Buffalo Bills owner’s $100M yacht sparks outrage as taxpayers fund $850M stadium: ‘Slap in the face’

By: Ariel Z.

The billionaire owner of the Buffalo Bills has sparked fresh outrage over his yacht – as New York state taxpayers remain partially on the hook for his new $2.1 billion stadium.

Terry Pegula, who once threatened to move the Bills out of western New York if taxpayers refused to shoulder part of the cost to build a new venue, is also the owner of a $100 million superyacht named “Top Five II.”

Bills fans erupted after a fan recently posted TikTok footage of Pegula’s boat anchored in Newport, RI. The clip triggered a firestorm over the billionaire’s lifestyle while New York and Erie County taxpayers bankroll one of the largest public subsidies in NFL history.

“The Pegulas are relaxing in Newport while we pay for the stadium? That’s a slap in the face,” one Bills Mafia member fumed online.

Pegula’s 200-foot superyacht is a custom-built Hakvoort delivered in 2021 and valued at between $75 million and $100 million.

The vessel sleeps 12 guests in six suites and carries 18 crew, with lavish interiors featuring designer touches from Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

Amenities include a glass-sided spa pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, cinema lounge, gym and expansive owner’s deck with private dining, bar, and entertainment areas.

The yacht is also reportedly available for charter at more than $500,000 per week.

His floating palace is reportedly named for his five children: two from a previous marriage and three with current wife Kim. Their daughter Jessica Pegula, 31, is a tennis superstar with seven ATP titles who reached last year’s US Open finals.

“I bet he pays more to dock that than he does in taxes,” a Bills fan who identified himself as Craig wrote on Facebook. He added: “Love the Bills, but I’m not gonna worship the Pegulas who pay nothing in taxes on money they made hydro fracking.”

Another enraged supporter ripped the arrangement on Reddit: “Love the Bills, but this stadium deal is robbery. Pegulas pay nothing while we go broke.”

New York taxpayers are shelling out $600 million despite many being Giants and Jets fans. Those teams play across state lines at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, leaving Empire State residents funding a rival franchise.

Erie County is kicking in another $250 million, bringing total public funding to $850 million – the most taxpayer money ever committed to an NFL facility.

Critics have torched the arrangement as “corporate welfare” and one of the worst stadium deals in sports history while economists argue the massive subsidy should fund education, infrastructure or social services instead of padding a billionaire’s bottom line.

Pegula, the 74-year-old Penn State alum, who boasts a reported net worth of $7 billion that is derived largely from fracking and natural gas investments, is relying on public funding for the New Highmark Stadium.

Meanwhile, the stadium deal has Bills fans seeing red as costs spiral out of control. The project is already $560 million over the original estimate, yet Pegula insisted on luxury features like a “heated roof” while refusing to build a dome that could host Super Bowls.

“While we think it was easy here in Western New York, getting it through the New York State Legislature, which has a lot of people from parts of the state that are not Buffalo, it was hard,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, said in January 2024.

“But we got it done.”

The Pegula family also owns the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, giving them two teams benefiting from public largesse while maintaining their extravagant lifestyle.

The Sabres have long relied on taxpayer support, starting with the construction of KeyBank Center in the 1990s, when public funds covered about $55 million, or 45% of the total cost.

The team’s HarborCenter project later received roughly $57 million in state and local tax breaks, making it one of Buffalo’s most heavily subsidized downtown developments.

With the arena now nearly 30 years old, state and local leaders have already signaled that major renovations or even a new facility could once again require significant public investment.

“While the Buffalo Bills were being aggressively recruited by other states, Governor Hochul was able to secure their long term future in Western New York for the next thirty years while creating jobs for thousands of union workers,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office told.

Hochul’s rep added that the Bills are “a proven economic driver for New York State, and the taxes generated from the team will support more than 100 percent of the public share of the new stadium.”

“The Governor drew a hardline in negotiations that required the Bills to be responsible for all cost overruns, and any increase in the overall cost comes at absolutely no expense to New York taxpayers,” the spokesperson for the governor said.