The owners of the Buffalo Bills have submitted plans for a $1.4 billion, 60,000-seat stadium in Orchard Park to representatives of the state and Erie County, a source directly familiar with the negotiations told The Buffalo News.
The proposed stadium could have about 12,000 fewer seats than the existing Highmark Stadium and would be completed by 2027 at the latest, the source said, confirming details initially reported Tuesday afternoon by the Associated Press.
"Just do it," said Larry Quinn to whether New York State and Erie County should help the Pegulas construct the $1.4 billion stadium project they are seeking.
Pegula Sports and Entertainment is negotiating the question of how much public money would be spent on the new stadium with state and county officials. Most, though not all, new NFL stadiums have been built with a portion of the costs covered by public financing.
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The team is seeking public financing to cover the "vast majority" of the stadium costs, the source said, without providing specifics. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo area native, has expressed her strong support for keeping the team in Western New York.
"Truly, this will have to be a partnership – as it usually is – between the state, us and our community," co-owner Kim Pegula said on a recent episode of the Navigating Business of Sports podcast. "How that evolves is yet to be seen."
Highmark Stadium opened in 1973 and is the fourth-oldest stadium in use today, but the three older venues have undergone major renovations.
Talks have ramped up in recent months because the team's lease at Highmark Stadium expires in 2023. PSE has said it will not negotiate an extension until an agreement is reached on a new stadium but, once that happens, it will work out a deal allowing the team to play at Highmark while construction proceeds on the replacement venue.
Representatives of the Bills, the state and the county, including outside counsel and a consultant retained by the state, met at the stadium on Aug. 23 for in-person talks, a session first reported by the Athletic.
"This will be the biggest, most impactful thing that has happened in Western New York in a really long time and it's going to take a lot of hands on deck," Kim Pegula said on the podcast. "We are running out of time. A lot of this stuff will start snowballing really quickly this year."
The Buffalo News has previously reported on the $1.4 billion price tag for a new stadium, PSE's preference for an Orchard Park site and the organization's expectation that the team's owners and county and state government share the cost.
The proposal submitted to state and county officials calls for a stadium with no roof but with design features that protect the majority of seats from the elements, the source said. Some fans have clamored for a roof to make attending games in December and January more comfortable, but building a domed stadium or one with a retractable roof would raise the cost.
Bills and PSE officials insist that a growing list of issues and problems at Highmark Stadium can only be solved by building a new stadium.
PSE has determined that the potential $1 billion cost to renovate the existing stadium renders that idea impractical. Owners Terry and Kim Pegula have invested $146 million into stadium renovations since buying the Bills in 2014, a figure that doesn't count public investment in ongoing renovations.
Further, the source said, building the new stadium in Orchard Park near the existing stadium is far more cost-effective than building downtown, where infrastructure requirements such as rerouting roads would push the price significantly higher.
The team had considered building a larger stadium at a cost closer to $1.6 billion, but instead opted for the roughly 60,000-seat proposal, the source said, though that figure could end up as high as 62,000 seats. The venue also would have 60 suites.
The costs to build in New York generally are higher than in other parts of the country, the source said, citing prevailing-wage and union-workforce requirements, among other rules.
Given that owners Terry and Kim Pegula would want to maximize revenue from any new stadium, it's not clear what the smaller capacity will mean for fans and the prices they'll pay to attend a game at whatever replaces Highmark.
The source familiar with negotiations said newly built professional sport stadiums have had smaller capacities in recent years, in part because the TV viewing experience at home has gotten so appealing. The Bills in 2019 averaged 68,839 fans per regular season home game, or 95.8% of capacity, ESPN reported.
The Pegulas have paid for this stadium proposal, along with earlier feasibility studies and economic analyses presented to state and county negotiators, though none has been made public.
