Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It has been a week since the Buffalo Bills, New York State, Erie County and the National Football League have all agreed upon a deal for a new stadium in Orchard Park that will keep the franchise in Western New York for the long-term.
While the deal has been agreed upon and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed, there is still a laundry list of items that need to be completed before shovels have to go into the ground for construction.
Among the list of to-do items in the short term is for the $600 million proposal from New York State to pass as part of the budget that was due on Friday. However, the deadline to submit and pass the budget for the State was missed, with no certainty when it will be passed.
At the Erie County level, Legislators got their first chance to gloss over the MOU this past week, as they get ready to work out the details for a new Bills stadium.
"What I'm hearing, and a little bit that I do know, is that we got a deal done with the Bills and a new stadium. I think that was the most important piece," said Legislator Howard Johnson of the stadium deal. "Next is the groundwork and everything else that comes after that, but the most important pieces is that we got to deal with done and the Bills will remain here in Western New York."
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While a majority of the Legislators are happy with the details of the MOU in the early stages, more substantial talks on the stadium deal are likely to come over the next several weeks and months. There is no rush to get all the necessary paperwork finalized and signed off by the Legislature until they have those details worked out. The hope is to have all the legal paperwork filed and completed by Sept. 1, which will then further the motion to begin construction efforts on the new stadium.
Among the details that are to be hammered out in the coming months by Erie County Legislators pertains to a community benefits agreement (CBA) that will ensure the Western New York community is ensured a number of benefits for helping contribute a total of $850 million (reportedly more $1.1 billion once long-term maintenance costs are factored in) in publicly funded money for the stadium.
"It's imperative, and I don't think that we can have a good stadium deal absent of it," said Chairwoman of the Erie County Legislature, April Baskin. "I'd like to commend the County Executive [Mark Poloncarz], Gov. [Kathy] Hochul, Pegula Sports and Entertainment, and the NFL for prioritizing that request in the MOU. I think it was identified multiple times in the MOU. It was definitely spelled out that it should benefit communities, especially communities that are underserved, and I was excited to see that language there."
Baskin has been identified as one of three negotiators for a CBA to be part of the final plans of the new Bills stadium. Although she believes all 11 members of the Legislature are also onboard with making sure they get a fair CBA in place that will best benefit the Erie County community.
"I'm going to look to my colleagues as my point people when it comes to taking ideas and non-negotiables into the negotiating room," Baskin said. "I look forward to us all working together as a community to get the benefits that the communities deserve out of this deal."
Although the County is eventually leaving the football business once the new stadium is officially constructed and the Bills have moved in, Legislators understand the importance of having a CBA in place. This includes Legislator John Mills, who represents District 11 and Orchard Park in the Erie County Legislature.
"One of my concerns is with Town of Orchard Park, what are we going to do to help the residents around the stadium? It's going to be another massive impact on their lives, and they've got something that has to be addressed like sidewalks and things like that," Mills said on Thursday. "Just buffer zones for the residents in that part of the Town of Orchard Park. It's very important we do that, and work with the town so they can develop their own economic format and how they want to develop the town."
Mills says he is looking forward to working with Baskin and the other Legislators to come together and formulate a fair CBA for the people around the stadium and elsewhere in Western New York.
While talks for a CBA have yet to commence since the agreement for the new stadium, Baskin is hopeful those conversations will start to take place sooner rather than later.
"If we don't hear anything within days following the vote on the MOU, people are going to certainly start to get calls from me wondering about when we're going to meet," she said. "But I would like to see all of this wrapped up by the goal date in September, which is the timeframe in which they want to wrap up the other portions of the lease deal. So we want everything to work simultaneously, and as we are working through the other caveats of the MOU, we need to make sure that the CBA is on that same timeline."
In addition to Baskin's efforts on getting a CBA in place for a new Bills stadium deal, other advocacy work has been done by local activist groups, as well as Senator Sean Ryan to make sure the community in Buffalo and Western New York is seeing the benefits and work fairly coming with this new stadium deal.
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When it comes time for the Legislature to begin talks on a community benefit agreement as part of the stadium deal, Baskin says there are a number of different benefits she is looking to address in a CBA.
"I think that we need to address equitable investment into all communities. In order to do that, we are going to need a separate committee that is able to survey each community their needs, and I'm confident that the County Legislature, being representatives of various sections of Erie County, are going to be the front-runners on doing that. Then we need some people in the room that represent the State, of course, and Pegula Sports and Entertainment," Baskin said.
"I want to see things surrounding transportation, equitable investment into youth programming and youth sports, specifically - if we're going to invest into our professional football team, we got to invest into our youth football teams and sports teams alike - equitable representation of women and minorities when it comes to operating the stadium, everything from security, to food service and to other services that are needed to keep the stadium thriving. So those are some of the top things that I'm passionate about. I presume more will come to pass."
Baskin believes the Legislature will have a committee put in place that should include people from the general public that have oversight of the CBA once the deal is done to make sure it's investments that are going to last the 30 years of the lease term.
You can listen to the entirety of Baskin's comments below: