The former home of the Buffalo Bills has taken a major step toward becoming a thing of the past.
But it will not go out with a bang.
An excavator is parked outside Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park. With power shut off to the venue as Friday, the start of the mass demolition of the Bills' home of 53 years has officially started.
Power was officially turned off to Highmark Stadium Friday. It is considered the start of the stadium’s mass demolition and is a significant milestone for the project as the new stadium nears completion.
While the actual demolition isn’t scheduled to be done until next spring, work to ready the site to decommission the stadium is already occurring.
An increase in heavy construction machinery activity and noise and dust is expected at the current stadium site on Abbott Road, across from where the new Highmark Stadium is being built and will open for the 2026 season.
The final stretch: The journey to a new Buffalo Bills stadium
Explosives and implosions that have marked the end of other historic stadiums nationwide will not be used by the Bills, the team said.
The demolition will be mechanical, and the stadium will come down piece by piece. Crews will use heavy equipment such as bulldozers, excavators and wrecking balls.
The Bills plan to keep their old administration building, behind the current stadium, and will be using parking lots next to and around the current stadium during the 2026 season as the excavation process occurs.
“Demolition is underway, and as part of the process, power was disconnected at the former stadium, as scheduled, on May 1," the Bills confirmed in a statement. "The project is slated for completion by March of 2027."
The beginning of the end of the stadium started in February, when Brandon Steiner’s CollectibleXchange began taking down signs and goal posts, and then ripping up seats and benches from the concrete. The turf and other items around the stadium followed. The items were put up for sale to fans wanting a piece of the stadium where the Buffalo Bills played for 53 years.
Steiner's company was retained by the Bills and Erie County to salvage any stadium elements with resale value. They will split the proceeds with the county, which is expected to take in more than $1 million.
CollectibleXchange was expected to be done harvesting stadium items in April, likely setting the stage for some of the more significant work to take apart the stadium to begin this month.
Workers are seen on March 31 as they prepare Highmark Stadium for demolition, which will be mechanical as opposed to being imploded.
The current stadium hosted its final game Jan. 4. Its footprint is a little over 900,000 square feet, and it is about 830 feet wide and 930 feet long. It seats around 70,000 fans, and the multi-level bowl rises about 140 feet above grade.
The project includes decommissioning of the current stadium, demolition, abatement, and disconnecting and removing existing utilities so the site can be filled to grade. It will likely be turned into a parking lot, although the Bills have talked about the potential for other uses.
Much of the fill will come from the dirt and soil lifted to create the hole for the new stadium. That is being stored next door to the SUNY Erie Community College campus on Southwestern Boulevard.
Harvesting collectibles from Bills stadium marks start to demo phase
Arc Building Partners is the project lead for demolition. Breeze National of Long Island is expected to be a major player in the effort to deconstruct the stadium through the demolition and asbestos abatement process. The downstate company led the demolition of Shea Stadium in Queens in 2009.
The latest NFL stadium being demolished is RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., as the Commanders prepare to start building a new stadium, expected to be open for the 2030 season.
It is also being taken down piece by piece, rather than a quickfire implosion. The removal of the stadium’s structural steel has been completed, and the demolition of the remaining concrete structure and sorting of metal and concrete is nearly done over a year after the project started.
Breeze National excavation equipment is set up at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (Joed Viera/Buffalo News)
The Georgia Dome in Atlanta was one of the latest NFL stadiums to be imploded in 2017 to make way for Mercedes Benz Stadium – the home of the Falcons. A few years earlier, Candlestick Park in San Francisco was taken down piece by piece over multiple months after a plan to implode the stadium was scrapped amid concerns the blast might create health problems for people living nearby.
Originally part of the planned demolition in Orchard Park, the Bills had a change of heart about its old administration building, which was constructed with the current stadium in 1973 to house the team’s football and administrative offices.
Bills want to hold onto their old admin building when stadium is demolished
Although close to the stadium, it is structurally independent from it. The old administration building is at the east end zone of the current stadium toward Big Tree Road and across from the field house.
Much of the team’s staff and operations were moved to the newer administrative building attached to the field house, which was built in 1995 and went through major renovations more than a decade ago. But the older administration building continued to be used daily.
It now serves as office space for about 25 staff members and as a hub for staff check-ins, game production, IT infrastructure and event command operations. The first floor was used on game days for food and beverage operations, but that will move over to the new stadium.
