Archives for February 22, 2013

‘The Empire State Development board of directors approved a general project plan for the stadium renovation and extension of the Buffalo Bills’ lease. The approval is one of several steps Erie County and state officials must take to formalize a memorandum of understanding with the team on a 10-year lease agreement.’

‘”He’s a member of our football team and if anything changes with Ryan, he’ll be the first to know,” Nix said during a meeting with Western New York reporters inside Lucas Oil Stadium.’

‘”We have a pretty good pool of free agents that will be coming up on March 12, so Jim and I have a lot of work to do,” Brandon said. “It’s an opportunity for us to get a pretty good understanding of where they’re coming from, what their focus is on moving forward, and have very open and frank dialogue on both sides. And it also gives you an opportunity, if you’re making some progress, to sit down later that day or the next day and continue that dialogue. It’ll go fast and furious over the next three days.”‘

‘”We’re making progress with elected officials in Western New York,” he added. “The governor has to realize this is the project he’s been talking about. There’s nothing on his list of potential projects that compares to something like this.”‘

‘The Erie County Stadium Corporation (ECSC), a subsidiary of ESD, met Wednesday and recommended its approval to the board which means final terms of the new lease agreement between the team, the county and New York state are nearly complete.’

‘According to Cuomo’s office, the plan will be finalized in late March.’

‘”The main thing there, and I know I’m sounding a little repetitive, but we’re continuing to evaluate,” Brandon said during a wide-ranging 20-minute session. “And that’s really more in line with where (GM) Buddy (Nix) and (assistant GM) Doug (Whaley) come out on that. We’re looking at everything “‘

‘”We’ll still try to draft a quarterback,” he held firmly. “If they’re there at the right time and he’s the right guy, we’ll draft a quarterback. That hasn’t changed.”‘

‘”We’ve got a lot of work to do over the next two and a half weeks. A lot of decisions have to be made over the next two and a half weeks,” he said at the NFL Combine Thursday. “I’m not going to rule out anything at this point. It’s too early to say, and I don’t want to say anything that I have to look back on and not be accurate.”‘

‘”We’ve got quite a few UFAs coming up and (Senior VP of Football Administration) Jim Overdorf and I will spend quite a bit of time together and we’ll set up meetings over the course of the next three days and meet with everybody that’s on our roster that’s up for free agency,” said Brandon. “Obviously we’ll spend time with representation from both of those parties, but we’ll spend time will all of the UFAs we have and we’ll see what kind of progress we can make. It’s like any negotiation and any deal. It’s always better when you’re looking across the table from one another. It’s certainly a good opportunity that presents itself.”‘

‘The Empire State Development (ESD) Board of Directors approved the general project plan for renovations at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park as well as the extension of the current lease with the Bills. The Erie County Stadium Corporation (ECSC), a subsidiary of ESD, met yesterday and recommended its approval to the Board.’