The inexorable pace of NFL business continues during this predraft time. And the impact of the largest team-player contract in NFL history and the largest team-stadium contract in NFL history will linger. Also, an interesting new trend in wide receiver pay and strategy may be emerging. Settle in …
While Watson took player contracts to a new level, the Bills’ ownership just took stadium contracts to a much higher level. Watson got $230 million; the Bills got several times more than that. Simply, the Bills just made the best deal in the history of the business of sports.
Let this sink in: New York is giving Bills ownership $850 million—$600 million from the state and $250 million from Erie County—to assist funding of a new, $1.4 billion stadium. Bills’ owners Terry and Kim Pegula certainly have the resources to fund most, if not all, of that stadium cost privately. But hey, if they can get the state to do most of the funding, why wouldn’t they?
A few years ago, Nevada forked over $750 million to help build the Raiders a gleaming new stadium, but that was to entice them to move there This deal—for $100 million more—is simply to keep an existing franchise. New York governor Kathy Hochul has chosen to allocate these resources to NFL owners rather than to schools, libraries, public safety, etc.
One could say that Hochul does not want to forever be known for losing the Bills, but would the Bills really have left had they not received this extraordinary sum? For Austin? St. Louis? Toronto? Really??
Even accepting the fact that New York had to give away public money, I think Hochul needs better negotiators. Couldn’t the state of New York have negotiated say, half a billion rather than $850 million? The Bills will eventually be sold for a price north of $4 billion, and the state of New York’s share of that will be $0.00. NFL owners socialize cost and privatize profit. What a business.
Stadium playbook happening all over
The Bills’ playbook is also in motion in at least four other NFL markets.
In the Washington metropolitan area, Virginia has offered the Commanders $1 billion—plus a cut of sales tax revenue—while Maryland, where they currently play, is offering a similar amount. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has allocated $500 million toward a new facility for the Titans. The Bears have a tentative deal with the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, offering a better deal than the city of Chicago. The Bengals are making some noise about some public help toward a new practice facility. And at the NFL owners’ meetings, Chiefs president Mark Donovan mentioned being pitched by developers in Kansas (the team currently plays in Missouri).
Even without the previous negotiation stalking horses of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, NFL team owners are still dictating terms to their municipalities, and, well, it’s working. No public official wants to be the one to lose a precious NFL franchise, even to a neighboring area.
