New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to make her first State of the State address on Wednesday with a number of topics expected to be touched upon.
One topic that has been a major talking point over the last several months in Western New York has been the state of negotiations with a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills. The Bills, Erie County, New York State and the National Football League have been in talks for a while about a future plan for a new home for the Bills.
Buffalo's current home in Orchard Park, Highmark Stadium, is one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL, and it is nearing the end of its current lease in May of 2023. The stadium is also in need of some more significant renovation down the road, and a new stadium has been a talking point of owners, teams and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for a while.
So is it possible that we could hear some sort of potential news about a deal for a new Bills stadium at some point in the near future? Could a deal be announced as soon as Wednesday when Gov. Hochul makes her State of the State address?
When speaking with WBEN on Tuesday with Brian Mazurowski and Susan Rose, Albany insider Jack O'Donnell believes a lot of the parties involved want to give Gov. Hochul the ability to make an announcement on a new Bills stadium.
"It may be that she announces an agreement in principle, or a memorandum of understanding, or something that allows the Bills to move forward with construction, or at least getting bids and doing the things they need to do before there are too many price increases," O'Donnell said.
[shortcode-inline-related expand="1" link="/wben/news/local/stadium-deal-could-be-included-in-hochuls-state-of-state" headline="Albany insider: "chatter" of Stadium deal in Hochul's State of State" image="/media-library/image.png?id=63650414"]However, when asked about the potential of any announcement from Gov. Hochul on Wednesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he doesn't expect to hear any sort of update from the Governor.
"There have been significant discussions over the last two weeks, that I will not deny, but we are not imminent to a deal," Poloncarz said during his weekly COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday.
"Some progress has been made, but we are not at a position where I think a deal is going to be announced any time in the next few days. I know the Governor has the State of the State address [Wednesday]. People were assuming the Governor's going to announce it there, but I do not see that being the case, because we don't have a deal. It's as simple as that."
Poloncarz continues the assertion that a deal for a new Bills stadium has to be one that's right for everyone. The deal not only has to ensure the Bills' future in Western New York, but also be one that benefits the community. However, Poloncarz says there's not going to be a blank check made out in order to do so.
"These are exceptionally complicated discussions," he said. "We're talking about construction of a new football stadium, a long-term lease and everything that goes along with it. It is not like a lease for your house. I'm not disappointed [a deal isn't done]. I think what we're doing right now is good work on all sides, and hopefully we will have a deal to announce. But I just don't see it being imminent based on where we are, and I do know where we are in the discussions."
Leading up to the end of the 2021 calendar year, Poloncarz said he and the county were hoping to get a deal done by Dec. 31. While a new deal for a Bills stadium did not get done by the time 2022 came around, the county executive does not feel any sort of concern for a deal not getting done.
"If you remember back when we did the 2013 lease, I actually announced early in my tenure in 2012 that I was hoping that we'd get a deal done by training camp, of course that's July. We didn't announce the deal until December, and then we didn't actually close the official deal until May of 2013," Poloncarz said. "So dates are goals, but they're not necessarily the be-all, end-all. The goal is to get a deal done, regardless of whether it was done on any particular date."
"A deal like this is complicated," said former managing partner of the Buffalo Sabres, Larry Quinn. "It's going to take a lot of documentation, it's going to take a lot of planning work, engineering work, design work and negotiating work. My sense of what the Bills were looking for was a meeting of the minds by the end of the year, and that may very well have already taken place.
"There's a lot that has to happen before you put a shovel in the ground. When people say they have to have an agreement, well, what level of an agreement? For it to be all finished and all buttoned up, and start construction? Boy, I still think you're a long way away."
Quinn has had past experience similar to what the Bills are trying to accomplish right now with getting a deal done for a new stadium to the built. He helped with the process of getting Marine Midland Arena, now KeyBank Center, built in Downtown Buffalo back in the mid-1990s to replace the Memorial Auditorium as the home of the Sabres.
Nearly 30 years later, Quinn can relate to the process of what the local football team is trying to get done.
"Sometimes when things are funded, then there's a negotiation on the agreement itself, which would typically take some time," Quinn said. "The state might insist Erie County go first, again, this is all speculation on my part. So Erie County would have to propose something to the legislature to prove it. It's just not possible for me to know that the inner workings of that are."
While a deal has not been struck yet between all four parties in the stadium negotiations for the Bills, Quinn does not believe there should be any big level of concern. He thinks if talks weren't going so well, the public would be hearing more about it.
"It sounds like things are falling in line," Quinn said. "The Governor has endorsed the Orchard Park site, the Mayor of Buffalo has, the Congressman has. Those are all very telling signs that the site is not an issue. There's certainly probably a myriad of other issues that I have no idea of what they are, but if there were major impasses, you'd hear rumblings. I don't think you're hearing any."
So if no announcement is made by Gov. Hochul on Wednesday of a new stadium deal agreed upon, at least in some principle, when would be a possible sign that some sort of agreement is forthcoming?
"I think the major action that will happen on this is a proposal in the state budget for the stadium," Quinn said. "If there's been a meeting of the minds that the Governor is going to put that in her budget, which comes out later, then there very well may be a deal but not a formal one. But the reality of it is nothing really substantive can really happen until there's a state budget. That usually depends if it gets finished at various times of the year, you know, in the spring, so I think the milestone will be if it's in the government's budget whether there's an agreement with Erie County of the state. Who knows? I mean, there could very well be."
"I'm not sure exactly when the Governor puts out her budget, but I think that will be the most telling point."
You can listen to more of Quinn's thoughts on a new Bills stadium deal in the player below:
