Buffalo Bills Moving To Austin? Potential Change For NFL Team

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Fans of the Buffalo Bills may have to update their jersey collections as a potential move to Austin, Texas is looming.

The Bills organization is attempting to undergo a stadium overhaul in Buffalo and would like the city to foot the bill of around $1.5 billion. If the city does not comply, the team is threatening a move to Austin.

Nothing is set in stone yet and this could very well be a negotiation tactic on the part of the NFL team. But a potential move from Buffalo could greatly affect the NFL betting season and fans of the team.

The Austin Bills

The Bills organization put forth a $1.5 billion proposal that would see a new stadium built in Orchard Park. New York and Erie County would be the two entities liable to fund the new stadium if the Bills’ have anything to say about it.

Odds Of A Super Bowl Win In 2022

The Bills are coming off of a 13-3 season where they won the AFC East division title and made it to the AFC Championship game, ultimately losing to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Buffalo is viewed as a contending team, with the third shortest odds to win the Super Bowl with online sportsbooks ahead of the upcoming season. The city and state will not want to lose such a high profile team as they start battling for a Super Bowl win in the upcoming season.

While it may sound like a farfetched notion for the city to commit that much taxpayer money to a stadium, it is not uncommon in the sports industry for cities and states to foot the bill because sports teams bring in revenues year-round to cities and states where they reside.

The Seattle SuperSonics requested their city to fund a new stadium but was denied. The team was then moved to Oklahoma City in 2008, becoming the OKC Thunder.

The threat of losing a potential major NFL team is a real one, which explains why New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is in support of funding this new stadium venture.

“Governor Cuomo is committed to the Bills staying in Buffalo, as demonstrated by the state’s contribution to the recent $130 million investment in the current stadium,” said Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for Andrew Cuomo’s budget office. “The administration is fully engaged with the Bills and other stakeholders as we conduct due diligence to understand the economics around the team’s proposal ahead of the current leasing expiring in 2023.”

The main issue that is holding back any deal from happening is the political shift that Erie County has endured in recent years. The State Legislature is run by Democrats who are less inclined to use city funds for billion-dollar corporations. The mayor of Buffalo, Byron Born, is also a Democrat with similar views for how money should be spent and professional sports endeavors is not high up on the list.

While this could simply be an empty threat to force the cities hand, Austin is a red city in a red state that embraces all forms of financial expansions. Regulated sports betting could be hosting lines for the Austin Bills NFL team in the near future.