While at Jim Kelly’s annual golf tournament in 2016, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he felt the Bills need a new stadium in order to remain in Buffalo “on a successful basis.”
Goodell is back at Kelly’s tournament this year and his feelings about the stadium situation have not changed. Money has been spent on renovating New Era Field in recent years and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has suggested further renovations may present the “best bang for the buck,” but Goodell remains a supporter of a new stadium.
“I want to make sure this franchise remains competitive and stable,” Goodell said, via Matthew Fairburn of TheAthletic.com.
Bills ownership has discussed a new stadium that would be a “scaled-down version” of new buildings that have gone up or are going up in other cities, but there’s been nothing definitive about their plans at this point. There’s also been no word on how they’d finance either renovating or replacing New Era Field.
Public money is often sought for such purposes with teams using a possible relocation as a carrot to get it. Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula haven’t brought that up, but it doesn’t seem much else is off the table at this point in the process.