By Teresa Mulvaney
ALBANY — Taxpayers put $850 million into the new Highmark Stadium. Inside, a hot dog costs $11.63, the most expensive in the NFL, according to a fans’ advocacy group that held it up as Exhibit A before the state Assembly this week. A bill now waiting for the January session would make that price illegal unless hot dogs within 10 miles of Orchard Park average at least $9.69.
The measure, the Fair Concession Pricing Act, would tie what publicly subsidized stadiums and arenas charge for food and soft drinks to what the same items cost at nearby businesses. It was the subject of a Nov. 10 hearing of the Assembly’s Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection. No venue owner showed up to defend its prices, and the Buffalo Bills did not answer WKBW when asked about theirs.
“Hot dogs don’t cost $12,” Brian Hess, executive director of the nonprofit Sports Fans Coalition, said at the hearing, WKBW reported. “They cost the same to make in and out of the stadium, and fans should be given that flexibility and that choice.”
The Chronicle reviewed the bill text and its sponsor’s memo, the hearing coverage, the 2022 stadium agreement as quoted in county records reporting, and the monthly surcharge payments the Bills have sent Erie County. Together they show what the state is being asked to do, what it would and would not change for a family at a Bills game, and who has the power to act before any law does.
What the bill would do
Assembly Bill A8921, sponsored by Assembly Member Nily Rozic, a Queens Democrat who chairs the consumer affairs committee, has a Senate companion, S8479. It would add a section 397-c to the General Business Law.
The bill covers any “arena, stadium, amphitheater, or similar venue” in New York with 2,500 or more seats that is used mainly for entertainment or professional sports and has received a “public financial benefit.” That phrase is defined broadly: any taxpayer money for construction, renovation or operation, or a full or partial exemption from property, sales or other taxes.
Those venues would have to adopt what the bill calls a “street pricing model,” defined as pricing food and non-alcoholic beverages “at rates no more than twenty percent above the average retail price of such items at similar non-venue commercial establishments within a ten-mile radius.” The cap would apply to everything sold inside the venue during public events.
Alcohol is not covered. The bill’s cap would reach the hot dog and the soda, not the beer.
Enforcement runs through two state offices. Venues would file annual compliance reports with the Department of State listing their average concession prices and comparable local prices, and the secretary of state could run random audits. The attorney general could go to court for an injunction, and a judge could impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each event at which a violation occurs. Repeated violations could lead to suspension of tax benefits or repayment of public funds, according to the sponsor’s memo. The act would take effect 180 days after it became law.
Rozic’s memo makes the argument in one sentence: the bill “reaffirms the principle that when public dollars help build a facility the benefits should flow back to the community starting with a more affordable experience for every fan, family, and visitor.”
The bill has eight Assembly co-sponsors, none from Erie or Niagara County. Assembly records show it was referred to the consumer affairs committee on July 16, 2025, and again on Jan. 7, 2026. It has not moved since. The earliest it can be taken up is when the new session begins in January, and City & State reported it will need to be reintroduced then.
What the committee heard
Hess’s testimony framed the bill around two New York venues. “Highmark Stadium sells the most expensive hot dog in the NFL for $11.63, even though taxpayers put $850 million towards the Bills’ new home,” he said, according to City & State. “Madison Square Garden receives an annual property tax break of about $42 million, and still charges Rangers fans $16 for a beer, which is 75% more than the median pint in Manhattan.”
He went further. “When you need a law to stop someone from charging $18 for a beer, that is not a pricing problem, that is a monopoly wearing a jersey,” Hess said, City & State reported. He listed prices at several of the state’s major venues and said nearly all of them would “fail the standard” the bill sets.
Emily DiVito, a senior adviser for economic policy at the Groundwork Collaborative, an economic think tank, cited a 2026 Action Network analysis that put the cost of a Bills game for a family of four at more than $2,190, “more than $700 higher than the league average,” according to Sports Business Journal’s summary of Buffalo News reporting.
“I think this is a really great opportunity for New York to lead the charge and sort of set the tone of what should be expected across other areas,” DiVito said, according to WKBW. Her group commissioned a poll of likely voters that found 73% supported limits on what vendors at subsidized venues can charge, WKBW reported.
Rozic told the panel it was “looking at the concept of ‘street pricing,’ in which consumers would pay the same prices as they would pay outside the venue,” according to Sports Business Journal. She also asked why stadium prices are not treated as price gouging. Christopher D’Angelo, the chief deputy attorney general for economic justice, explained that state law treats certain sales as gouging only during unusual events, not in day-to-day business, City & State reported.
D’Angelo urged lawmakers to require stadiums and entertainment venues to let fans bring in their own food and non-alcoholic drinks, and to set street prices in state law while outlawing what he called loophole surcharges, according to the City & State and Buffalo News accounts. A representative from the attorney general’s office told lawmakers that determining comparable prices could involve looking at businesses outside the venue even when an exact comparison is not possible, WKBW reported.
What a game costs inside Highmark
The $11.63 hot dog is Hess’s figure. Other prices are on the record from the stadium’s first preseason game in August, when the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported a $22 chicken parm sandwich, an $18 Blue and Red Burger, $13 for a 16-ounce can of beer, $14 for a premium can and $22 for a margarita.
The bill sets no price for any of those items. It ties the ceiling to the neighborhood. Under a 20% cap, a stadium price is legal only if the average outside price is at least the stadium price divided by 1.2. For the $11.63 hot dog, that means comparable hot dogs within 10 miles would need to average about $9.69, by the Chronicle’s calculation, a figure MeetStadium reached independently. If the street average were $5, the cap inside would be $6. Neither the Chronicle nor any party at the hearing has published a survey of what hot dogs actually cost within 10 miles of the stadium.
