Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the stroke of a pen, ownership of Highmark Stadium changed hands Monday with New York State now taking over for Erie County.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says the county has quite a new role with stadium operations going forward.
"We go from the owner, the landlord, to basically being a vendor who was hired to provide these services," said Poloncarz in an interview with WBEN. "We are providing services, but we're getting reimbursed by the Bills for our costs."
He says the county will provide stadium security through the Erie County Sheriff's Office.
"We are providing public works and closing of roads and other types of things on game days, as well as emergency services. Our Department of Homeland Security emergency services will be there, as well as our emergency medical services," Poloncarz explained.
But unlike in prior years, the county actually will be reimbursed for the costs.
"We're not looking to make money, but we have an agreement with the Bills, and they will be paying us, basically, our cost per-game to provide these services, just as if they had to hire someone else," Poloncarz noted.
Poloncarz says the state has similar departments, but are not able to perform at the same degree as the county.
"They have a Department of Emergency Services and Homeland Security, but they were like, 'We don't really want to do that.' The same thing with Public Works - they have transportation, but it's our road. We just decided in the end, after it just took us in here with the Bills, we could provide these services, but they wouldn't be free now because we don't own the facility. So we negotiated and were able to enter up payments where they agree to pay us a cost as if they're a vendor at our cost," Poloncarz said.
Poloncarz reiterates that the county is not looking to make a profit.
"We're not making money off of this. We will break even from our costs, which is a first, because we've been paying the team millions of dollars annually for costs associated with the football stadium and the team, and not getting reimbursed for these services. Now we don't pay anything, and we get reimbursed," Poloncarz added.
