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Kim Pegula on a New Stadium: "I Don't Even Know If We Can Get There"


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23 minutes ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

Living in Houston, where they have a somewhat new stadium, I must say, as nice as NRG is, its kinda bland. I don't hate it. It has more bells and whistles than the Ralph. But nothing unique about it.

Living in San Jose, I can also state that Levi's Stadium isn't all that special. They do have a neat museum dedicated to the history of the 49'ers, and the stadium is used for other events as well.

 

For football, it is far better than Candlestick Park was. 

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54 minutes ago, Jay_Fixit said:

There’s plenty wrong with it.

 

Signed, 2018.

Disagree. Its not Dallas, or Atlanta. But the Ralph is fine....with a few updates. The venue might not meet modern standards, but its historic and beloved. It should be left well enough alone at this point, minus some upgrades

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27 minutes ago, corta765 said:

 

No you spend 1.4 billion because instead of drunks tailgating spending no money in your stadium, you have families spending $100-200 apiece on your development with the stadium. Read up on the Atlanta Braves stadium/city they basically built. Teams want you there all day and night to spend money its not just the game in the least anymore in fact that's the last thing. A new stadium that non football season allows tours, a team experience, shopping, restaurants etc.. is a ton of money. Pegula is friends with Robert Kraft and loves patriot place which is exactly that.

There's nothing preventing Pegulas from providing that at an upgraded New Era. The beauty of the OP location is the unlimited land they can use for enhancing the fan experience. 

 

Kim is also guilty of a bit of double speak.  If the owners concern is the drunken behavior, the easiest way to fix it is to double the ticket prices. 

14 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

Living in San Jose, I can also state that Levi's Stadium isn't all that special. They do have a neat museum dedicated to the history of the 49'ers, and the stadium is used for other events as well.

 

For football, it is far better than Candlestick Park was. 

It's the worst stadium that I've ever attended.  

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3 hours ago, Heitz said:

 

By my math, $600M < $1.4B by a pretty wide margin, sooooo...

 

I was partly referring to the “other” $600M to get a new stadium. If renovations will be half the cost, how do we dig up the rest? (I rounded down, you get a smaller scoreboard. Sorry, I’m feeling frugal.   ?)

Edited by Augie
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1 hour ago, BillsfaninSB said:

Sounds like the baby steps of moving the team.  Saw the same thing with Chargers (I live in Southern California).  Spanos kept saying it can’t be done even though he had options.  His option A was too lofty to achieve and decided to go.  Planned failure with built in excuse to leave. 

So he moved, and how long will he try to hang on in LA?  LA can't support one team!

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1 hour ago, TheTruthHurts said:

I don't want to hear how Buffalo fans can't afford the modern NFL. Russ Brandon made it his job to do that.

We are a blue collar city though, do we really need a state of the art stadium? I love New Era/Ralph Wilson stadium, it's incredible. Dump money into rennovations, it's fine.

 

EDIT: We need to be fiscally responsible here, IMO.

Edited by NewDayBills
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28 minutes ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

It would most likely be multi purpose. Attract concerts. Super Bowl. Probably an annual college bowl game. National conventions. Not saying I support it, but it would be much more than just Bills games played there. 

These are always used as reasons to build a stadium but a stadium never pays for itself.  Add in the additional infrastructure required for roads, etc and it gets even worse.

 

People are always willing to spend other peoples money.

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1 hour ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

Kim Pegula on new Bills stadium: 'I don't even know if we can get there'

ATLANTA — Kim Pegula sees the Buffalo Bills facing a difficult road toward a new stadium, because all entities involved will balk at contributing to a price tag likely to exceed the team’s purchase price of $1.4 billion.
 
“I don’t even know if we can get there,” the team’s co-owner told The Buffalo News while attending the NFL spring meeting. “I know fans in Buffalo don’t want higher ticket prices, they don’t want PSLs. The state doesn’t want to give you any money, the city doesn’t ... We don’t have a billion-and-a-half dollars sitting around. We used it to buy the team.”
 
Pegula said she and Pegula Sports & Entertainment Chief Operating Officer Bruce Popko have taken the lead on the Bills’ long-term stadium planning since Russ Brandon’s May 1 resignation as president of PSE and its sports franchises.
 
“It’s going to be hard, so that’s why we’re trying to get all the options,” Pegula said.

