This article on the continued building of sports venues in a time of high inflation contains this great bit on public versus private funding of construction:

There are differences to take into account when developing in large markets, versus smaller ones. While the development around Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and what the Bears envision at Arlington Heights will bring in additional revenue, Buffalo’s small population base and drawing power for visitors played a major factor in the Bills’ projections and a larger reliance on public funding.

“It’s not apples to apples. It’s a completely different metric,” said Zolke, who also worked with Rams owner Stan Kroenke on the SoFi development following the team’s move from St. Louis.

“It made no sense for (Kroenke) to privately fund a project in St. Louis,” he said. “It made 100% sense to say, ‘I’ll fund this thing (in L.A.), just give me some infrastructure.’”

Chron.com

So the rich, well populated, economically growing places don’t need to finance stadiums, while cities like Buffalo need to pour their tax dollars into new venues. Buffalo is a shrinking city, however, and it’s not shrinking due to lack of a new football stadium. If it’s not worth private investment in a new stadium, it’s not worth public investment in a new stadium. It may be time to pull up stakes in places like Buffalo.