Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said Tuesday that the county, state and Buffalo Bills owners have made progress recently toward reaching a final deal on a new lease agreement for the Bills' stadium.
However, a deal is not expected within the next few days, nor is anything expected to be announced at Gov. Kathy Hochul's State of the State address Wednesday.
"There have been significant discussions over the last two weeks," Poloncarz said at his weekly news briefing. "That I will not deny. But we are not imminent to a deal."
He defined "imminent" as nothing likely to be announced within the next few days.
"I will say some progress has been made," Poloncarz said.
He went on to say that he is not disappointed that talks are still continuing when he had hoped to have the broad terms of a deal announced by the end of 2021.
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"I think the idea is we're going to get a deal done that's right for all, that benefits the community, that ensures the Buffalo Bills are the Buffalo Bills," he said.
One issue that appears all but settled is the location of the new stadium – in Orchard Park. While business interests and some fans have lobbied vocally for a downtown stadium, Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula have made clear their preference for a new stadium across the street from the existing one. Hochul in December said she was inclined to defer to the owners' preference for the location rather than push for one in Buffalo proper.
Studies by both the team and New York State have shown that a downtown stadium could add upwards of $300 million to the project's overall cost. Construction would also be significantly delayed while the county is forced to undertake land acquisition agreements for a downtown site, whereas the Orchard Park land is already owned by the county and is shovel-ready.
That would leave one major item left to bargain: cost-sharing.
While initial reports indicated the Bills were pushing for full public funding of an estimated $1.4 billion new stadium, Poloncarz made it clear Tuesday that wouldn't be the case.
"As I said, there's never going to be a blank check," he said.
Exactly how much of the cost will be paid for by taxpayers remains to be seen, but the public contributions would likely come from the state and possibly federal government, with the county acting as the stadium's owner and landlord, as is the case now.
Poloncarz reiterated that the stadium lease negotiations are complicated and said he believed good work was being done on all sides.
Hochul has previously stated she was confident a new lease deal could be reached by March, which coincides with the passage of a state budget, the deadline for which is April 1.
The Bills' current 10-year lease for Highmark Stadium expires in July 2023. If a new stadium isn't projected to be ready for the start of that season, the parties would also have to negotiate a short-term extension of the Highmark Stadium lease, as well.
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