The current home of the Buffalo Bills played a part in the deal involving the construction of the new one.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz sheds some light on the matter.
In 2021, the current status of Highmark Stadium was reviewed by the stadium construction firm Didonato Associates. Poloncarz revealed that the findings included concerns with the upper deck area of the current venue.
Through him Twitter account, Poloncarz said it found some issues with the area of the stadium that would need to replace the seating and building supports. According to Buffalo News, this will need to be addressed over the next five to seven years.
This adds to the potential construction timeline and the costs associated with building a stadium in downtown Buffalo.
Per Poloncarz, he said on Twitter that building a venue in the city would require infrastructure improvements in the Buffalo city limits. This would include commissioning a light rail train to carry people. Many would have expected such an idea, but considering the upper-deck issues, it stretches the timeline. that’s important.
Poloncarz did accept directly that his personal preference was to build a new stadium in Buffalo and not Orchard Park. Simply put, finances and timelines don’t make sense.
As the story ended, the Bills, Erie County, and New York State agreed to a $1.4 billion stadium construction at Orchard Park by 2026.
Poloncarz also said that keeping it at Orchard Park was a team ownership priority, writing: “It’s a compromise. The team lives. It’s a win.” The executive then mentioned publicly that Pegulus wanted the stadium to be 100 percent financed by taxpayers.
Instead, Bill and the NFL will put forward another $550M for the project. The total $850M from taxpayers covers 61 percent of the total cost of construction.
Asking a 100 percent taxpayer isn’t too surprising since the team was probably the “low bowling” stuff in the construction negotiations—but all things considered—we have some more background knowledge on the negotiations.
With the stadium completed by 2026, the existing stadium will not need to be re-patched and the infrastructure in Buffalo will not need to be improved. According to Poloncarz, these are measures that have potentially saved millions of dollars.
