By Owen Pfeiffer
ORCHARD PARK — Two months into the first season at the new Highmark Stadium, a 6 percent surcharge on tickets, parking, food, drinks and merchandise has brought $2,877,771.51 to Erie County, WKBW reported. The Buffalo Bills sent the county $1,796,856.42 for September, after $1,080,915.09 for August, according to the Erie County Comptroller’s office.
The county is not keeping the money. Here is where it goes, why the surcharge exists, and who is deciding how it is spent.
What the surcharge covers
The 6 percent charge applies at every event at the stadium, not only Bills games, so concerts are included, WKBW reported. A third party collects it and deposits it into an Erie County-owned surcharge account. Under the lease, the money is moved once a year, on April 30.
County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick told WBEN the arrangement is a change from the old stadium, where the county paid for big capital items with sales or property tax revenue. “When the new agreement was reached with the Bills, the new lease to build the new stadium, the county is essentially, for almost all intents and purposes, out of the stadium business,” Mr. Hardwick said, according to WBEN. “The one part we have left is that we do levy this 6% tax, and it’s a tax that the Buffalo Bills collect for us, they turn it over to us. And then every April 30, we take that money and we give it to Empire State Development, and the state uses that for capital improvements.”
What the 2022 agreement says
WKBW quoted the 2022 memorandum of understanding among the Bills, Erie County and New York State. It says the Erie County Stadium Corporation “shall be obligated to contribute to a Maintenance and Repair Fund in the amount of $6.67 million per year for 15 years.” The Bills can use that fund for capital improvements, maintenance and other repairs at the new stadium complex, excluding Bills labor and janitorial costs. The memorandum also says revenue from surcharges on ticketing, parking and concessions “shall be deemed the County’s contribution to the Capital Improvement Fund.”
In plain terms, the surcharge is how the county meets its capital obligation, and the people at the stadium pay it instead of county taxpayers. Neither WKBW nor the county has said how the first two months of collections compare with the $6.67 million annual figure, and the Chronicle has not found a published projection.
An Erie County spokesperson gave WKBW this description: “The surcharge is placed on tickets, concessions, merchandise, and other items purchased at Highmark Stadium. This includes all Buffalo Bills home games as well as other events that will be held at the venue. That revenue will be used for continuing capital improvements at the new stadium. This was all negotiated as part of the public discussions about the stadium lease that were held by the Erie County Legislature.” The spokesperson added that the Comptroller’s Office and the Bills decide how to document and track the funds, which will go into a capital improvement fund managed by Empire State Development.
The “middleman” argument
Mr. Hardwick argued the structure is better for people who never go to games. “Now it’s just the people that are using the stadium that are paying for those improvements,” he said. “Again, this is not really an Erie County tax. We’re just kind of the middleman. We take the money from the Bills, we give it to the state, and the state then makes the improvements.” He said it also reaches visitors. “Our Canadian friends come across, people from out of town come and they buy stuff. They’re paying for those improvements too.”
Mr. Hardwick said he did not foresee the rate rising over the 30-year lease, and that any change would need approval from at least the Erie County Legislature. He was not part of the lease negotiations, he said, and he expects the idea was copied from somewhere else. “I’m sure it was patterned after something that already existed,” he said. “I think it’s a novel way of paying for those improvements, which previously were paid for only by county taxpayers.”
An economist’s view
Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross, told WBEN that a surcharge on users is what economists would favor if someone other than the team must pay. “Quite honestly, it’s what an economist would actually advocate,” he said. “Obviously, I think it should be the business owner themselves, but if you have a contract sign that says the city is on the hook for paying for repairs and maintenance at a particular location, collecting taxes on the people who use that location is one of the fairest ways to do that.”
He also cautioned that the public cost does not stop there. “The subsidy doesn’t end with the stadium opening,” Mr. Matheson said. “That’s just the beginning.”
What to watch
For fans, the surcharge shows up on receipts for anything bought inside the stadium, and it will appear again on every event date. The next public marker is the first April 30 transfer to Empire State Development. Anyone who wants the full accounting can ask the Comptroller’s office for the monthly remittance reports it has shared, and the county Legislature would have to approve any change to the rate.
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