Reports indicate Erie County is Set to Walk Away From Lease
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz dropped a bomshell recently when he revealed that he intends to walk away from the KeyBank Center lease when it expires on October 1st, 2025. “It is our intention to walk away,” he said to WGRZ earlier this month. It seems as though lawmakers in Buffalo were caught off guard as much as its citizens were.
WIVB’s article on the subject clarifies that team has through this September to give the county notice on whether they want to extend the lease or re-negotiate it.
The nearly 30 year old arena houses Terry Pegula’s Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bandits as well as concerts and other marquee events. Construction of KeyBank Center was completed in September 1996. Not only is the lease up, but the arena needs massive upgrades too. Cost would be from 75 to nearly 200 million.
In the aforementioned WGRZ article, Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon said that the city hasn’t had any conversations with Erie County or the Sabres about this topic yet, noting that “hopefully negotiations in the future will lead to a situation where it doesn’t lead to any additional incurred costs.”
The lease expires on Oct. 1st, and ownership and responsibility of the facility would revert back to the City of Buffalo. The majority of arena maintenance and renovations would be the Sabres’ responsibility but with the county leaving, conditions for who pays for what would be unsettled for the city. Buffalo itself could be responsible for a good chunk of that cost.
“The sheer magnitude of the costs that need to fix KeyBank, the city just could not shoulder,” Fillmore District council member Mitch Nowakowski told WGRZ. He stressed that Buffalo is facing a budget deficit and has a full plate of expenses already. Reports this week indicate that the city may be interested in privatizing ownership of some of its culturals, such as Kleinhans Music Hall & Shea’s Performing Arts Center.
“There’s no way that the city could, at this time, or in the near future, afford to take on such a large, monumental task of the KeyBank Center, and then investing resources in it,” Nowakowski told WGRZ.
That’s a harsh dose of blunt reality right there.
Nowakowski went on to tell WGRZ the city couldn’t assume responsibility of the nearly three decade old downtown arena without help from New York State.
City lawmakers are required to have the budget finalized by May 26th. That leaves about 4 months for the city to sort out the details to assuming ownership of the arena.
Terry Pegula could ease the burden on the city of Buffalo by taking on much of the renovation expenses himself. It would also help to cap the cost of the expenses. $100 million might be a good mark. Do as much needed renovation with smart spending as possible. The arena was upgraded with a new roof and scoreboard just this past year. Still, the city will have to take on the costs of owning an arena and the expenditures of that. Not to mention the financial concerns of liability and the costs associated with litigation. (People fall down the stairs all the time, right?)
Editor’s Note: It’s important to note that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says he is not concerned about potentially losing the Sabres. It’s easy to read about this situation and, given what’s happened in Arizona recently, and what happened in the past with the Sabres, jump to conclusions and worst-case scenarios. Just because the lease is coming up on its end doesn’t mean it won’t be extended or re-negotiated. It also doesn’t mean it will be. This is very much a complex, fluid situation with a lot of moving parts.
Many of our local media outlets are doing fantastic, on-the-ground work reporting on this. We link their work here in the hopes that you’ll click on it & read/watch/support them. The quotes sourced in this post were shared by WGRZ, WIVB and other outlets as attributed. We share them, and this information, in hopes of creating a forum for Sabres fans to discuss this topic. Please support local journalism – it matters. – MB
Stay tuned to see how the city of Buffalo deals with this ongoing situation.