Chiefs have option to buy, too
The Chiefs' scoreboard will be upgraded as part of the lease approved by the Onondaga Co. Legislature
A local law approved by the Onondaga County Legislature on Tuesday afternoon changes the management at Alliance Bank Stadium.
The Syracuse Chiefs organization will now lease the stadium from the county for $140-thousand dollars a year. The agreement will run eleven years, and includes an option for the baseball club to buy the stadium outright, within two years, for $3.05 million.
Supporters of the plan, worked out over the past three months between the Onondaga County Executive and the Chiefs, say it will get the county out of the stadium business, saving over a million dollars a year in operating costs. Opponents, including legislator Casey Jordan, Republican from Clay, are concerned about the costs. "We shouldn't be in the business of maintaining a baseball stadium," says Jordan. 'But by the same token, the taxpayers had to foot the bill for building the stadium and I think that they should receive the most compensation they can, or at least fair compensation."
John Simone, the Chiefs' General Manager, says being in charge of the stadium operation will allow for lots of upgrades to the stadium. He was at a meeting on the scoreboard before the legislature meeting, and hopes a new one will be in place by the time the season opens, the first week in April. A new concession company was in the stadium on Tuesday, starting work on those upgrades. Simone says there will also be changes to seating and other improvements. The 'Alliance Bank' name is locked in for the next ten years and will not change.
As for the option for the Chiefs to buy the stadium, which cost $28-million to construct ($4 million from the Chiefs, $1mil from the Blue Jays, $16million from the state of NY, $4mil from Urban Development, and $3 million from Onondaga County)--Legislator Jordan says "It would seem to me that the Chiefs are going to jump at the opportunity and buy a stadium with thousands of seats for 3-million dollars? It's a phenomenal deal for them." Simone told us they'll study it, and even though the contract gives them two years to consider, he expects a decision within a year.
