On Tuesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was surrounded by press as he pulled envelopes out of large, metal turner. He opened each sealed paper with a letter opener before dramatically announcing the contents.
“The first organization that will be attending the Sunday, September 27 game against the Los Angeles Chargers is the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association,” Poloncarz said as he read the first winner. “Wow, I don't know if I saw that one coming.”
The lottery was part of Erie County’s new deal with the Buffalo Bills that handed ownership of Highmark Stadium to the state and operations to the newly created Erie County Stadium Corporation.
The Bills will reimburse the county for security, transportation and other services like any other vendor, Poloncarz said.
As part of the Bills’ 30-year lease, Erie County receives a hospitality suite in the stadium.
“Too many people are like, ‘Oh, it's just going to get used by the elected officials,’” said Poloncarz. “So we set up a policy that ensures that it was open process, that it could be used for economic development purposes.”
Three economic development organizations, the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, Empire State Development and Visit Buffalo were also given use of the suite as part of the lottery.
That left suite tickets to five home games to be dispersed to non-profits as part of the lottery. There were 16 tickets per game, with the suite to be split between two nonprofits each with eight tickets.
“We wanted other organizations that might not otherwise have an opportunity to go to a football game or take people to a football game benefit from the suite as well,” said Poloncarz.
Recipient organizations are free to do what they wish with the tickets, said Poloncarz. Some non-profits have already expressed interest in raffling off tickets in order to raise money.
The application to be part of the lottery opened in June, with the online form closing on July 27. There were 254 submissions, but only 180 local 501c3 organizations qualified. Poloncarz said most of the disqualifications came from applicants not being the correct type of nonprofit or not providing the required five years worth of tax documents.
When asked whether the county will conduct a lottery again next year, Poloncarz said the county was still refining the process and may decide on a better option for giving out suite tickets next year.
The results of the lottery are as follows:
Thursday, September 17 - vs. Detroit Lions - Erie County Industrial Development Agency
Sunday, September 27 - vs. Los Angles Charges - Western New York Public Broadcasting Association and Specialized Early Childhood Center of Western New York
Sunday, October 4 - vs. New England Patriots - Mental Health Association of Erie County and Girl Scouts of Western New York
Sunday, November 1 - vs. Baltimore Ravens - Boys and Girls Club of Orchard Park and The Big Easy Buffalo Inc.
Sunday, November 22 - vs. Miami Dolphins - Empire State Development
Thursday, November 26 - vs. Kansas City Chiefs - Baker Hall Inc. and Gateway Longview Inc.
Saturday, December 19 - vs. Chicago Bears - Visit Buffalo
Saturday or Sunday, January 9 or 10 - vs. New York Jets - Buffalo Architecture Inc. and Habitat for Humanity Buffalo
BTPM News is a division of Western New York Public Broadcasting and had no influence over the drawing.