ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — The slow but steady march to bring the Buffalo Bills a new stadium continues to move down the field.
The directors of the Erie County Stadium Corporation gave their final stamp of approval to the general project plan on Wednesday.
"I think there's almost, a unanimous, but tremendous support for this," Robert Duffy, chair of the corporation said.
In this plan, the state will acquire the stadium property from Erie County and lease it to the Bills for 30 years.
"We want to ensure that it's designed right. It's built, and it will last another 50 years like the one we have now," Stephen Gawlik, senior counsel with Empire State Development said.
In March the Bills, EC and NYs announced an agreement was reached to build the new $1.4 billion stadium in Orchard Park. The governor said the agreement secured a 30-year commitment to keep the Bills in Western New York. The $1.4 billion price tag will be covered by a public-private partnership. The state will provide $600 million, the Bills will provide $550 million and the county will provide $250 million.
In October 2022 the first renderings of the new stadium were released. The new stadium will be completed across Abbott Road from the team's current home, Highmark Stadium. It will be a state-of-the-art open-air stadium with a minimum seating capacity of 60,000 seats and a maximum capacity of 63,000 seats
"It's the biggest project that's been built in Western New York," Gawlik said.
New to these plans is Steven Ranalli who will be joining as the new president of the corporation. He works for the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation which is responsible for overseeing the growth of Buffalo's Waterfront. He stated he will eventually transition out of that position.
"I've got the experience. Our team has the experience in getting construction projects done, meeting goals, right? And getting there across the board," Ranalli said.
The Bills plan to start work in April, such as putting up fences. The goal is for shovels to hit the ground in June and complete the project by 2026.
"Everybody wants every person that can work in Western New York that's available to work on this project," Gawlik said.
Once construction starts, there is a focus to hire minority and women-owned businesses for contracting and supplies which is one of the requirements in the deal.
"We've worked hard to make sure that preconstruction and post-construction this stadium is committed to making sure M's and W's get as much work as possible," April Baskin, Erie County legislator said.
The next step in the process is for the stadium directors to finalize all the details of this agreement to then give to the Erie County legislature. The legislature has at least 30 days to deliberate before making a final vote.
