ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz expressed some doubt on whether a new stadium deal for the Buffalo Bills will be completed on a timeline set by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
"I'm not going to say we are going to get it done based on any particular time associated with what the governor wants," Poloncarz said. "But I think we've made a lot of progress in recent weeks."
In December 2021, Hochul met with media in Warsaw expressing that she gave the Bills two timelines with one of them being the end of March 2022.
I've also offered two timelines to them, whatever works best for them. I can get this done by the end of this year. I can get this done. We can work out the numbers. We're having good conversations, or I also have the until the end of March because it is a budgetary item so I also have a larger window if we need more time. So it's not a hard deadline, but my desire is I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, let's lock this down. Let's get it done. So we are very intently focused on keeping the Bills here. If Orchard Park's their first choice, their only choice, it's Orchard Park and we'll make it all happen. So we're very excited about announcing a deal hopefully in the near future, but a lot of devil in the details.
The state Constitution mandates the approval of the state budget by April 1.
In response to Poloncarz's comments, a spokesperson for Gov. Hochul's office says, "negotiations are ongoing."
7 News asked for a response from the Buffalo Bills, they declined to comment.
