Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - The calendar may read Sept. 17, but to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, it's a much more meaningful day.
"It felt like Christmas morning when I woke up today," said Hochul on Thursday during an appearance with Tim Graham and Brad Riter on WGR.
Hochul is referring to the official NFL regular season debut of the $2.2 billion Highmark Stadium when the Buffalo Bills face the Detroit Lions in a nationally-televised game in Orchard Park.
The governor will be among the more than 60,000 football fans in the stadium.
"It's not something I would ever miss," Hochul said.
Seeing Highmark Stadium developed became something of a personal mission for Hochul when she took office slightly more than five years ago. At that time, relations between then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Bills organization were strained, and at the same time, the team was being courted by other cities to relocate.
At issue was replacing the old Highmark Stadium that, despite a number of renovations and upgrades since its 1973 opening, was clearly outdated and obsolete by modern NFL standards.
"It was not a given that they would have stayed here," Hochul said. "But, I understood what the Bills mean to Buffalo."
Even before Hochul was sworn into office in August 2021, she had reached out to Bills' owners Terry and Kim Pegula, and pledged to work with them to get a new stadium and keep the team in Buffalo.
By no means was it an easy task.
In her gubernatorial honeymoon period with state lawmakers at the time, Hochul had to cash in a few political chips to convince downstate legislators to back her $600 million allocation for the new stadium.
"It was a heavy lift," Hochul said. "The downstate leadership was not sold on giving $600 million of taxpayer's dollars to this project. I had to do a lot of selling."
Hochul, who grew up in Hamburg and Lackawanna, clearly understood what the Bills mean to the entire Western New York region. In many respects, the team is the region's heart and soul.
"Understand this, the Pegulas were getting very frustrated," Hochul said. "They needed a decision. Losing the Bills was closer than many thought."
In the end, Erie County chipped in $250 million to go along with the state's $600 million, and the remainder was paid for by the Pegulas.
A key element in all the negotiations was an agreement that keeps the team in Orchard Park and playing at Highmark Stadium for the next 30 years.
That agreement came against the backdrop of such cities as St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland losing their teams.
"Our deal is iron clad," Hochul said.
But the real payoff for Hochul came in late June when she and Terry Pegula toured the stadium, following a formal ribbon cutting event. Pegula thanked Hochul for all her efforts and the political cost of putting the Highmark Stadium deal together.
"That meant everything to me," Hochul said.
"It's not something I would ever miss"
"It's not something I would ever miss"
