On Friday, on the basis of this Buffalo News article and especially this one from WGRZ, I wrote:
Hooray, Gov. Kathy Hochul has finally agreed to release the cost-benefit study that her administration has been refusing to release under open records requests
I briefly considered that this report — said to be “a study on the best site for a new Buffalo Bills stadium” — wasn’t the same as the cost-benefit study that Hochul’s administration has been withholding from the public, but then, WGRZ outright said that this was the study that it “and our partners at Investigative Post have filed Freedom of Information Law requests to see,” and they should know, right?
Clearly not, because as Paul Wolf of the New York Coalition For Open Government wrote to point out, the Buffalo News wrote another article last week that clarified the situation:
This is a new, state-commissioned analysis and not the study produced in 2019 on behalf of the Bills that largely remains hidden from public view, despite some details leaking out, officials confirmed…
“There’s a study going on by a company that’s just assessing the different options and we’re going to release the study in about two months,” Hochul told reporters at an appearance in Rochester.
Of course — how could anyone possibly get confused between a study of the costs and benefits of different Bills stadium locations and a study of different Bills stadium options? Surely Gov. Hochul did not hold a press conference to announce the pending release of a Bills stadium study, at a time when she was under fire for refusing to release a different Bills stadium study despite her stated commitment to transparency, in the hopes that it would distract people and muddy the waters. That would be dirty pool!
Anyway, apologies for the incorrect info, and rest assured that the standoff over releasing the original report continues. Now let’s all move on to discussing how much the Bills plan to charge for PSLs at their new stadium, keeping all the money for themselves despite the state being on the hook for a large share of the stadium costs, and how being forced to pay for the right to pay for tickets “really does provide an additional benefit to the fan,” according to Bills VP Ron Raccuia, because you can, like, get some food and drink vouchers with it? I have a lot of followup questions for a lot of people…