Buffalo, NY — Speaking Monday at Jim Kelly's Celebrity Golf Tournament, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league wants to keep the bills in Buffalo — but in a new stadium.
"You have to think long term here," Goodell said. “This has been going on for decades, & it is time to build a new stadium so that we can make sure the Bills are here & there to be successful for many decades.
"We're focused on putting the Bills [in Buffalo] in a new stadium in a public, private partnership. That's all & that's where we're focused."
Bills owners Kim & Terry Pegula submitted a proposal for a $1.4 billion stadium across the street from the team's existing stadium at Orchard Park, which has a 10-year lease that expires in 2023.
Pegula Sports & Entertainment (PSE) spokesman Jim Wilkinson said the team is looking forward to moving forward with its plans for the stadium until an agreement is reached with Erie County & that "the city & state of Buffalo will be able to move forward." It has to be decided whether they want a team."
But Goodell's comments reinforce the belief that PSE's thinly veiled threat to relocate is only a negotiating ploy & that the team will eventually stay in western New York.
The 15-year-old commissioner said he discussed the topic of Bills Stadium almost every time he traveled to Buffalo—in the 1990s, when the topic revolved around stadium renovations. Still, Goodell said, they knew the renovation would only be a temporary fix & that the time would come when a new stadium would be necessary.
"We are definitely beyond that," he said. "I think a new stadium is needed. I think it will require a public, private partnership. I think the Bill, the community & the NFL all have to come together & do it smartly." "
Since 1973, the Bills have played at Erie County-owned Highmark Stadium, the fourth oldest stadium in the NFL. The county refurbished the stadium for more than $200 million during the lease it signed in 2013, but Wilkinson estimated that the renovation & modernization of the stadium would cost about $1 billion – & any renovation talks have been "finished". .
Goodell said he wasn't sure what the stadium's timeline was, but added that the team's new stadium was "built for Buffalo" & needed to "fit Buffalo."
Erie County Commissioner Mark Poloncarz said that PSE never made any threats to leave during the negotiations & that the county was ready to make a deal as long as it was fair to all parties involved.