 

 

...she is absolutely on point....first, why would Pegula fork over $800+ mil in cash for a Lucas Oil type stadium?......even if he held the mortgage, interest on debt service is about $30 mil annually.....with reported number about the Bills generating $30 mil operating profit before taxes, he breaks even.....only way to improve the bottom line with new debt load is PSL's and tix price increases...also have to be able to cash flow the annual principal payments of $13+ mil annually.......do you think the WNY economy of scale would or could support it?.....

Edited by OldTimeAFLGuy
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1 hour ago, BillsfaninSB said:

Sounds like the baby steps of moving the team.  Saw the same thing with Chargers (I live in Southern California).  Spanos kept saying it can’t be done even though he had options.  His option A was too lofty to achieve and decided to go.  Planned failure with built in excuse to leave. 

 

yes. the pegulas are spanos.

it's exactly the same situation.

they're packing it all up and moving everything. the bills. sabres. harborcenter. even going to confiscate the sod they put down at canalside and take that with them.

 

smh

 

jw

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The ultimate Pegula smoke screen, the more you talk about actually building the more expressive the land.

 

If I was her, I get an estimate on a dome  then watch the cost of land drop.

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1 minute ago, john wawrow said:

 

yes. the pegulas are spanos.

it's exactly the same situation.

they're packing it all up and moving everything. the bills. sabres. harborcenter. even going to confiscate the sod they put down at canalside and take that with them.

 

smh

 

jw

 

 

...LMAO...pathetic right?.....I'll see your SMH and DOUBLE IT......prolly hired Modell NIGHT Moving & Storage already.....

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3 minutes ago, john wawrow said:

 

yes. the pegulas are spanos.

it's exactly the same situation.

they're packing it all up and moving everything. the bills. sabres. harborcenter. even going to confiscate the sod they put down at canalside and take that with them.

 

smh

 

jw

 

How much sod is that ??

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59 minutes ago, switz1610 said:

 

If you're interested, I have a bridge for sale baskingridge...

I actually believe they are focused on the city of Buffalo. Not to max revenue. Organic growth will come with winning.
Hope they can stand up to the NFL Owner azz hats that were pressuring Pegulas as soon as they took ownership. was uncool and still would be.

 Kim is saying exactly what is needed to be said, to all that have ears. NFL State County and Fans.

 No hint whatsoever of  'moving the team  delusion' there . geesh

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I suspect this is a set up for a renovation of the existing facility, which in my mind would be welcome news.  It's the fiscally responsible decision and it avoids a lot of the nastiness with PSLs and excessively priced luxury suites.

 

Some of the stuff could be simple things like eliminating the bench-style seating in the upper deck with bucket seats, to the more complex like gutting the non-club 200 level seating and replacing it with a standing-room concourse, a restaurant or pub for season ticket holders, or something similar.  If we're lucky, we may actually get a heated grass field a la Lambeau to replace the questionable turf that we have.  I could see Erie County kicking in money for something like that.

 

I think the Pegulas are smart enough to realize that new luxury boxes aren't going to extract the most money out of the Bills and Sabres… the franchises' biggest asset is the unique fanbase and the way you extract money from these kinds of people is very different from the typical luxury box owner.  Merchandise sales, "unique" experiences with players, keeping the existing tailgating atmosphere (without going too crazy), and low season ticket churn will extract more money over the long term than paying for a new stadium and expecting PSLs and higher luxury suite sales rates in return.

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2 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

 

...LMAO...pathetic right?.....I'll see your SMH and DOUBLE IT......prolly hired Modell NIGHT Moving & Storage already.....

 

That's not the Pegulas' M.O.

They BOUGHT Modell moving and storage.

 

jw

1 minute ago, 1st&ten said:

 

How much sod is that ??

 

all of it.

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So a bit of math:

 

Stadium cost:                    $750 Million

Down Payment:                 $160 Millions (20%)

 

Useful life of Stadium:      30 years (very conservative)

Interest Rate:                      4%

 

Yearly Payments:               $42,967,368  

# events:                              10

Tickets sold/event:            75,000 

Cost per ticket:                   $57/game excluding down payment cost

 

So is the fan base willing to pay and additional $57 per game all other things being equal?

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23 minutes ago, GG said:

There's nothing preventing Pegulas from providing that at an upgraded New Era. The beauty of the OP location is the unlimited land they can use for enhancing the fan experience. 

 

Kim is also guilty of a bit of double speak.  If the owners concern is the drunken behavior, the easiest way to fix it is to double the ticket prices. 

It's the worst stadium that I've ever attended.  

Levi's or Candlestick? And why the worst?

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