BUFFALO (WBEN) - There has been continuous talk about the Perry Projects in the shadows of downtown Buffalo being a possible location for a new stadium. And with the last Perry properties being abandoned and deemed unsafe, the speculation continues.
However, Carl Paladino isn't among those too interested in the idea.
"The reason is very simple," said Paladino as he began to explain his reasoning. "When you build a stadium, you have to provide for parking. So if you provide for parking, and you go and build out there at the Perry Projects, you're going to find that you have to build many thousands of parking spaces."
He then suggested an alternative.
If you go to the site that's now called the Cobblestone Site, then you can simply build a stadium; you're going to save having to build 20,000 parking spaces because you can run an overhead walkway into the old DL&W Terminal and access the train, and then the downtown section of the train alone includes 20,000 private and public parking spaces that are vacant during football games."
He's also not sure if the area is big enough to support a stadium.
"I don't even know if Perry is big enough to handle building all the parking you would need for a stadium," he said. "If you Google Earth the present stadium, you'll see the volume of spaces you'll need to park cars - it's huge."
He also said the transportation issues that come along with Bills games would be mostly solved by a move to the city.
"Doesn't it make a lot more sense to be downtown?" he said. "You've got roads going in every direction; you've got plenty of easy access, and you've got a huge amount of existing parking that you wouldn't have to rebuild."
At the very least, Paladino said it's time to rectify the mistake of putting the stadium in Orchard Park and finally bring it downtown.
"Putting it out in Orchard Park was one of the dumbest things they ever did in Buffalo," said Paladino. "You don't want to repeat the same stupid problems."
Paladino cited a boost to the city's economy as a major reason why a move to the city would make more sense.
"The smartest place for a stadium is in Downtown Buffalo," he said. "That way, people will come and stay for more than half an hour. Take a look at the Peace Bridge after a football game - you can't get across the Peace Bridge for hours and hours and hours. The reason is that those people are going home. Wouldn't it be better to keep them in our hotels, and they can use our other restaurants or other venues in Downtown Buffalo?"