The Buffalo Bills have entered a new chapter in franchise history. Crews are demolishing the former Highmark Stadium after it served as the Bills’ home for more than 5 decades, and they expect to finish the work by March 2027.
Across the street, the Bills officially opened their new Highmark Stadium on June 23, 2026. The 60,108-seat venue cost just over $2.1 billion and will host its first regular-season game on Sept. 17 against the Detroit Lions.
A new era begins in Orchard Park
The Buffalo Bills officially opened the new Highmark Stadium with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 23, 2026. The project followed a public-private stadium agreement announced in March 2022 and a groundbreaking ceremony held on June 5, 2023. The event marked the official start of life in the new building.
The Return of the Blue & Red practice is scheduled for Aug. 8 and will be offered to season-ticket members. The Bills will hold a separate practice open to the general public on Aug. 18, giving fans without a personal seat license their first look inside the new stadium. Both events serve as tune-ups before the venue hosts its first competitive football.
The stadium’s first preseason game is scheduled for Aug. 15 against the Carolina Panthers, with two more preseason games at Cleveland and against Pittsburgh to follow before the regular season begins. Its first regular-season game will take place Sept. 17 against the Detroit Lions, closing out the stadium’s run of debut events.
Decades of history come to an end
The former stadium officially opened on Aug. 17, 1973, as Rich Stadium. It was named through a naming-rights agreement with Rich Products, a Buffalo-based food company. Generations of loyal fans passed through its gates for more than 50 memorable years.
Preliminary deconstruction, including the removal of seats and memorabilia, began by the end of March 2026. Crews entered a more extensive phase of mechanical demolition in the spring, after the Bills shut off power to the venue on May 1. That marked the official start of the building’s mass demolition.
The stadium served as the Bills’ home for more than 52 years. Demolition remains underway and is expected to be completed by March 2027. For many longtime fans, watching the building come down has been an emotional process, with some describing it as saying goodbye to an old friend.
Building a stadium worth billions
The initial stadium agreement announced in March 2022 estimated the project at $1.4 billion. By the June 2023 groundbreaking, the stated cost had increased to $1.54 billion. Costs eventually climbed far beyond that early estimate.
The final cost was just over $2.1 billion. Team officials attributed the increase largely to higher labor and material costs, inflation, and additional design features intended to improve the venue. Officials said the extra spending was necessary to achieve a top-tier result.
Under the stadium agreement, the Bills were responsible for cost overruns beyond the $1.54 billion project figure. The Associated Press reported in November 2024 that Terry and Kim Pegula were responsible for more than $560 million in overruns at that stage.
Who is paying for the new stadium?
Public money played a very large role in funding the entire project. New York State committed $600 million toward the project, while Erie County committed $250 million. Their combined construction contribution totaled $850 million.
The Bills secured the largest public contribution for an NFL stadium when officials announced the deal in 2022. It no longer holds that distinction because the Tennessee Titans subsequently secured approximately $1.26 billion in public funding for their new stadium. Some critics have questioned the size of the public commitment to a billion-dollar franchise.
Bills fans also contributed $263 million through personal seat license purchases. A personal seat license gives its holder the right, and the obligation, to buy season tickets for that specific seat going forward.
Fun fact: The Bills played their final game at the old Highmark Stadium on January 4, 2026, beating the Jets.
Inside the state-of-the-art venue
The new Highmark Stadium features sweeping concourses designed to improve flow and offer views of the field. The seating bowl uses a stacked design intended to position many fans closer to the action. Premium seating options also offer fans greater comfort throughout every home game.
The venue features 2 large video boards and an advanced audio system that can direct sound toward specific areas. It also includes premium clubs, modern concessions, a natural-grass field, and a canopy covering much of the seating bowl. Designers focused on comfort as much as raw capacity.
The Bills officially opened the substantially completed stadium on June 23, 2026. Team officials said the venue was ready to begin hosting events ahead of its inaugural NFL season. Only a small fraction of construction work remained at that point.
The new stadium has a smaller seating capacity
The new Highmark Stadium has 60,108 seats. The former stadium opened with approximately 80,000 seats and later reached a capacity of 80,290 before renovations and seating changes reduced that total.
The smaller venue includes more premium spaces and requires personal seat licenses for most season-ticket locations. A smaller bowl doesn’t automatically mean higher ticket prices across the board, but it has coincided with steep costs elsewhere at the new venue.
Resale prices for the stadium’s first regular-season game, against the Detroit Lions, have run high, with some listings well above $600 apiece. The Bills also raised stadium parking rates by more than 50% for the 2026 season compared with the previous year, and it remains to be seen whether concession prices follow the same trend.
A long construction timeline reaches a milestone
New York State, Erie County and the Bills announced their stadium agreement on March 28, 2022. Construction officially began with a groundbreaking ceremony on June 5, 2023.
The project remained on schedule for its 2026 opening despite substantial cost increases that pushed the final price past $2.1 billion. The Bills held the ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 23, 2026, just over 3 years after construction began.
Demolition of the former stadium will continue beyond the summer. Crews expect to complete the work by March 2027, extending the full transition into next year.
Other NFL teams are pursuing costly stadium projects
Buffalo is not alone in developing a multibillion-dollar NFL stadium. The Washington Commanders and Cleveland Browns are among the teams advancing major new venue projects of their own.
The Commanders have committed at least $2.7 billion toward a roofed stadium at the former RFK Stadium site in Washington, D.C., as part of a broader $3.7 billion redevelopment agreement. Their current home in Landover, Maryland, is still in use and is not yet being demolished.
The Browns broke ground in 2026 on a $2.6 billion domed stadium in Brook Park, Ohio, and plan to open it in 2029. Both projects have generated debate about public financing and the long-term costs of professional sports venues.
Little-known fact: In 2020, a bidet company named Tushy offered over $12 million to rename the stadium “Tushy Stadium.”
TL;DR
- Highmark Stadium’s demolition ends 52 years of Bills history in Orchard Park.
- The new $2.1 billion stadium opened in time for the 2026 NFL season.
- The project received $850 million in state and county construction funding.
- The new stadium has 60,108 seats, fewer than the approximately 80,000 seats in the former venue when it opened.
- Other NFL teams, including the Commanders and Browns, are pursuing similarly costly stadium projects.
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This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.
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