Bills deny inquiring about a new stadium
Published: June 05, 2009, 1:26 pm
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Buffalo Bills officials said today they have made no inquiries or plans to study the building of a new stadium.
The question of a new stadium for Buffalo was raised in an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
An executive of the firm that designed the new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys was asked about his company's prospects for future stadium construction.
Mark Williams, associate principal architect for HKS Inc. stated: "We've been working with the [Minnesota] Vikings for about nine months, and they are still trying to get their funding. The [San Francisco] 49ers and the Buffalo Bills are thinking about doing something and also the [San Diego] Chargers and maybe the Atlanta Falcons. Those are the potential new stadiums in the NFL."
Bills officials maintain no firm has been contacted and no initiative toward a new stadium has been planned.
Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. has steadfastly maintained that he is happy with the current stadium in Orchard Park and that he has no desire to ask taxpayers to contribute to the construction of a new stadium.
Furthermore, the Bills' management has maintained that it would be very hard to make a new stadium pay off financially for the team.
One of the financial strengths of the Bills' franchise is it is carrying no debt load. So none of the team's revenues goes toward paying off loans. Further, the advantage of building a new stadium to NFL teams is the ability to charge much higher prices for luxury suites and personal-seat licenses.
It's hard to see which companies in Western New York would be willing to pay significantly higher prices for luxury boxes under the current economic climate or how the Bills would find many more companies in the region to buy more luxury suites.
Ralph Wilson Stadium, opened in 1973, is the fifth oldest in the NFL. However it underwent an extensive refurbishing at taxpayer expense in 1998.
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