Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN/WGR Sports Radio 550) - With the 2025 Buffalo Bills season set to kick off in 10 days, so begins the countdown of the final months before the opening of the new Highmark Stadium along Abbott Road.
Back in April, the Bills celebrated the "topping off" of the new stadium, symbolizing the halfway point of the project in the Town of Orchard Park. Just in the few months since that milestone, John Polka, vice president of stadium development with the Bills, says work at the state-of-the-art facility has rapidly progressed.
"From a percentage standpoint of work in place, we're over 70% complete with the stadium," said Polka in an interview with WBEN. "From a more practical, 'What does that mean?' We're working towards the enclosure of the building, so working towards getting all the exterior skin up so that as the winter months and the colder months come, we're able to continue to work efficiently and productively inside."
Polka has been happy with Mother Nature's cooperation over the summer, allowing for work on the outside of the structure to continue to progress nicely. It'll be a great opportunity for fans to see even more progress to the exterior of the stadium over the coming months.
"The big thing, just because you'll see it vertically, is the exterior skin. All the architectural precast, the metal panels, the perforated metal, the glazing, all that's wrapping around the side facing Abbott," Polka explained.
"The schedule wasn't designed this way, but as fans come back for the home opener and the early games in the season, they're really going to get the opportunity to see that progress on the outside of the building, facing the existing stadium. It wasn't scheduled that way, but a great accident the way it happened, just that fans will be able to really appreciate the progress."
Polka says the big push is for construction crews to get the exterior of the stadium as close to completed as possible by the end of this year.
"Certainly there will be some things that are lagging behind, or some detail items, but the vast percentage and majority of that work will be done this year. All with the intent of getting the building as tight as possible before the winter so that crews can continue to work efficiently," he explained.
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As the exterior of the stadium continues to develop, Polka is noticing how different the interior of the stadium is starting to feel as the outside elements should only start to come from above.
"When you're standing at field level or you're in the bowl, all of a sudden you're starting to see the exterior walls close up. It's something maybe that people don't think of as much because of our existing stadium being so open. But when you're in the stadium, in the seating bowl or on the field, daylight is going to be straight above you, and daylight is going to be through some glass and glazing at the lower levels. But for all intents and purposes, you're going to feel very enclosed in that stadium, and that's really what's happening on the inside now as the outside skin continues to go up," Polka detailed.
Meanwhile, a ton of finish work continues from crews inside the stadium which includes flooring, wall tile, ceilings, a lot of drywall, and more.
So far over the course of stadium construction, Polka notes the inside of the stadium has been dull and gray, looking at concrete and steel. That's soon about to change in a significant way.
"Come the fall, and even in the next few weeks here, we're gonna start to see some color in the building," Polka said. "One, the natural grass field, we're targeting that for October, beginning of November. But the other thing that'll be going in the next few weeks are the seats, so we're gonna start to see red and blue in that building. In the next few months, certainly by the time the end of the year rolls around, we're really going to see some excitement and vibrancy in that building."
Another aspect of stadium construction that fans should get a great look at throughout the football season is the continued development of site work, especially the new Family Circle where Lot 4 used to be.
"When you come down Abbott Road or if you're parked and tailgating, you're going to see the development of Family Circle. Today, we saw some of the security gates going in. You're going to continue to see the site develop throughout the course of the fall," Polka added.
In the Family Circle is where fans can look forward to the location of the giant statue of bison seen in many prior renderings. However, plans to reveal what's to come for the statue have not been disclosed.
"Working on some media releases and additional information for people to see what those are going to look like. Nothing that you'll see physically on site, that will be in the spring that those will go in," Polka noted.
As for the timing of this project, Polka remains consistent with the stadium being on time, with substantial completion being this July so the team is able to get in some early preliminary events and test out some systems.
Polka also noted that in a couple months, manpower at the stadium will actually start to decrease, which is a sign that construction is close to being complete.
"It started with structural steel, we had topping out. You no longer have iron workers on site, but you're back-filling with some finished trades. Well now some of the other trades are starting to finish up, and that's where the decreased number comes from," he explained. "Still obviously different trades are coming on board, there's still a ton of people working on this facility every day, but it's just an interesting point to know that we've talked so much about how many people will be out here and have been out here. Now we're getting to the tail end, where that number starts to decrease. And when we say decrease, we're still going to be the largest construction project in Western New York for quite some time. But the numbers are no longer 1,400, they're starting to dwindle a little bit from there."
Then as the team transitions from construction to operations, that's when the organization will work to get the full-time and game day staff up to speed on the new building.
"We're used to operating [the current Highmark Stadium], we're not used to operating [the new stadium] as an organization. So there will be a big point there between the end of the current season in the existing stadium and the opening of this building where much of the focus will be internally within our organization to make sure we're ready," Polka noted.
With the stadium now in its final year before opening, Polka admits how surreal it is on a constant basis to look at the progress of the new facility and be blown away of how far it has come.
"It's been four years that we've been working on this project, and it's kind of crazy to think that from a construction standpoint, we're a little less than a year away from opening the building," he said. "I joke with people that it's like watching your kids grow up - they're young, and then all of a sudden you blink and they're older. It's the same thing with the stadium. I remember the early conversations before anything's happened, and here we are, a year away from opening this building."
While there are several aesthetic features of this building that Polka is excited about, there's one thing he is more excited about than anything.
"[It's] standing on that field or being in that stadium for opening day, and hearing the crowd, in this building that we've designed to be loud," Polka said. "And our fans and their excitement, there's absolutely no question that that's the thing I'm most excited about."
As for the game day experience this coming season in Orchard Park, the absence of Lot 4 is the one change this year from last year that is set to take affect for Bills fans.
"We've taken over one more parking lot between the new stadium and Southwestern [Boulevard]. All the other logistics of the stadium have stayed the same. So we will have more limited parking this year than any other year. A one-time pain point, hopefully everybody's able to work around it, because the gain is that next year we have all of this parking opened up," Polka said.
And have there been any additional plans sorted out with the current Highmark Stadium for demolition, or for future plans with the site once it's torn down?
"After the season ends here, we will start some decommissioning and select demo of the existing facility to get ready for the mass demo. There won't be a ton of activity here right away, then as we get through the summer and into the fall, that's when, really, the mass demo of this building will start, all with the goal of being down by March of 2027," Polka stated. "So by, basically, a year after the opening, this building will be down, and then we haven't really advanced anything further yet than just, 'Let's get this building down, and then figure out what might go here in the future.'"
