Dale Volker..

[WNYresident]

THey had him on phone on one of the news stations tonite. Stated how much money the play offs mean to buffalo. AND with out budget issues we should be happy.

I easily see some revenue but has anyone ever really figured out what it means in real revenue?

How many seats are in the aud and if they sell out completey how much in taxes does that produce? AND if you too the seat count and figure on average each spent 10 bucks in snacks how much did that earn in taxes. etc..and so on. I'm just curious what the economic impact is in return.

Same for the Buffalo Bills. 80,000 seats sold 8 times a year generates how much in acutual taxes. If each seat generated $15 bucks in taxes that would be 1,200,000 million a game?

[woodstock]

Cashing In On Playoffs

Posted by: Lynne Dixon, Reporter
Created: 4/23/2006 10:34:06 PM

Vendors, retailers, parking lots, restaurants, and government all stand to cash in on the Buffalo Sabres success.

"We didn't have hockey last year," said hot dog vendor Lindsay Evans, cooking up some dogs outside the HSBC Arena before the Bandits playoff game. "We didn't have any business at all, really. This year it's amazing, a lot more shifts, we're making a lot more money."

Peanuts vendor Larry Owens has also noticed a boost in business. He said having your sports team in the playoffs also puts people in a good mood.

Tim Gallo of Buffalo works in sports retail. "It definitely impacts the economy." He went on to say that a local team in the playoffs impacts all of Western New York. "People go to the malls, places to eat, not only downtown, but the whole area."

The head of U-B's Marketing Department, Arun Jain, says the fallout is good for both the state and local economies. He says with the average ticket price about one-hundred dollars, that translates into about 1.9 million dollars in ticket sales. "Everybody else making products affiliated with the Sabres, they're making money. So a winning team means a lot," he said.

Jain says with the county sales tax at 4.75%, he estimates Erie County makes about $135-thousand dollars for each playoff game. Optimistically speaking, for nine home playoff games, that's $1.2 million dollars for Erie County. Now, consider this: State Senator Dale Volker told Two-On-Your-Side back in February that how well the Sabres did could affect county property taxes for next year. According to Volker, when Erie County estimated how much sales tax money it would earn this year, it based that number off last year's total. But last year there was no hockey season. Senator Volker said the county could make an extra 10 million dollars.
"I would say this is a stretch," said Arun Jain of the ten-million dollar estimate. But just the same, the state is collecting sales tax revenue. In addition, he said, there's more income tax collected. "It's good money for the state, for the county, good for everybody else."

http://www.wgrz-tv.com/printfullstory.aspx?storyid=37336



As a side note: rez gave me permission to post facts only. any questions, comments or concerns should be taken up with him. thank you.