ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Blue and red fireworks burst into the air in celebration in front of the new Highmark Stadium as enlarged scissors cut through the ribbon. Editor's Picks Left guard competition to summer work: Four things we learned from Bills minicamp Alaina Getzenberg 32 teams, 32 surprises: Which players stood out on every NFL team this spring? NFL Nation 1 Related
The Buffalo Bills hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday in celebration of the team's new stadium, which cost more than $2.1 billion.
Speakers included owner Terry Pegula, Mary Wilson, wife of former team owner Ralph Wilson Jr. and New York governor Kathy Hochul. The ceremony marked a new beginning for the Bills as they complete preparations to move across the street for the 2026 season. This comes about three years after construction began on the venue that has a capacity of 60,108 -- over 10,000 fewer than the previous site.
The first public event held at the stadium will be the team's "Return of the Blue & Red" training camp practice on the evening of Aug. 8. According to Bills senior vice president of design, stadium operations Frank Cravotta, "one quarter of 1%" of the work is left to complete. "I know there's one more level of cool factor -- signage, art, sponsorship signage, interactives, things like that. They're the very last things to go in," Cravotta said.
The new stadium, designed by Populous, features a natural grass field -- a change from the turf the team previously played on -- with underground heating coils to prevent the grass from freezing and grow lights to have optimal conditions year-round.
And some of the public art located throughout the stadium: https://t.co/goZgSsuEPX pic.twitter.com/F1aBF3xLqQ
The site also has the world's largest stadium snow-melt system, which utilizes roof sensors to automatically monitor and melt snow accumulations. A major priority when constructing the stadium was reducing the impact of the wind. A 360-degree canopy was constructed to do just that, and it covers more than 60% of the seating bowl.
"The exterior of the building is designed to combat the wind," said Jonathan Mallie, global director and managing director of Populous' Americas practice. "It's got a perforated metal exterior that allows some of the wind flow to come in, which prevents it to coming down into the building."
Ongoing testing showed that winds on the playing surface were 50% lower than outside the stadium. Design touches unique to Western New York will be visible through a public art program that features 46 pieces from local artists. The 5,369 people who worked on the stadium have their names listed on one of the outside walls.