In the short-term, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills are Super Bowl contenders, a year after reaching the AFC Championship Game. However, the team's long-term future in Buffalo isn't certain as the organization seeks a new stadium.
John Wawrow of The Associated Press reports that the new stadium that the organization is hoping to build would seat 60,000 fans and have 60 suites. Wawrow had previously reported that the cost of the new stadium would be $1.4 billion.
Highmark Stadium -- previously referred to as Rich Stadium, Ralph Wilson Stadium, New Era Field and Bills Stadium -- has been home to the Bills since 1973. Commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier this month that the league believes that the Bills should remain in Buffalo, but that to make that a reality, a new stadium was necessary.
"We can renovate (Highmark Stadium), but it's not going to last much longer... at some point, we've got to talk about a new stadium, and we're certainly beyond that," Goodell said earlier this month to the collective media, including Julianne Pelusi of WGRZ.
"I don't know the timeline, other than I know serious discussions are happening now... They require that public-private partnership and a process where everyone gets to understand what's needed," Goodell added.
Wawrow added that the new stadium -- slated to be finished "no later than 2027" -- would likely include an expectation of the state of New York and Erie County paying for "more than 50%" of the costs of the new stadium.
That may just be a negotiating tactic by Pegula Sports and Entertainment, which has owned the Bills since 2011. The reality, though, is that the Bills are the only game in town. If ownership doesn't get something close to what they're asking for, there are plenty of other cities that would be interested in having an NFL team. The Pegula's are probably inclined to work as hard as they can to keep the Bills in Buffalo -- especially since they also own the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and other properties in the city -- but it's pretty hard to say that cities enter stadium negotiations on a level playing field with team ownership/NFL. The threat of relocation always looms and often secures a larger chunk of private funding.
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