For more than three hours on Dec. 17, the state's center of political gravity was 295 miles west of Albany in Orchard Park. Within the comfort of a luxury suite at Highmark Stadium, Gov.
Kathy Hochul sported a "BUF" baseball cap and a jacket embroidered with the state seal. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, another of the three most powerful figures in state government, wore a Dak Prescott No. 4 jersey and Dallas Cowboys winter hat.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the Buffalo Democrat, donned a Buffalo Bills winter hat and a Bills scarf draped over her Dion Dawkins No. 73 jersey. Joined by Heastie's girlfriend and college roommate, both registered lobbyists, Amherst Supervisor Brian J.
Kulpa, a legislative staffer and others, they dined on pizza, wings, beef on weck and other finger foods inside Suite 140A, the stadium's I Love NY hospitality suite since the 2013 season. They watched and cheered as the Bills crushed the Cowboys, 31-10. But just like a football game, the suite has drawn the attention of Monday morning quarterbacks.
As the Bills prepare to host their first game of the 2024 regular season Sunday, the hospitality suite is the subject of ethical concerns and questions over whether it has fulfilled its mission of promoting economic development. Earlier this year, the state's former state lobbying regulator filed a complaint with New York's ethics commission, which is now investigating. "The use of state resources for this kind of perk, I think, has to be really carefully examined," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York.
Boost to business The 16-seat I Love NY suite was part of the December 2012 lease agreement meant to keep the Bills in Orchard Park for the next 10 years. The state, county and team agreed to split the $130 million cost of stadium upgrades, with the state and county paying millions of dollars more toward annual maintenance and other expenses. In return, among other deal provisions, the Bills set aside a hospitality suite for the state.
"It's just one more tool in our toolkit to be able to connect businesses," Hochul told The Buffalo News when questioned during a recent appearance at the New York State Fair. "Many states have these opportunities and I want to make sure that we're competing at the highest levels to try to attract the best businesses here in the State of New York." Critics question how much benefit taxpayers receive from a suite used largely for networking and hobnobbing and say the dollar value set for the cost of suite tickets is too low.
Under the agreement language, state officials couldn't use the I Love NY suite unless it was for a list of preapproved reasons that included "charitable or public functions" and "encouraging and fostering economic development, tourism and public awareness for the City of Buffalo, Erie County and the State of New York." However, some Albany lawmakers questioned why the state needed access to a luxury box. Within months, Empire State Development had tasked Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, now known as Invest Buffalo Niagara, with managing the suite and setting the guest list.
Buffalo Niagara Enterprise struggled to fill the box this first year, the only season for which it oversaw suite use. Tom Kucharski, the group's president and CEO, emphasized in 2014 that the suite was not meant for politicians and elected officials. "We don't want that in the box," Kucharski said then.
Suite use shifts Use of the box has changed over the past dozen years, as seen in reports filed annually by Empire State Development. The documents reveal which organization distributed tickets for each game, who attended and the affiliation of each guest. This transparency, though, complicated attempts to employ the box, according to people familiar with its use.
Sam Hoyt, a former Empire State Development regional president, said companies that were considering moving to Buffalo didn't want this interest publicized before a deal was struck. "That became a nonstarter," Hoyt said. "And, you know, it really kind of put an end to the purpose that was originally put in place for this suite.
" Instead, use of the box shifted to nonprofits and companies already located in Buffalo, he and others said. The movie and film industry relies heavily on networking, so being able to use the ESD suite at the stadium has become an important tool for the Buffalo Niagara Film Office, said Tim Clark, its commissioner. Clark said the stadium is also one of the rare NFL venues that allows movies and commercials to be shot inside, so it has become another asset in selling Buffalo as a place to come.
There have been several shoots in recent years at the stadium, such as the Universal Pictures movie "Best Man Holiday," which rented the stadium for several days to shoot some scenes for the movie released in 2013. "I think we blow people away when they get here," said Clark, now in talks with a production company looking to shoot a sports movie in Buffalo. Rebecca Brady, founder of Top Seedz, has stayed and expanded in Buffalo after winning the 2021 43North competition – just recently opening a downtown facility.
That's not because she was able to experience a Bills game in the suite but because she thought the city had the assets needed for her business to thrive. Her experience at January's divisional playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs was just a small part of that, but one Brady said she will always remember. It was the native New Zealander's first game at the stadium.
"I absolutely loved the game and atmosphere," Brady said. "It's such a big part of being in Buffalo." The University at Buffalo invited several entrepreneurs who have participated in its startup programs, like Cultivator, and founded startup companies in Western New York, to the suite in December.
"These programs are successful in large part because they provide venues and opportunities – like the get-together at the Bills suite – for businesspeople to connect with and learn from one another," UB spokesperson David Hill said in a statement. Ticket values doubted Attendees who aren't connected to the state get their suite tickets for free. But state employees or elected officials, and their guests, are required to make a charitable donation equal to the "value" of the ticket.