That gap points to the bill’s hardest practical question: who decides what counts as a “similar” item at a “similar” business. The bill gives that job to the Department of State through audits and annual reports, but it does not define the comparison set. The attorney general’s office acknowledged the problem at the hearing.
The 6% the county already collects
Prices are only part of what fans pay. Every purchase at the stadium, including tickets, parking, food and drinks, and merchandise, carries a 6% “Erie County Surcharge” under the 30-year lease, WKBW has reported. On a $40 concession order, that is $2.40.
The Bills remitted $1,080,915.09 to Erie County for August and $1,796,856.42 for September, for a two-month total of $2,877,771.51, according to figures from the Erie County Comptroller’s Office reported by WKBW. As the Chronicle reported Nov. 9, the county does not keep the money for its own budget.
The 2022 memorandum of understanding among the Bills, Erie County and New York State says revenue “generated by surcharges which the parties agree to implement upon ticketing, parking and concessions at the New Stadium” shall be “deemed the County’s contribution to the Capital Improvement Fund.” Separately, the Erie County Stadium Corporation is obligated to put $6.67 million a year for 15 years into a Maintenance and Repair Fund that the Bills can use for capital improvements, maintenance and repairs.
“The surcharge is placed on tickets, concessions, merchandise, and other items purchased at Highmark Stadium,” an Erie County spokesperson told WKBW. “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 said the surcharge funds will be placed in a capital improvement fund managed by Empire State Development.
At the hearing, Chuck Bell of Consumer Reports said fans have raised concerns about that charge. “Consumers really feel like that’s a lot to ask on top of these already high prices,” Bell said, WKBW reported. He urged lawmakers to also move legislation on junk fees.
The concession bill as written would not touch the surcharge. The surcharge is written into the stadium lease.
Why Highmark is the test case
The bill applies only to venues with a public financial benefit, and Highmark has one of the largest in the country. The stadium opened with a ribbon-cutting on June 23 and seats 60,108. The governor’s office puts the finished project at $2.1 billion; $600 million came from New York State and $250 million from Erie County, the $850 million Hess cited, MeetStadium reported, citing state figures. That is about 40% of the cost.
Supporters at the hearing pointed to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, home of the Falcons, which opened in 2017 with “Fan First” pricing: $2 hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn and bottled water, and $5 cheeseburgers and domestic draft beer, WKBW reported. DiVito said the stadium saw a 30% increase in overall transactions.
“It has not taken off across stadiums nationwide. But many more teams and large sports venues have adopted mini-versions of what the Falcons are doing,” DiVito said, according to City & State, pointing to low-cost menus on select nights. “I think you do see some areas moving in the right direction, but we would argue that as long as this is voluntary, it’s not going to capture the full range of the problem.”
The other side of the counter
The people who set the prices were not in the room. Rozic said some venues declined to comment or to attend, without naming them, City & State reported, and WKBW reported that committee staff had invited venue owners and operators and none agreed to appear.
The Bills have spoken to cost before. Responding to questions earlier this year, a Bills official said “a big factor is the cost of tickets on the secondary market,” according to Sports Business Journal’s summary of Buffalo News reporting. That point matters to the debate: the family-of-four figure includes tickets, which the bill would not regulate.
There are also questions the hearing record does not answer, because no operator testified. A stadium concession stand carries costs a corner deli does not, such as game-day staffing and security. Whether a 20% margin covers them, and how a regulator would find a “similar” item to a stadium chicken parm sandwich, are left to the Department of State under the bill.
Hess said the teams do not need to wait for Albany. “Do the right thing by your fans,” he said, according to WKBW. “You can afford to lower prices for your consumers. It’ll actually help you in the long run.” His message to lawmakers was sharper: “They’re fleecing your voters. It’s time you stand up for your voters and not the billionaires.”
Who can act, and when
The Bills set the prices at Highmark Stadium and can change them at any time, as the Falcons did. The team did not respond to WKBW’s request for comment on the bill and its prices.
Rozic’s committee controls whether A8921 moves. It cannot act until January. Hess said he sensed bipartisan interest. “I got that sense from the hearing loud and clear,” he told WKBW.
The Senate has the companion bill, S8479, which City & State reported was before the Senate’s consumer protection committee.
The attorney general’s office has asked for a bring-your-own-food rule and a ban on surcharges it described as loopholes. Either would require legislation.
Erie County and Empire State Development control the 6% surcharge fund. The lease fixes the surcharge, but the county and the state can publish how much it raises and how it is spent.
No member of Western New York’s Assembly delegation is listed as a co-sponsor. With the Bills’ stadium now the example lawmakers reach for first, local legislators will have to decide in January whether to sign on, push the team toward a voluntary menu, or leave the hot dog where it is.
The Chronicle is asking Rozic’s office whether the bill will be reintroduced unchanged and how the Department of State would set the comparison prices, and will update this story with the answer.
Featured photo: Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, October 2026. Photo by Dekema via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Sources: New York State Assembly, A8921 text, actions and sponsor memo; New York State Senate, S8479; WKBW, Nov. 2026; City & State New York, Nov. 10, 2026; Sports Business Journal, Nov. 12, 2026, summarizing The Buffalo News; MeetStadium; WKBW I-Team, Erie County surcharge figures; WKBW, Erie County Surcharge and 2022 MOU; Democrat and Chronicle, Aug. 9, 2026.
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