Thirteen days ago, the future of the Bills in Buffalo instantly came under scrutiny with a report from the Buffalo News that ownership wants a new stadium to be fully paid by taxpayer funds. Now, a spokesman for Terry and Kim Pegula has gone on the record to acknowledge the obvious.
The Bils will be paying for part of the stadium, which is expected to cost $1.4 billion to build. (And which surely will cost a lot more than that.)
“When it comes to the future new home of the Bills, [the Pegulas] have always known that, like virtually all NFL stadiums, this will ultimately be some form of a public/private partnership,” Pegula Sports and Entertainment senior vice president Ron Raccuia told the Associated Press.
It’s odd that Raccuia didn’t issue that same statement to the Buffalo News, when it prepared to report that the Pegulas wanted the stadium to be built with public money only. (Typically, the media outlet will say something like, “Here’s what we’re going to report. Do you have a response?” Even after the report was published, PSE issued a statement that didn’t refute the claim that the Pegulas don’t want to pay anything for the venue.
All that matters is how much the Pegulas will pay, and whether that will be enough to get a deal done. If so, great.
If not, not great.
