Bills Owner Spotted On $100 Million Yacht After Getting New Yorkers To Pay For His Stadium

This just in: NFL team owners are ridiculously rich.

The owner of the Buffalo Bills, Terry Pegula, takes ridiculously rich to a whole new level. Pegaula, worth nearly $8 billion, at least, was spotted on his yacht off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. Makes sense, he's a billionaire, and when billionaires run out of other things to buy, they buy yachts. 

His yacht, the "Top Five II" though, is worth an estimated $100 million. 

Good for him, right? Well yes, of course, he's entitled to spend his money on whatever he wants, he's extremely wealthy, and someone has to support the yachting industry, right? 

The issue though, as some very unhappy Bills fans and New York taxpayers pointed out on social media, is that Pegula's enjoying having your average New Yorker pay for nearly 40 percent of Highmark Stadium in Buffalo. Not the best look to show off how much disposable income you have when asking for handouts from taxpayers, is it?

Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula. Photo: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

Terry Pegula Exemplifies Problems With Modern Stadium Financing

"Love the Bills, but this stadium deal is robbery. Pegulas pay nothing while we go broke," one fan wrote on Reddit. Another added that they were furious about Pegula relaxing in Newport while they pay for his stadium.

Highmark Stadium, for context, received $600 million from the state, while local Erie County taxpayers put up another $200 million. And therein lies the problem.

What do those New Yorkers get for their "investment?" Pegula is not going to share his profits with taxpayers, because then he might not be able to afford maintenance on his yacht, or on one of his vacation mansions. Sales tax revenue won't come close to matching taxpayer funding, nor will it return anywhere close to the benefits that spending $850 million wisely could have provided.

If stadiums like Highmark were such good investments, why don't they pay for them themselves? If stadiums are such good investments for outside groups, why don't they arrange for their own private financing?

The answer is obvious: they don't have to. Fans don't want to lose their beloved team, and politicians don't want to be seen as the party responsible for a sports franchise picking up and leaving town. Owners hold all the cards; they have a rare corporation that customers have an emotional connection to. And that's what they are, corporations. 

Fans like to think of sports teams as civic institutions, like a local museum, something that belongs to Buffalo or Cleveland or Los Angeles. They're not, they're, for the most part, privately-owned corporations. Pegula reaps the benefits of fandom, while laying off virtually all the risk.

Oh, and for their "investment" taxpayers then are bestowed the gift of spending more money on ludicrous "personal seat licenses," exorbitant ticket, parking and concession prices, and poorly made merchandise. All to support the wealthiest sports league in the world, which openly despises most fans' political views. 

 It's a ridiculous scam, and it's one the NFL owners continue to get away with.

What's Pegula going to do, pay for his own stadium? Don't be absurd; then he wouldn't be able to afford to pay for a yacht featuring "designer interiors, including Louis Vuitton and Gucci," per a Fox News Digital report, as well as "a glass-sided spa pool, sauna, gym, cinema lounge and much more."

Must be nice.