Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Since an agreement on the parameters of a new stadium deal for the Buffalo Bills was officially announced back in March, local leaders at the county and state level, along with members of the franchise have been in negotiations over a number of items as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to move forward with construction of a new stadium.
While the deadline as part of the MOU to finalize the deal has come an gone twice, each time has presented a new extension of the negotiating period. It was announced this past week that all parties now have until 30 days after the final determination on the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA) done by Erie County to finalize the MOU.
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In order to finalize the MOU, the members of the negotiating party have to come to an agreement on a number of different elements of the deal that will go into the construction process and other aspects of the new stadium.
Perhaps the biggest sticking point with the negotiations has been the finalization of the Community Benefits Agreement, which ensures the Western New York community is guaranteed a number of benefits for helping contribute a total of $850 million in publicly funded money for the stadium. $600 million of that publicly funded money will come from New York State, while $250 million is set to come from Erie County.
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Negotiations for the new Bills stadium deal have primarily been a closed-door process, especially after a non-disclosure agreement was signed by the members of the negotiating team.
With this stadium deal having a large public handout in one of the most impoverished metro regions in the country, there is an opportunity for the Bills and surrounding communities in Western New York to thrive.
That is why members of the #716PlayFair Coalition gathered on Wednesday at the Johnnie B. Wiley Pavilion, the original home of the Bills, to call on Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE) and other public officials at the decision-making table to reinvest in Buffalo and Erie County through meaningful community benefits.
"We want a more transparent and equitable process," said Tanvier Peart, Director of Policy Advancement at the Partnership for the Public Good and a member of the #716PlayFair Coalition. "We've been talking about community benefits since we've been hearing about this process, which has been happening behind closed doors unfortunately. And with the non-disclosure agreements in place for all of the players at the table and no community at the table, that leaves us shut out, and it's our public dollars that should be working in our public interest."
The coalition is officially calling on PSE to reinvest $500 million of public dollars over the new 30-year stadium lease into initiatives such as annual grants for affordable housing, health equity, youth mentoring and student athletics.
So far, more than 80 organizations in Erie County have signed on to the coalition's stadium reinvestment letter, which is asking for a number of requests as part of the reinvestment:
- An annual community governance RFP process and public hearings
- A public application process for consideration and appointment to a community benefits oversight committee with member voting power on decisions
- An equitable public transportation plan that includes free workforce shuttles, pedestrian walkways on roads outside of the Bills stadium, a public transit port inside the stadium complex, and county-wide bus route improvements to ensure all Western New Yorkers access the new Bills stadium for entertainment and employment
- Vendor contract inclusion for historically marginalized communities within construction, retail, supplies, and post-construction employment
"Ultimately, those are some of the things that we would love to see, and as the Buffalo Poet Laureate, Jillian Hanesworth mentioned [Wednesday] during the press conference, these aren't asks, and they're also not demands. We're basically saying that this is the right thing to do."
In addition, the coalition is asking for the process to be more transparent with what benefits are being discussed for the stadium deal, and to include more community voices in the matter.
Among the notable names in attendance for Wednesday's event included Hamburg Town Supervisor Randy Hoak, Town of Cheektowaga Councilmember Brian Nowak, and Buffalo Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski. With the gathering of both public officials and other advocates with the coalition, Peart says it was a sign of unification on behalf of the Erie County community.
"This is our opportunity to undo some of the harm, like generational harms through policy and disinvestment, but also uniting us all together through transportation equity, and that will also strengthen our workforce not just in Orchard Park with the Bills stadium, but around those surrounding areas," she said. "This is a win for all of us, if it's done the right way."
So how much is the coalition expecting when it comes to the ask of the reinvestment coming to fruition as part of the Community Benefits Agreement? Peart and other members of the coalition believe that ownership has the sufficient funding to invest in the new stadium themselves, and that stadium deals with community investment are certainly possible.
"I believe in 2020, the [Los Angeles] Clippers agreed to $100 million investment and community benefits, and while they were working on their stadium deal, they didn't even receive public funding for the project. But here we are giving public funding away for this new deal," Peart said. "So given the billionaire status of the Bills owners, and just the amount of money that's being poured into the stadium deal, $500 million over 30 years, when you do that math, really doesn't shake out to that much in the grand scheme of how much the Pegulas will earn off of the Buffalo Bills, which is in the billions each and every year."
Peart is hopeful that this request for reinvestment in Buffalo and Erie County will be enough to cover all grounds and all bases to make sure no neighborhoods are being left out from benefiting. She remains optimistic, as do many people with the coalition, that the request will be heard, and every attempt will be made to incorporate as many of the asks as possible in the finalized Community Benefits Agreement.
"As we've seen with the Buffalo Bills, anything can happen in the last quarter, and that we're really looking to not just the Pegulas, but our elected officials at the county level who are at the decision making table to bring home this win for their communities that they represent," Peart said. "This is something that we need, that will change lives over generations. So we remain hopeful, we're keeping our foot on the gas, and we're not letting up until we get the win."