NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Has Strong Comments About a New Bills Stadium
The Buffalo Bills are preparing for what is hopefully a successful 2021 season. The team has Super Bowl aspirations after falling just short in the AFC title game against the Kansas City Chiefs this past January,
However, the bigger news off the field has been the potential new stadium for the Bills. Back in June, reports surfaced that the Bills ownership was seeking to build a new stadium in Orchard Park and recently it was learned that the Pegulas wish to build one across the street from the current, Highmark Stadium.
It's thought to be a private-public funded plan for how to pay for it as negotiations with local and state leaders go on.
On Monday morning, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke about the Bills' potential need for a new stadium and Goodell said a new stadium "is" what's "needed" for the Bills.
"It goes back into the 90s when I was part of the negotiations," said Goodell. "At that point, we were talking about, 'well, we could renovate the stadium, but it's not going to last much longer through renovations; at some point, we got to talk about a new stadium," added Goodell.
Goodell also said that it's going to require a public-private partnership. Goodell stressed that the Bills, the NFL, and the community (Western New York) will have to come together and figure out how to do that in a smart way.
A public-private partnership will be a mix of taxpayer-funded and ownership-funded, which should come as no surprise, but hearing it from Goodell himself might drive home the fact that a good chunk of a new stadium will have to be paid for by taxpayers.