Earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo came under fire for a litany of accusations of sexual harassment and a criminal probe into his behavior in office. Outside of the scope of the troubling revelations in the report (which we won’t delve into more on our football blog), the Buffalo Bills are also negotiating with the State for the cost of a new billion-dollar stadium. The firestorm around Cuomo will lead to a delay in the negotiations.
“‘It’s a temporary pause, not a setback,”’ said a person who knows all the players in the stadium talks – Cuomo, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and the Pegulas who own the team” per The Buffalo News.
Cuomo is said to be using his time to work toward protecting his legacy with his small group of advisors.
From what we’ve been told about the process, though, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Cuomo isn’t directly involved in the talks at this stage, so the only way the situation could be impacting negotiations is if someone was being pulled from working on the stadium to work on Cuomo’s image. They seem to be pretty different avenues.
Either way, it looks like the situation will be resolved soon and the talks can move forward. There is immense pressure on Cuomo to resign at this point and a growing belief he could be impeached in the near future.