The next Bills' home will be called New Highmark Stadium, team announces

“We’re thrilled to announce that the new stadium will be called Highmark Stadium,” said Ron Raccuia, the Bills’ executive vice president and chief operating officer, during an interview with The Buffalo News.

Raccuia echoed an announcement that was made Monday morning when team officials were joined by dignitaries including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz for a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site of the new stadium, which will be located across the street from the current Highmark Stadium.

The health care company, whose local health plan is formally called Highmark BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, has held the naming rights to the current Bills stadium since 2021. Their deal gave Highmark the right to first negotiations for the future stadium. Those talks happened in recent months and wrapped quickly.

Raccuia called it a “long-term deal,” but declined to reveal the specific terms.

“Highmark is proud to retain the naming rights to the ‘New Highmark Stadium,’ ” said Dr. Michael Edbauer, president of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, in a statement to The News. “Our deepened partnership with the Bills has proven to be much more than a name on the stadium and has amplified each organization’s community impact. We see great value in continuing our collaborative efforts in the community and ensuring the new stadium will be a center for engagement and health improvement.”

The Bills-Highmark arrangement has extended beyond the stadium name and into marketing and community partnerships. For example, a component of Highmark’s current deal is its Community Hero Program. At each game, a local nonprofit is recognized and receives tickets and a $2,500 donation.

The Bills and Highmark have hosted health-focused events on non-game days – Saturday’s CPR training featuring Bills safety Damar Hamlin, his Chasing M’s Foundation and the American Heart Association is a recent example – and have come together for six-figure donations. The Buffalo Bills Foundation, the NFL Foundation and Highmark each donated $100,000 to relief efforts after the December blizzard.

After the May 14 racist mass shooting last year on the Buffalo's East Side, the Bills and Highmark donated a combined $500,000 to the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund. Staff from both organizations partnered to volunteer and gather donations, including two cars full of groceries delivered the morning after the shooting to the Buffalo Community Fridge and FeedMore WNY.

“We’re both such high-profile corporate citizens that it’s natural for us to be leaders when these things arise,” said Raccuia, adding that the Bills work similarly with other sponsors. “Like any situation, you always reach out to the people you’re closest to in order to help.”

The Bills’ lease agreement with Erie County and New York State gives the team full ability to sell the naming rights to the stadium. It is a lucrative proposition for the Bills and an expensive investment for the buyer. New Era Cap, which held the naming rights from 2016 to 2020, when the Bills allowed the company to exit the deal early, is believed to have committed to about $4 million annually.

The value of Highmark’s contract for the current stadium is unknown, but SportsBusiness Journal reported in 2021 that industry sources said the Bills were seeking $6 million annually.

As the Bills have built a winning team and gained more national television coverage, the visibility of the stadium name has increased. During the Super Bowl festivities this February in Phoenix, Raccuia was joined by Scott Shepherd, a senior vice president with Legends, the consulting firm working with the Bills to develop the new stadium, and Dan Misko, a senior vice president with Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the company that oversees owner Terry and Kim Pegula’s holdings.

Together, the trio pitched Highmark executives on the idea of retaining naming rights for the new stadium. Among their selling points:

• The Bills have 10 million-plus fans in the United States, according to data collected by the market research firm YouGov.

• NFL data shows that the Bills app leads the league in user engagement. The Dallas Cowboys were the No. 2 team, and for much of the 2022 season, the Bills’ engagement rate doubled that of the Cowboys.

• The Bills are No. 2 in the NFL in social-media engagement.

More recently, when the NFL schedule was released, Bills and Legends officials also pointed out that 11 of the team’s 16 regular-season games are high-profile TV events: That includes six prime-time games (the maximum any team can play), four nationally broadcast games airing at 4:25 p.m., and one game in London.

Bills officials have spoken about the challenges of operating in the NFL’s second-smallest market. (Only Green Bay is smaller than Buffalo.) Because the corporate base is smaller, the team sells fewer national sponsorships, sells less luxury seating and charges less money. The same is true for the fan base: The Bills can sell out almost every game, but charge less.

During lease negotiations with the state and county for the new stadium, those talking points were stated clearly and consistently. When the 30-year deal was finalized, Buffalo’s small market size was cited as a driving factor behind why the state and county committed $850 million to the now-$1.54 billion project.

Those factors remain true. But in pitching the Bills brand at the Super Bowl, which Raccuia and colleagues did in meetings with multiple potential national sponsors, they’re adjusting the label.

“It’s a great story of us no longer being a small-market team,” Raccuia said. “We are a national team that just happens to be in a smaller market.”

Highmark, in turn, has seen its brand awareness “increase significantly in Western New York since we began the Bills partnership, and we’ve experienced a lift across all our markets in the same time period,” Cindy Donohoe, Highmark Health’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said in an email to The News. “This partnership has also helped expand and amplify our already robust community outreach and engagement efforts, helping us continue to affect positive change in our communities and in turn, strengthen our brand.”

The Bills’ current stadium has had five names in its lifespan: When it opened in 1973, it was called Rich Stadium, after the Buffalo-based food manufacturer Rich Products Corp., which bought the original naming rights. That deal ran out after 25 years, and beginning with the 1998 season, the venue became Ralph Wilson Stadium, named for the team’s founder and still-owner. When Wilson died in 2014, Terry and Kim Pegula purchased the team. The naming rights were sold to New Era in 2016; that lasted for four years, until the company, facing financial difficulties at the time, needed out of the contract. For the 2020 season – which saw few fans in the stands because of pandemic restrictions – the facility was called Bills Stadium.

Highmark’s deal happened in 2021.

For New Highmark Stadium, Raccuia said there was no consideration given to adjusting the name to something like “Highmark Field.”

“Consistency is very important when it comes to naming rights,” he said. “We didn't want to be an organization that was changing naming rights all the time. We think it's critically important for our fans, for identification and for that community involvement. Highmark Stadium, in a very short period of time, has really entrenched itself into this community, and we saw absolutely no reason to change that. We can just build upon it.”

On a practical level, the deal means that fans, media and team officials will need to differentiate which Highmark is being talked about in conversation: the current one, or the future one.

“I know it might get a little confusing,” Raccuia said. “‘Highmark Stadium’ is our home today, and ‘New Highmark Stadium’ will be our home in 2026. Once we get to 2026, we’ll drop the ‘new’ and Highmark Stadium will be our future for the next 30 years.”