Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - It has already been an exciting week in Orchard Park with Monday's news of a new stadium deal keeping the Buffalo Bills in Western New York for the long-term future.
With this new stadium deal for the Bills, it will see the construction of a new stadium across the street from Highmark Stadium on Abbott Road. If all goes well in the process, major construction on the stadium could get started as soon as this fall, with the plan for the stadium to open for the Bills at the start of the 2026 season.
In addition, this deal for the Bills comes with a 30-year lease agreement that will ensure the future of the team is bound to Orchard Park and the Western New York community.
While the Bills and "Bills Mafia" all-across the region rejoiced of the news on Monday, so did the local bars and restaurants immediately surrounding the stadium.
"We're excited. I mean, it's great for our community here," said Jeff Rapini, who works at the Big Tree Inn on the corner of Abbott Road and Big Tree Road. "To continue the tradition of the Big Tree, obviously it's been here for a long time. All the great Buffalo Bills have come through, and it's going to be great to have them come through for another 30 years."
"We were doing backflips, we were so happy," added owner of Danny's Restaurant - diagonally across the intersection from the Big Tree Inn - Mark Ebeling. "We've just been waiting for them to announce it. It was the better option for everybody, I believe."
The news of a new stadium for the Bills was a long time coming for these businesses just down the road from Highmark Stadium. For Peggy Cerrone, owner of O'Neill's on the corner of Abbott Road and Southwestern Boulevard, it made everyone at her business feel better now knowing the new stadium is going to be built just across the street.
"We just felt as if sending it downtown would be much more difficult than just simply clearing land and placing it there," Cerrone said. "So here, we're set up, we're hoping that everything will go as planned, and we're looking forward to just the added business of construction workers coming here. You don't understand the impact that has on the places around here. So we're very excited."
"It was a humongous thing for us. We set in our minds if this was to move downtown, I mean, it'd be great [to see] they're staying in Buffalo. But for us, to be right here in the middle of all the excitement and the continued excitement from the way that teams playing and the way it's going to build," Rapini added. "It was a sigh of relief to know it's going to be right across the street for another 30 years, and be able to bring my kids here when they're older, and, continue to tradition with the Buffalo Bills."
Every Sunday during the Bills season for these establishments are key for the long-term success of the overall business. For Cerrone, every game played at the stadium make up about 33% of their yearly sales. That's also not taking into account whenever the stadium plays host to other events through the course of the year.
As for Ebeling at Danny's, he says the stadium adds roughly 30% to his business every year, but it has become their livelihood, at this point.
"I've been out here 23 years, all these other bars and restaurants, it's our livelihood," Ebeling said. "It's like our summertime, it's our livelihood for the summer, like, you wait for summer for the beaches to open. Well, this is the beach opening now."
Meanwhile, for the Big Tree Inn, they have been known over the years for being a go-to stop for many local Bills fans prior to and after games, but also the players and others from the team over the course of the season.
"Oh, it's a huge impact on game day. It's a staple," Rapini said. "It's wall-to-wall people, it's excitement, parking in the parking lot, everything. It just brought back life to this place after a year of having no life, to be honest with you. So it was great."
Prior to Monday's stadium deal that will ensure the Bills' future in Orchard Park, questions surrounded the uncertainty of the team's status for the local area, despite the group's recent success. While the team has remained in town, the past 20-25 years have been filled with more questions than answers.
During that time of uncertainty, did it ever cross the mind of bar and restaurant owners of, perhaps, selling the business or handing operations over to someone else, fearing the Bills would head to Downtown Buffalo or leave the region completely?
"No, that's not our nature," Cerrone said of the possibility. "We fight. We would just rebrand ourselves. We're currently adding on a pizzeria; we're always re-creating, you have to in this business or you won't make it. So, yes, it is great that the Bills are staying here, but we would have kept plugging along and trying to continue to build our business."
"It's like that every year anyways, you fight for your business," Ebeling also responded. "Yeah, that was a thought, and it wasn't a thought to sell, but it was a thought to do something different. We probably would want to a major banquet hall or something like that to do banquets and stuff, which we do a lot of catering and banquets anyways."
With the long-term future of the Bills in Orchard Park no longer in question and a brand new facility set to be constructed by the year 2026, that will likely bring up a rapid growth of economic development for other businesses in-and-around the stadium.
"The energy of the new stadium, the construction project in and of itself, re-imagining the space is going to create new opportunities for businesses to come in and develop around the stadium. I absolutely believe it," said Executive Vice President of Pegula Sports and Entertainment, Ron Raccuia during an appearance on WBEN on Tuesday. "When the stadium was built in the '70s, the idea of economic development around a stadium really didn't exist. And then for decades after that, there was always this question of, 'Are the Bills staying here? Will the stadium last? Will a new stadium be someplace else?' And I do think that inhibited economic development. Now everyone knows. Everyone's going to be able to see it, and I feel there's going to be some positive momentum around that."
A new stadium in Orchard Park could finally bring the expansion of businesses such as more bars and restaurants, hotels and other lodging options, and so much more. Despite the possibility for more competition, owners are welcoming the idea of more businesses popping up in the area, which should lead to more traffic.
"We always welcome competition. I don't spend my time worrying about what other people are doing. We just try to do our thing, and just have a great product and have a great atmosphere," Cerrone said. "Hopefully, people have known O'Neill's as the place to be to tailgate for the last 12 years. So we're hoping, but we'll never stand on just that alone. I actually welcome and hope they put in hotels and build this area up, because I find that that would make the stadium much more marketable and usable. Why not? We're spending all this money, why not use it for more than just 11 games a year, 10 games a year?"
"It makes you better, it makes you want to survive. The more business, the more actions going on," Ebeling said in agreeance. "If there's nothing out there, ain't nobody coming out here to see it. If they're going to develop, like they say they're going to develop - which I think is going to be fantastic - it'll draw people to the area. The stadium will be used for other things than just football, which is nice. We've got a few concerts this year, maybe they'll get more concerts with the new stadium. It just draws more people, more business. You can't sit out here by yourself and expect people to come out here. You got to have something bring them out here. So I think more business is a good thing."
