"A road map" is Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz's description of the stadium feasibility report released by New York State Tuesday.
"A road map. It's a guide. It gives us really definitive information regarding costs, including what would potentially be escalating costs in future years," he said.
There's been a lot of public uproar about a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, ranging from where it should be built to how much it should cost. Poloncarz said the report isn't complete, because some details about structural points at risk in the current stadium that could be used by a terrorist attack have been removed from the released version.
One option ruled out by the report is fixing up the current stadium.
"Renovation is very expensive and it probably does not make sense to do renovations when you are talking about a new stadium, that could last more than double the life of the renovations,: Poloncarz said. "But the cost, while expensive in both regards, is not that astronomically more than a renovation."
Poloncarz also poured water on city plans to get involved with stadium negotiations, unless it brings cash for the project. The report estimates a cost of at least $350 million more to build a new stadium in downtown Buffalo than in Orchard Park.
"$1.4 billion would potentially be the cost for a new stadium, whether it's in Orchard Park or Buffalo," he said. "The costs in Buffalo are more expensive with regards to infrastructure. We always knew that was going to be the case."
