When officials announced the broad terms for the construction of a new Buffalo Bills stadium a year ago, all sides expressed optimism that the sign deal would soon follow. County Executive Mark Poloncarz noted that the Bills stadium lease deal he helped negotiate in 2012 and 2013 still took three months to finalize after a memorandum of understanding was announced.
From the time we first heard of preliminary talks about a new Bills stadium, our team has been there to bring you news about the deal. Catch u…
Instead, the winding road to a signed stadium deal took 12 long months, and that is before the Erie County Legislature weighs in.
“I think what no one expected was what happened in the year following the announcement of the memorandum of agreement,” he said.
But it was 12 months of “unexpected”: the May 14 mass shooting; the impact of the health crisis suffered by Bills co-owner Kim Pegula in June; two historic snowstorms a month apart.
“But we got it done,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”
Aside from delays that had nothing to do with negotiations, certain agreements proved to be thorny. That included the terms of the community benefits agreement, which outlines direct benefits the region will receive from the stadium deal, and the construction and labor agreements, which were subject to lengthy negotiations.
More recently, negotiating partners have said all the major terms for the stadium deal were complete, but lawyers were still providing legal opinions and sorting out more technical terms and…
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