Kathy and Bill Hochul, for example, each donated the $184 ticket value to the FeedMore WNY Foundation for their seats at the Sept. 17 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. However, critics question how precisely these ticket values are calculated.
A Bills spokesperson declined to provide the cost to purchase a suite for the 2023 season. Suite Experience Group, which lets fans purchase luxury suites for individual games or concerts, reports Bills suites cost between $9,000 and $30,000 per game, depending on opponent, location and amenities. Even at the low end, for a suite that holds 24 people, that's still $375 per person.
Politicos defend use The Dec. 17 Bills-Cowboys game drew the season's highest-profile guests to the box. The state reported the Amherst Chamber of Commerce hosted the suite.
President and CEO AJ Baynes said the organization had access to six tickets. Baynes said he knew Heastie and Peoples-Stokes would attend the game and the governor might join them as well. He said he tried to invite people who would be able to discuss some of the Chamber's and the town's development priorities.
Days earlier, the governor had announced Amherst would receive $31 million for sewer upgrades needed to advance the Boulevard Mall overhaul. "We continue to advocate for funding for the Boulevard Mall," said Earl Wells III, a Chamber official and public relations executive who attended. "It's a key priority for us.
" Sports tourism also is an area of focus for Amherst, after a study showed it could boost the town's economy, said Kulpa, another attendee that day. "We talked about the need for indoor sports," he said, and the private sector's role in building a multisport fieldhouse. The high-ranking state officials who attended the Bills-Cowboys game defended their use of the box and claimed it does help promote economic development.
"So we have this opportunity in a different setting to invite businesses, let them know how important they are to us, whether they're local business," Hochul said, "or as a great recruitment tool." Hochul said Micron and members of the company's supply chain, who might not otherwise engage with one another, met in the suite. "Yes, we watched the football game," Heastie told The News.
"But we also talked about a lot of the local businesses who are in around the stadium and those who, I guess, are looking to be a part of the new Bills stadium. So we did talk about a lot of economic development stuff." Ethics complaint filed But the presence of so many elected officials, and lobbyists, raised ethical questions.
David Grandeau, an Albany-area lawyer and Green Bay Packers fan who spent a dozen years leading the since-disbanded Temporary State Commission on Lobbying, filed a complaint over the suite's use with the state's Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. New York Focus first reported the existence of the complaint and that COELIG had subpoenaed Empire State Development. "I love a good football game as much as anybody else," Grandeau said in an interview.
"But it is just flat-out wrong for someone like Carl or the governor to take it for free. And then don't start with the, 'Well, we made a charitable donation.' Um, no.
You got a tax deduction for the charitable donation you made and you should be paying full price for your tickets, not some made-up fantasy price." Emily DeSantis, a COELIG spokesperson, said in an email that she couldn't comment on the existence or progress of any investigation. Hochul attended three regular season games and one playoff game in the suite last season.
The prior season, she used the box for one playoff game. Richard Azzopardi, a longtime aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said he doesn't believe Cuomo ever watched a Bills game from the state suite.
"The one thing this wasn't supposed to be was a clubhouse for the political elites," Azzopardi said in an email. Heastie attended the game with Rebecca Lamorte, who was identified in the state report as "self-employed." New York Focus was first to report Lamorte was a registered lobbyist, and Heastie's girlfriend, as well as that another box user, lobbyist Patrick Jenkins, was Heastie's college roommate.
The Assembly speaker, questioned by The News during a visit to the State Fair in Syracuse, rejected any ethical questions. "I think people are making a much ado about nothing," Heastie said, adding, "No one got in there for free. We all donated to a charity for the price that it would be.
So, no, I don't think there's any conflict." Peoples-Stokes, the Assembly majority leader, bristled at criticism of her attendance at the game, saying there are more important things in the world to worry about. "What good government people say, they can mind their business as far as I'm concerned," she said in an interview.
"I'm going to support the Bills at all opportunities. But I'm not going to go back in that suite. It's not even worth the hassle.
" One of those people, Reinvent Albany executive director John Kaehny, said it would be a better deal for taxpayers to either sell the box or give fans the opportunity to win suite tickets through a lottery. "I utterly, completely doubt that the political culture of Albany or the governor's office or ESD has the ability to deal with the unending potential for conflict of interest that this box creates, and it just should not exist," Kaehny said. At the new Bills stadium, set to open in 2026, Erie County – and not New York State – will have control of a luxury box.
Asked whether county officials will have access to suite tickets, spokesperson Peter Anderson said the county hasn't yet crafted the rules for the box. "Specifics for the usage of the suite are still being formed but will compare to best practices from other communities utilizing such suites to attract business," Anderson said in an email. "Only a handful of cities can employ a business recruitment asset such as this and Erie County plans to do so aggressively.
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