SCHEER: Niagara poorer by sitting on sidelines during stadium benefit talks

Mark Scheer, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·5 min read

Jan. 31—It's too bad the City of Niagara Falls and Niagara County didn't get in on the high-stakes talks about a community benefits agreement for the new $1.4 billion Buffalo Bills stadium in Orchard Park.

Once again, our city and our county will be poorer for it.

In case you haven't been following along, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, other officials in Erie County and representatives from the state of New York have been working on a 30-year deal that will see the owners of the Buffalo Bills contribute $3 million for community benefits per year.

The Buffalo News, following an interview with Poloncarz this week, reported that the deal, which is nearly completed although not yet finalized, will be adjusted for inflation, causing the contribution to increase each year by up to 2.2%.

The City of Buffalo, I suppose because of the team's namesake and historic ties to the Bills organization, and Erie County, by virtue of playing host to the stadium, get all the benefits.

For the record, Erie County is kicking in $250 million under the proposed 30-year stadium lease, with the remaining contributions being covered by the state ($600 million) and the Bills ($550 million) so I suppose they deserve some sort of compensation in return.

Still, I can't help but wonder why we didn't at least argue for something, a little something, where the stadium is concerned.

Now some might say why would Niagara County — or any community outside Erie County where the Bills play their home games — deserve any community benefits from a pro football stadium to be built in Orchard Park?

Aside from the fact that this community has always supported the team, I'd say the biggest reason involves what should be the biggest driver of the economy not just in Niagara but across the region and that's tourism.

One of the biggest failures — and we have many — has been our inability to capitalize on our greatest asset — the Falls and the Niagara Gorge.

The Bills and their stadium — for at least eight to 10 weekends per year during the NFL's regular season, including preseason — draws thousands of fans from Milwaukee and Cincinnati and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and other places where there are NFL franchises.

How many of them make a weekend out of it?

How many find their way from Orchard Park to the Falls, a must-see, bucket-list destination?

Why aren't we working harder to help out-of-town guests who want to visit the Falls find their way here easily and efficiently?

Wouldn't it make sense, as you are about to invest $850 million in taxpayer money into a new stadium, to consider making it less isolated and better connected to local public transportation routes, such as they are?

Here's an idea: Establish a train depot at the stadium or near the stadium and connect it to Buffalo so it can connect, by rail, to the $40 million Amtrak station off Main Street in the Falls.

Get a viable rail system connected to Toronto and, well, maybe it becomes something locals use all year and football fans use during September, October, November, December and maybe even January — times when, historically, the local tourism season wanes.

Yes, it would cost untold millions, but, again, we've apparently got $850 million to give to the billionaire owner of an NFL franchise so can we really suggest money's the issue?

It's more like prioritizing, planning and being smart. That's the stuff this region is seemingly always still working on.

Last Monday, when I walked over to Donatello's pizzeria (Don't say I never mention you in the paper, Steve Fournier Sr.) a group of Cincinnati Bengals fans were finishing up their meals inside the Third Street restaurant. Fournier later told me that one of the Bengals' fans had a flight delay and decided to kill his time waiting by visiting the Falls.

Following the Bills playoff loss to the Bengals, our photographer, Jim Neiss, did a picture page spread at the Falls, featuring nothing but fans from Cincinnati who were celebrating their team's playoff victory by taking in the mighty cataracts.

Bills Mafia members aren't the only ones who hit the road not just on Sundays but for weekends and sometimes even weeks at a time.

NFL fans travel.

They spend money.

A lot of them coming to town for Bills games want to see Niagara Falls, maybe for the first time or maybe because they want to see it again.

They do so during fall and early winter, times when local businesses could always use an extended boost from out-of-town visitors.

To me, it would have been a tremendous community benefit to spend some money making sure they see more than just the stadium in Orchard Park.

We should have been engaged in serious discussions all along about routing NFL fans from the new Bills stadium to downtown Buffalo, Niagara Falls and other points north.

In other words, someone sitting at the negotiating table should have insisted public transportation — the regional kind — be included in the stadium mix.

Instead, we'll just keep on doing what we've been doing with the current Bills stadium in Orchard Park — opening the gates on Sundays and hoping fans from cities with NFL teams from around the country figure out how to see the Falls and get around Western New York all by themselves.