Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Much like with the Buffalo Bills Stadium, Erie County is looking to get out of the arena business, once the current lease expires.
Erie County Mark Poloncarz says it's going to be years before the lease expires, but backing out has been his long term goal.
"We're going to negotiate with with our partners and the Sabres. I've already talked to Pete Guelli about it. He knew that that was my long term goal," stated Poloncarz. "We're going to be sitting down and talking with our partners in New York State and others, but that's years down the line. We're still a number of years until the lease expires."
Buffalo Common Council Member Mitch Nowakowski says if the city were to take on the lease, it might need some help from the state.
"When we're looking at the complexity of, if this falls to the city responsibility, to what magnitude of the cost of repairs could look like of $200 million. The total city's capital budget yearly, that's set by the controller is $38 million so when you think about how the city would be able to eat those expenses, we just wouldn't be able to," stated Nowakowski in an interview with WBEN. "The city, wouldn't have the capacity to be able to do that. So we would have to look for for a government or state entity to work with us on on what that looks like. Because I just, I just know that we wouldn't have the capacity in our own resources to be able to do that. We would have to seek a higher tier of government."
Despite Nowakowski's estimate, Poloncarz is adamant that's incorrect, and says the county and Sabres haven't published any numbers yet.
"When the time comes, we'll sit down and talk to the team. The team's not ready. They haven't given us any idea what they want. They may not even want any real work done. They just may want to extend the lease and continue with what they have, which is, they've been putting some money into the facility. Right now, anybody who's saying that it's going to cost $200 million, $100 million, they don't know what they're talking about, because there's been nothing put on the table, and that's just being brought out of thin air," exclaimed Poloncarz.