the county and
the Bills each paying just over $4 million for gameday expenses during the 2010-11 season.
What penalty clause will be included, if there is
a provision for early termination? And, of course,
what rent will the Bills be expected to pay?
Siragusa said that any agreement made between
the county and the Bills would provide for a clause
protecting taxpayers against an early departure by
the team.
Brandon, the marketing whiz who has expanded
the Bills fan base north and east, would seem to be in
the best seat when it comes to making a favorable deal,
given the value the community places on the Bills and
the excitement being generated about the team’s future
success on the field in the coming season. That’s a great
backdrop for the Bills negotiating team.
Never mind questions about the ownership succession after the passing of 93-year-old owner Ralph
Wilson. They will be dealt with down the stilluncharted road. The important thing in 2012 for the
county and the state is to try and get a deal done on
the stadium, hopefully with some help from the Bills,
as has happened in other small-market cities. What
share of the pain, if any, will the Bills be willing to
take on to get the renovations they deem crucial to
keeping the franchise viable? And what will the
politicians pay to keep the fans and the Bills happy?
One possibility, of course, would be to leverage the
costs over the long haul in a bond deal, something
Poloncarz has indicated he would consider.
Whatever agreement is reached, according to
Siragusa, has to be palatable to taxpayers.
“We want to get this deal done as quickly as possible to ensure that the Bills remain part of our community,” he said. “But we are sensitive to the fact that it
needs to be done in a fair way from a cost perspective,
with numbers that the taxpayers can live with.”
The Bills have enjoyed great success selling
their product in Buffalo, even though the team has
often been a disappointment on the field. Sure,
there was the great run during the Kelly era in the
early ‘90s, but since then the Bills have struggled to
be competitive, and have often failed. Yet the fans
keep coming, from Rochester and points east, and
from across the border, where the team sometimes
travels for “home” games.
Russ Brandon is one of the NFL’s top executives
and he championed the Bills’ successful regional
approach, even with a team that is often underwhelming and that last year went 6 and 10. Talk of dramatic
improvement and a playoff run are nothing new when
it comes to the hometown fans, but this year Ralph
opened his wallet, and maybe this time the team will
contend and put Buffalo on the map. Time will tell. But
for now, the pressure is building off the field, as the
lease negotiators wrangle over how to come up with
$200 million to make everyone happy.
Another meeting is scheduled this month, and
the talks are expected to heat up as they go forward.
All parties involved are expected to remain
tightlipped as the negotiations get down to the nitty-
gritty of the matter, which is likely to happen in the
near future. In the meantime, expect the Bills to be
front and center about their additions and the play-off run that is hoped will follow. What better way to
negotiate a lease than to whip up the crowd about
the team, even before they play a down, putting the
pressure on the county and state to get it done.
That’s just good business, and Russ Brandon is
a good businessman.
(E-mail Tony Farina at tonyfarina2010@gmail.com.)
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 1 2012 |