A New Stadium Is About 8 Years Away

[BillsImpossible]

On December 21, 2012, the lease negotiations between the Bills, Erie County, and the state of New York ended with the Bills signing a ten-year lease to stay in Buffalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Wilson_Stadium

The world didn't end, and the Bills renewed their lease with Erie County for another decade.

If a new stadium is built, I don't think it will happen until 2020.

The average new NFL stadium takes about 2 years to build.

Commissioner Goodell is making it sound like the Buffalo Bills need a new stadium, soon.

I think the $130 million in renovations will go a long way in many ways and many years to come.

I don't think any prospective new owner has any real pressure on their shoulders to build a new stadium in the near future.

The reality is that the Bills signed a 10 year lease agreement that won't expire until December of 2022 and they're going to be playing in Orchard Park for at least the next 8 years.

Right now I can really care less about a new stadium.

Ralph Wilson Stadium is as close to football heaven as a guy could ever dream of.

[Don't Panic]

So the end of the Mayan calendar meant something good... sweet.

I agree that we're looking at an 8-10 year fix that eventually leads to a new stadium. Here's a shot in the dark timeline:

~Bills are sold to someone committed to staying in WNY by the end of the calendar year... lets say December 21, 2014
~New owner begins a process for selecting and negotiating a new site which, since government entities are involved, takes about three years to complete
~right around January 1, 2018, a major announcement is made on a new stadium (downtown I would assume) and district development plan, which will take three years to complete
~Bills open the 2021 season in the new digs, right about the time Buffalo is fully catching its stride as a city again
~for good measure! the 2020s become known as the roaring 20s redux as the Bills win three Super Bowls in the decade behind the arm of some kid who is currently going through puberty, cementing themselves as one of the greatest franchises of all time

Hows that work for everyone?

[WagonCircler]

On December 21, 2012, the lease negotiations between the Bills, Erie County, and the state of New York ended with the Bills signing a ten-year lease to stay in Buffalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Wilson_Stadium

The world didn't end, and the Bills renewed their lease with Erie County for another decade.

If a new stadium is built, I don't think it will happen until 2020.

The average new NFL stadium takes about 2 years to build.

Commissioner Goodell is making it sound like the Buffalo Bills need a new stadium, soon.

I think the $130 million in renovations will go a long way in many ways and many years to come.

I don't think any prospective new owner has any real pressure on their shoulders to build a new stadium in the near future.

The reality is that the Bills signed a 10 year lease agreement that won't expire until December of 2022 and they're going to be playing in Orchard Park for at least the next 8 years.

Right now I can really care less about a new stadium.

Ralph Wilson Stadium is as close to football heaven as a guy could ever dream of.

I agree with you, right up until "Right now I can really care less about a new stadium."

I love the Ralph, too. And I'll love it even more with the improvements.

But right now, I can't really care about anything else but the stadium/ownership situation. And the two are totally tied together.

Until there's a concrete plan for a new stadium, we have ourselves a lame duck franchise.

That being said, I still feel like all signs point toward a deal being in the works. I sure hope so.

[Skooby]

It's going to take years to identify a site, engineer everything & build the infrastructure, 8 years seems a little too far away. It's more like 5-6 years away from being done, not 8.

[Dr. Who]

Well, I don't have the expertise to offer an informed opinion. It does seem to me that it should not take eight to ten years to get a new stadium built. I basically agree with WagonCircler. Even if a renovated Ralph is actually sufficient for pragmatic purposes, more urgency needs to go into a new stadium to strengthen the long-term security of the Bills staying in Buffalo - jmo.