Could we handle the loss?

Recently, New York State Senator Mark Grisanti was on the other end of an automated phone call, which was made to New York State residents.

For those individuals who did not receive the call - it was a survey asking residents how they feel about what should be done regarding the future of The Buffalo Bills playing football in New York State.

According to the Stadium Lease, in 1998 - the state, county, and the Bills - agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for terms of playing time and use of the stadium. That lease will terminate in July 2013.

The matter at hand indicated the team would agree to commit to another 10 years of playing ball in Western New York if NYS will commit to building them a $2 million stadium. There has also been mention of renovating the current stadium with those funds.

Grisanti asked residents to choose one of three options:

• Have NYS pay for the stadium with taxpayers money

• Have the Bills pay half the funds for the stadium

• Or, have NYS pay for the stadium without funds contributed by taxpayers

Which option would you choose?

Of course, no taxpayer wants to add an additional fee to their tax bill; however, if the tax payers choose not to contribute to this, can we depend on our state leaders to take care of the cost for us?

Aside from the fact of Bills fans wanting their team to play in their home town, how might the loss of the stadium effect our economy?

Can our county and our state really afford the loss of the team? How might this change Buffalo? Some may view the Bills and the Buffalo Sabres as a reason to come to Buffalo, or to come back to Buffalo.

When you add up the cost, per person, of attending a Bills game and/or the cost of those watching it from home, including: ticket prices, food and drinks, a tank of gas, airfare for out of town fans, etc - and then multiply it by a few hundred thousand people (just in WNY) - this might make taxpayers change their mind about a slight tax hike used for the stadium - rather than losing all of that revenue.

The state of Buffalo’s economy might not last very long if we lose this team.

No, it’s not the greatest solution - and it might even be a bit selfish on behalf of the Bills - but, unfortunately we depend on that team to keep our cities and towns above water.

This team could be considered the backbone of our county, we need them to remain local in order to be able to stand up straight.