It was a summer scene that might have seemed unremarkable in Newport, Rhode Island: a gleaming, 200-foot superyacht anchored off the coast, sunlight glinting off its designer decks. But when a TikTok video surfaced on August 21, 2025, showing Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula’s $100 million luxury yacht, Top Five II, relaxing in this playground of the rich, it sent shockwaves through Western New York and beyond.
The outrage wasn’t about Pegula’s taste for Hermès décor or the yacht’s glass-walled spa pool, sauna, cinema lounge, and gym. It was about what the vessel had come to symbolize: a billionaire’s extravagant lifestyle, on display for all, just as New York and Erie County taxpayers are footing an unprecedented $850 million bill to help build the Bills’ new $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium.
“The Pegulas are relaxing in Newport while we pay for the stadium? That’s a slap in the face,” fumed one Bills fan on Reddit, echoing a chorus of anger that erupted across social media. Another added, “Love the Bills, but this stadium deal is robbery. Pegulas pay nothing while we go broke.” According to Fox News, the backlash was swift and fierce, with many fans feeling betrayed by the optics of the arrangement.
The stadium deal, finalized after a hard-fought battle in the New York State Legislature, is the largest public subsidy in NFL history. New York State taxpayers are contributing $600 million, and Erie County is adding another $250 million. The construction, which is already $560 million over budget, has only intensified scrutiny. “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. But we got it done,” Governor Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native and die-hard Bills fan, said in January 2024, as reported by The Post and Fox News.
But for many New Yorkers, including those who support the Jets and Giants—teams that play across state lines in New Jersey—the prospect of subsidizing a rival’s stadium feels like adding insult to injury. The sense of injustice is compounded by Pegula’s estimated net worth, which various outlets, including Fox News and Marca, place at $7 billion, amassed largely through fracking and natural gas investments. Some sources even cite $7.6 billion.
“I bet he pays more to dock that than he does in taxes,” a fan named Craig quipped on Facebook, according to The Post. Another supporter, quoted by Fox News, pointed fingers at state legislators: “The city didn’t have to approve the deal. They did. And he also put a damn good product on the field before building a new stadium. I’m not really standing with the billionaires here, but I’m just saying, the city approved it. Not Terry.”
The yacht, Top Five II, is no ordinary vessel. Built by Hakvoort and delivered in 2021, it is available for charter at more than $500,000 per week, reports Fox News and The Post. The floating palace is named for Pegula’s five children, including tennis superstar Jessica Pegula, who at 31 has claimed seven ATP titles and reached the US Open finals in 2024. The Pegula family’s sports empire also includes the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, and the KeyBank Center—home to the Sabres—has itself relied on public money for renovations, with more taxpayer-funded improvements likely on the horizon, as noted by Marca.
Critics from across the political spectrum have labeled the Bills stadium deal “corporate welfare.” They argue that the hundreds of millions in public funds could be better spent on education, infrastructure, or social services. Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes, told Marca, “These deals never pay off for cities. They’re wealth transfers dressed up as civic pride.” A 2023 Brookings report cited by Marca supports this view, finding that stadium subsidies rarely deliver long-term economic benefits.
Yet supporters of the deal insist it was the only way to secure the Bills’ long-term future in Buffalo. “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 The Post. The spokesperson emphasized that taxes generated from the team “will support more than 100 percent of the public share of the new stadium.” They also noted that the Bills are responsible for all cost overruns, ensuring no additional burden on taxpayers.
Still, the optics are hard to ignore. As the stadium project’s price tag climbs and the public share remains enormous, the sight of Pegula’s yacht in Newport has become a rallying point for critics. The deal’s opponents argue that the arrangement is particularly galling for New Yorkers who aren’t even Bills fans, especially as their tax dollars are directed toward a facility for a team they don’t support. “Many of the NFL fans in the state are Jets and Giants fans, whose stadium is in New Jersey, yet New York taxpayers are funding the Bills’ stadium,” observed Outkick.
The controversy has also reignited debate about the role of public funding in professional sports. While stadiums are often pitched as economic engines, studies and real-world results have repeatedly shown that the promised returns rarely materialize. Instead, taxpayers are left holding the bag while team owners enjoy the spoils of lucrative franchises and, in this case, luxury yachts.
Meanwhile, with the KeyBank Center nearing 30 years old, talk of further renovations—and possibly more taxpayer dollars—looms on the horizon. The cycle, critics say, is all too familiar: public money for private profit, justified by civic pride and the threat of relocation.
For now, the Bills’ new Highmark Stadium is set to anchor the team in Buffalo for decades to come, and Pegula’s yacht continues to float as a symbol of the simmering tensions between billionaires and the public who help bankroll their ventures. As the debate rages on, one thing is clear: in Buffalo and beyond, the question of who pays—and who benefits—remains as contentious as ever.
