How to keep the Bills here… forever

October 22nd, 2007 Bills

nycstadium.jpg
Dust off the plans and blueprints for the defunct New York Sports and Convention Center, proposed a few years back by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and build this sucker right here in Buffalo.

Imagine a world class retractable roof facility, located just east of the Cobblestone District towards the Larkin or the First Ward… a destination venue for Bills football, and doubling as a mid sized convention facility, theatre, and housing marquee restaurants and a sports muesum.

This is the answer… build it and our beloved team stays here forever. The time to begin the debate, discussion and funding options should be NOW, not when The Old Geezer dies.

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6 Responses to “How to keep the Bills here… forever”

  1.  

    Mark Poloncarz Says:
    October 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm

    Andy,

    An interesting idea but who is going to pay for it? Erie County, the City, the State? In today’s fiscal environement none of the above will be able to afford such a stadium.

  2.  

    Alex Says:
    October 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm

    Mark - If the state was going to foot the bill for NYC the why not here? This is the states only football team the others play in New Jersey. I agree that putting more money into the old stadium is just postponing the inevitable.

    I will throw out two more ideas for locations - Lasalle Park or the land where they demolished the Pier restaurant, both are close to downtown.

  3.  

    Andrew Kulyk Says:
    October 23rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm

    Obviously local governments are in no position to pay for something of this magnitude. But there is New York State, and doubling as a convention center makes this a more prctical endeavor. Another source is the NFL - they have a fund in place committed to capital costs for building and/or improving all 32 NFL venues around the league. Add a PSL component, and investment by the team itself, and you could probably pull it all together. But in this day and age, we are talking about $500-$600 million, no small potatoes.

  4.  

    Talkin_Proud Says:
    October 24th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

    When some of the plans for Buffalo’s Outer Harbor came out, didn’t one of them include a new convention center and hotel? Maybe this stadium/conv. center could be reinserted into the plan using state money.

    What’s the impact of the Jets and Giants playing in New Jersey vs. New York? Is the “keeping the Bills in New York State” argument a good enough selling point to get funding from the state?

  5.  

    Keller Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 8:56 am

    I hope the ‘old geezer’ says…I would have kept the team in Buffalo, but I hated those douchebags at ArtVoice.

  6.  

    Peter Farrell Says:
    November 11th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    heh, heh, heh…..beautiful Keller:)

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