When members of the Erie County Legislature met last week, they had a special guest: Ron Raccuia, executive vice president of Pegula Sports and Entertainment and the head of the team that negotiated a deal to build a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park.
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The justification is rooted in a fact that has been understood for decades: The Bills, which are described in a legal document summarizing the deal as an “extraordinary and unique” property in Western New York, could have moved.
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The new stadium will be built directly across the street on Abbott Road, adjacent to Erie Community College’s South Campus, in what Gov. Kathy Hochul called “the largest construction project in Western New York history.”
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Although the negotiations that concluded with an announcement Monday have spanned the last several months, the deal for a new Buffalo Bills stadium has, in some ways, been a decade in the making.
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The urgency to reach a Bills stadium deal was heightened by the deteriorating upper deck at Highmark Stadium, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said. He also said team owners initially wanted the public to pay 100% of construction costs.
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Goodell, a Jamestown native, took a personal interest and active role in helping to broker an agreement between New York State, Erie County and the Buffalo Bills to finance a $1.4 billion stadium in Orchard Park.
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A chorus of league owners and executives praised Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after the group reached an “ironclad” 30-year agreement to keep the Bills entrenched in the league’s second-smallest market.
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