A rendering of the soccer stadium planned for a site in Buffalo. Developers hope to break ground this summer.

Last week, a group planning to bring professional soccer to Buffalo said it would build a 7,600-seat stadium. Construction is set to begin this summer.

The unexpected announcement from Buffalo Pro Soccer contained two additional surprises. First, the stadium would not be built in downtown Buffalo, as previously hoped. Instead, it will be located in an industrial area in the city’s Valley neighborhood, about three miles southwest of the city center.

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Second, the stadium would be privately financed, as in no taxpayer subsidies. Whoa!

That makes it dramatically different from the Buffalo Bills stadium under construction in suburban Orchard Park, which is receiving more than a billion dollars in help from Erie County and the state, including a $600 million direct payment from New York taxpayers. Gov. Kathy Hochul is responsible for that giveaway, of course.

Private financing alone also makes the project dissimilar from what’s been discussed in Albany, where a soccer stadium proposed for the city’s Parking Lot District near MVP Arena would require, according to its backers, a $150 million state subsidy.

Granted,........

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