Congratulations To Buffalo, New York – The Bills Will Stay!

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I’m no football fan myself – never was and probably never will be – but I am a fan of the great city of Buffalo, New York and I join so many people in that city in celebrating this September 9^th’s news that the Buffalo Bills will stay.

The Buffalo News has confirmed that billionaire business leaders Terry and Kim Pegula, who have already made other development investments in the city as it transforms itself from a manufacturing to more of a high-tech research and business centre – not to mention a continental showcase for heritage and vibrant, revitalized neighbhourhoods – have purchased the Buffalo Bills football team and will keep it in the Buffalo area. 

This news comes after the death of long-time Buffalo Bills founder and owner Ralph Wilson early this year and months of nail-biting speculation over who would buy the team and where it might locate it.

Finally, for Buffalo, any fear that the team might be sold to an owner that would move it out of the area has been put to rest, and that is a big deal. 

One need only go to Buffalo on a game day and watch the Anchor Bar, Coles, Gabriel’s Gate and other bars and restaurants with video screens fill with fans who keep these neighbourhood business alive. You know the game is over and the home team has won when you begin to hear car horns honking all over town. 

The Buffalo Bills are a vital part of the economy and the cultural fabric of Buffalo and I can’t help but share in the joy that they will remain so for years to come. 

Now for the next chapters for this team. Will a new stadium, replacing the one it now plays in the Erie County, New York town of Orchard Park, be built in the Buffalo downtown area – a move that is sure to inject the downtown with another shot of adrenalin as it recovers from decades of slumber? And can the new owner rebuild the team for another shot at a Super Bowl championship after too many years of not making it to the finals? 

Finally, it should be noted that the new owner, who paid a record $1.4 billion for the Bills, made a good deal of his money in the controversial gas fracking business. I know there are also a good many people in the Buffalo, New York area lobbying to keep the practice of drilling down deep into shale rock layers to extract gas from being approved in New York State.

 In that regard, it is interesting that big bucks made from employing that gas extraction practice in Ohio and other states has helped keep the Bills in Buffalo.

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