Other NFL owners want Bills to replace Ralph Wilson Stadium

Many an NFL owner/team has raked its home city over the coals, temporarily raising taxes to build a new stadium that many of the people who helped pay for it can’t afford to attend and agreeing to a deal that puts nearly all of the money in the owner’s hands while placing most of the risk in the hands of the city or county.

Not surprisingly, many of those owners now want the Pegulas, who own the Buffalo Bills, to follow their lead.

One interesting story that came out of the now-completed NFL spring meetings comes via Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News, who writes that commissioner Roger Goodell, other league executives and other team owners believe it’s “imperative” that the Bills replace Ralph Wilson Stadium with a new facility.

Opened in 1973 and built for what seems now like a bargain basement cost – $22 million – The Ralph is not even close to the oldest stadium in use in the NFL (there are several older, including the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the Rams will play until their new facility opens, which opened in 1923, and the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field, which opened in 1924), but it is among the most aesthetically unpleasing, along with O.Co Coliseum, where the Oakland Raiders play, and Qualcomm Stadium, home to the San Diego Chargers.

But to hear other owners tell it, the Bills could be in big trouble if they don’t build soon.

Mara continued, “I don’t think it’s urgent like it has to happen tomorrow. But I think, for the long-term best interests of that franchise, they need to be in a new building. Listen, we’ve been in much worse stadiums, believe me. And they still have great fan support. But there’s a growing disparity in income between the top quartile teams and the bottom quartile teams, and that’s something we have to be conscious of. And a new stadium would help them a great deal.”

Terry and Kim Pegula, who bought the Bills in 2014 after iconic founding owner Wilson died, spent $1.4 billion to buy the franchise. While Carucci reports the NFL would like to see a new stadium for the Bills in the next five years or so and considers it an urgent matter, it wasn’t discussed with the Pegulas during this week’s meetings, nor was the matter on the docket at the sessions specifically discussing stadium updates.

Interestingly, while those outside Buffalo seem to think it’s of utmost importance for the Bills to build, those inside Buffalo don’t seem to agree.

In a companion piece to Carucci’s story, the Buffalo News offers a story on where things stand with a new stadium, and at the moment they’re standing in the middle of an empty field, all alone.

Though a New York state-commissioned report identified four potential sites for a new facility, that report came out over a year ago, and Bills president Russ Brandon said the group has since been suspended. Last summer, Terry Pegula said a new stadium is “nothing urgent right now,” and Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the News a new stadium will be dealt with “when we have to.”

And Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz last year asked the NFL to give him financial records of other teams as a way of making the case that a new stadium is necessary.

“They have to prove to me that the Bills can’t be viable in Ralph Wilson Stadium. If we’re going to build a new stadium, I want to see something that really proves we need a new stadium,” Poloncarz said last summer.

It is unclear whether Poloncarz received those financial documents, though given how ferociously NFL owners guard that information, our guess is his request was met with a firm “no.”

In a poll of just over 500 voters conducted 14 months ago at the behest of the Buffalo News and WGRZ-TV, results were evenly split, with 48 percent of respondents saying taxpayers should pay some of the costs, while the same number said taxpayers should not pay any of the costs.

The state and Eric County footed the $130 million bill for the renocations done to Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2014, though one NFL executive who requested anonymity in talking with Carucci said no one was in favor of the improvements.

“No, it isn’t” a major renovation, the official said. “In fact, I was not for that renovation. None of us were. In other words, we thought we should have gone right to the question of what should be the big renovation or a new facility. Because if you’re going to build one, you’re going to try to break ground within five or 10 years from now. If you’re going to do that, then you sort of didn’t need to spend that $130 million. You should have saved that for the new facility.

“But Cuomo being Cuomo, that’s what he wanted to do and the former owner [Ralph Wilson] that’s what he wanted to do. So they did it. I think the fans will enjoy the change in amenities, but I don’t think it will reset the clock other than for a few years.”

Brandon, the Bills’ president, defended The Ralph, which seats over 73,000 for games.

“The building has great bones, it has great sight lines, and it has great tailgating,” Brandon said. “Do we have the bells and whistles of all the new facilities that are on line today? No. But one of the things is that we’re a volume business. We have a lot of suites, we have a lot of club seats, we have a lot of seats in the building. Everything that we do is affordable. But at the same time, part of adding additional suites and additional club seats at our price points was to stay in line with the new NFL at the time, going all the way back to 1999.

“Obviously, you always have great respect for what your (league) partners (want), but we have to focus on what makes sense for us, what makes sense for our community, for our business partners.”

New stadiums lead to higher ticket prices, and while the U.S. Census Bureau projects Erie County has increased its population since 2010 after 30 years of decline, Brandon notes that the greater Buffalo area is not home to multiple Fortune 500 companies. The implication there is that major companies have well-compensated executives and employees who could more easily afford more expensive tickets or suites.

Last year, Nerdwallet.com ranked the Bills 26th in terms of average ticket cost, at $147.75.

The Pegulas and the Bills do have one surprising ally: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, he of the sprawling palace known as JerryWorld, who was at Ralph Wilson Stadium last season with his team. He told Carucci it was a well-maintained building and that he doesn’t consider replacing it a necessity. He did add, however, that after a couple of years of ownership, the Pegulas may figure out for themselves that a new stadium will be needed to increase franchise revenues.