Over the last few days there were rumors around Syracuse media that the Onondaga County Executive had discussed with and received backing from Cuomo to work to receive ~$200M toward a ~$500M possibly retractable-roof stadium for a parcel in downtown Syracuse. Talk of SU looking to re-hab or replace the Dome happen all the time, but they just had a new leader step in this week and he talked up the issue a lot. They say it would be a mix of state, county, SU, and private developer funds.
The problem was, Syracuse's Mayor, the owners of the land (SUNY Upstate Med), and others, were not in on these dealings and wanted more answers. The backers wanted to rush to get this through for the next Legislative session but have backed off as quickly as the story arose. Now the Mayor is being blamed by backers and lauded by others. She was on Capital Tonight on YNN last night and the commentator just could not believe it: Albany invests in Nano, Buffalo invests in Downtown/Waterfront/Biotech, and Syracuse's leaders think a stadium is their top economic shot in the arm?
There are new stories out all the time and they can be reviewed
here. What's funny is hardly anyone outside Syracuse media had time to pick up on this. I would implore others to let media, state legislators, and SUNY Centers know of this.
It's a slippery slope to claim the Syracuse area needs and can benefit from this, while a private school would see greater benefits than any other entity. Obviously no other state would give such a gift whereby a private school would be
primary tenant at a publicly-funded facility. Baylor only received some local funds for land and road improvements, not for their new stadium. TCU's huge renovations were privately raised. RIT used private funds for their ice arena construction. Meanwhile the state appropriation process dragged its feet on Albany's stadium, froze Stony Brook's BB arena reno for years, hasn't funded Buff State's stadium proposal, and our Fieldhouse/stadium projects are going at the privately-funded snail's pace, too. And I'm sure RIT, Niagara, Canisius, Fordham, etc, would also feel slighted if only 1 private school were to benefit athletically from state aid.
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