Report: Price of new Bills stadium increases to over $2 billion

The price of the Buffalo Bills' new stadium in Orchard Park has increased to over $2 billion.

Kyle Silagyi | Nov 17, 2024

Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

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The price of New Highmark Stadium, the state-of-the-art football palace currently under construction directly across from the Buffalo Bills’ current venue in Orchard Park, has billowed to over $2.1 billion, John Wawrow of The Associated Press reports. This is an over half a billion dollar increase from the most recently reported pricetag, with team owners Terry and Kim Pegula responsible for funding the additional $560 million, per Wawrow.

Long viewed as Western New York’s white whale, the Bills reached a formal agreement with New York State and Erie County on the construction of a 62,000-seat stadium in Orchard Park in March 2022. The venue, at the time, boasted a healthy price tag of $1.4 billion, with a then-record $850 million sourced from the public. Ownership was made liable for any overruns as part of the initial agreement; costs have steadily increased since shovels were put into the ground in 2023, with the Pegulas, per Wawrow, now on the hook for over $560 million in extra costs.

The 2022 agreement stated that the NFL and the Bills “combined” for the $550 million of non-public funding, meaning that the Pegulas look set to pay more in overruns than their initial commitment. Wawrow writes that ownership is now responsible for “$1.25 billion in construction costs.”

Though the initial $1.4 billion price tag was by no means feeble, the stadium the organization ultimately opted to construct was broadly viewed as a cost-effective alternative to more ambitious venues in other locations around the Buffalo region. Known nationally for its near-copious amounts of annual snow, a contingent of Western New Yorkers yearned to see the club construct a stadium with either a permanent or retractable roof. Some fans also wanted to see the Bills leave the suburbs and return to downtown Buffalo as the city proper attempts to climb to a more significant level of mainstream prominence.

Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

Both concepts presented obvious issues (the greater cost associated with a domed stadium and the city of Buffalo’s infrastructure being the most paramount), and the Bills, thus, opted to construct an open-air stadium with reduced capacity directly across the street from their half-century-old venue in Orchard Park. The price of the quote-unquote ‘cheaper’ option now being over $2 billion perhaps stings a bit harder when one considers the price of recent domed stadiums; Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in Atlanta in 2017 with a $1.6 billion price tag (roughly $2 billion when adjusted for inflation). Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders’ roofed venue in Las Vegas, opened in 2020 with a $1.9 billion construction cost (roughly $2.2 billion when adjusted for inflation).

Buffalo’s new stadium is scheduled to open in time for the 2026 NFL season.

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