NFL Offseason 2026

[Irishman]

lol

 

 

[Muda69]

If Taxpayers Fund Your Stadium, You Better Get It Right: https://reason.com/2026/08/11/the-buffalo-bills-got-tons-of-taxpayer-money-for-a-stadium-with-a-lot-of-pretty-lame-problems/

Quote

This is probably not what the fine taxpayers of New York State and Erie County had in mind when they coughed up $850 million for construction of the new Buffalo Bills stadium.

It looks like someone missed sight lines day at stadium architecture school.

Other complaints have mentioned the video boards are too small (I sympathize with this after squinting at small video boards at Lincoln Financial Field and Gillette Stadium this summer), that the roof does not cover as many seats as expected, or that it's not so effective at blocking the cold wind coming off Lake Erie. For what it's worth, some people had mixed feelings about the new stadium and some people were fans, and the team now says it will be "addressing" the problems (how?). Plus, at 50-plus years old, it was probably time to retire the old stadium (Free Agent editor Jeff Luse, a Bills fan, described the old one as "fine").

 

Still, there are certainly better ways to spend $2.1 billion, the full construction cost of the stadium. Ideally that cost would have been fully borne by Bills owner Terry Pegula, who has a net worth of $15.7 billion and owns a team in the NFL, which basically prints money these days.

Instead, in their infinite wisdom, the politicians of New York State and Erie County decided to give Pegula a handout (what's especially funny about it is that Pegula made his billions thanks to fracking, which is frowned upon and banned in New York State). New York put $600 million toward construction of the stadium, or about $30 per state resident. Erie County put another $250 million toward construction, or about $260 per county resident (for that much, each resident should get a free ticket to one game). The state will spend another $100 million combined over 15 years on maintenance.

But that's not all! Fans pay even more to the government every time they buy something as part of the gameday experience. Tickets? Taxed. Parking? Taxed. Food and drinks in the stadium? Taxed! There's a 6 percent surcharge on top of the area's 8.75 sales tax (part of that sales tax goes to the county, part to the state). Your $20 stadium burrito is now $22.95. Don't forget to tip.

Thankfully, New York State decided that with all that investment, they should own the stadium themselves instead of Pegula—except, wait, that's actually another form of a handout. By leasing the stadium from the government instead of owning it, Pegula is saving tens of millions of dollars a year in property taxes. (I, for one, am all in favor of people paying less in taxes, but Pegula's savings will almost certainly just mean higher taxes on everyone else.)

If you apply all of these terms to another entertainment business, you see how crazy it is. Imagine if a bar, movie theater, or bowling alley said their building was too old and needed to be modernized, and that state and county taxpayers should have to cover 60 percent of construction costs, and also not have to pay property tax. Most of the time, the government would tell them to shut up and keep paying their taxes and dealing with their red tape. But because it's the NFL, people think this arrangement is appropriate.

 I love the Bills. For some reason, one of my earlier sporting memories is melting down about the Music City Miracle in a family friend's living room. Seeing the Bills against my Lions in the Super Bowl would be a dream scenario. But it sure seems like taxpayers and Bills fans got stiff-armed by Pegula and politicians.