Farina goes viral on the Buffalo Bills

Don’t tell these guys you don’t think your tax dollars should subsidize the $892 million Bills franchise.

There was a time when Americans, fit as a fiddle, actually played, not sat around and watched taxpayer subsidized football.

The Niagara Falls Reporter’s senior editor, Tony Farina, discovered through his sources that the Buffalo Bills, Erie County and New York State had come to a preliminary “meeting of the minds” and what should follow soon is an 8 – 10 year lease to “keep” the Bills in Western New York, at least for the immediate future. The Bills current lease expires July 31.

The stadium where the Bills play – Ralph Wilson Stadium - needs more than $200 million in renovations to stay viable in the short term. And leaders of the state and county are going to require taxpayers to pony up a still unknown share of those costs as part of the new lease agreement. Farina’s story last week of a pending agreement on a new lease went all across the internet in a matter of hours. It short, it went viral. The NFL, of course, is smart to make sure there are always a few cities that are hungry for a team but don't have one. Their business plan is to keep the wolves at the door, so a team can make a case for a bigger subsidy every time a lease expires.

The NFL is able to extract public subsidies because they have no competition and fans will punish elected leaders who lose a team to another city.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Gov. Cuomo are not negotiating from a position of strength.

Sources close to the lease negotiations admit there will be a bailout provision and, despite the lease, the Bills under a new owner could leave any time by paying back some of the money paid to keep them.

The two big questions are: how much do taxpayers pay? And how much do the Bills repay if they bolt early? The question that won’t be asked is: why should people who are not sports fans pay taxes to support the Buffalo Bills?
A plethora of economic analyses concludes that stadiums are not a net local economic benefit. The reasons cities pay for them is because the federal government made the professional leagues monopolies-- exempt from anti-trust laws that apply to other industries. Studies found that what people spend at a game they will not spend at a nightclub. But a nightclub is open every night. A stadium sits empty much of the year – while the highly paid team owners and players are elsewhere. A study of 46 cities that have professional sports team showed these cities developed at a slower rate than cities that do not have teams.
Just three of the NFL’s 31 stadiums were built without public funds.

Of course, there are non-monetary reasons to want a pro franchise. It conveys prestige, adds fun and potentially offers reflected glory. It can bring people together with a common interest. Having a home team to cheer for can bring people together, even people who are very different from each other.

On the other hand, from the Kingdome in Seattle to the Astrodome in Houston to the old Giants’ stadium in New Jersey , today’s taxpayers are on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in debt for stadiums that are no longer in use or no longer exist. The RCA Dome – which Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis replaced, was imploded in 2008 but won’t be paid off until 2021.
Meantime, there are a lot of fans who will go wild at the mere mention of the idea that someone might balk at paying taxes for their fun.

Still, why should government take taxes from people by force to entertain some of its citizens? The Buffalo Bills, a privately-owned corporation, is estimated to be worth $892 million.

Throughout history, people have played sports involving balls and using hands, feet and sticks. In the old days, the people themselves played and gloried in their physical prowess. In these effete times, we need professionals to play for us and force others to subsidize our spectator games.

In any event, talk of a lease being imminent got the internet abuzz. Farina’s story went viral. It appeared or was mentioned on www.boards.buffalobills.com; www.buffalorumblings.com; www.newwnypolitics.net; www.buffalosportsdaily.com;www.prosportsdaily.com; www.prosportsdaily.com; www.forums.twobillsdrive.com; www.hotboxsports.com; www.talkbuffalosports.com; www.buffalorising.com. It was discussed on local radio and on WRRZ TV.

And thousands of readers hopped on our site to read the story.