Buffalo Bills Top Out Highmark Stadium

Image: Bill Wippert and Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills have held a ceremony to celebrate the Topping Out of their new Highmark Stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2026.

The Buffalo Bills said workers placed the last piece of structural steel atop the 156-foot-high stadium structure as part of the ceremony.

The final beam was accented with an American flag, the New York State flag, and an evergreen tree, signifying good luck and prosperity for future building occupants.

A Topping Out ceremony is a customary way to celebrate a significant milestone during the construction of a new building.

Team owner Terry Pegula welcomed New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, and other dignitaries to Western New York for the event.

Hundreds of partners, employees, and stakeholders signed the final beam before the event.

The 62,000-capacity Highmark Stadium (also referred to as the New Highmark Stadium and colloquially as The Pit) is an American football stadium that is under construction in Orchard Park, New York (US). It will replace the Bills’ existing stadium of the same name and is expected to open in time for the 2026 NFL season.

A joint venture of Gilbane Building Company and Turner Construction provides construction management of more than 1,200 trade persons onsite daily, which will continue to climb into the summer.

Construction at the site of New Highmark Stadium began with a ceremonial ground-breaking on Monday, June 5, 2023.

The largest construction project in the history of Western New York is now over 50 percent complete (based on the volume of work in place). All precast stadia (seating bowl) are complete, and workers will begin seat installation later this spring.
 
Other construction milestones include:

• Roof canopy installation continues, including the start of the snow melt system.
• The first piece of exterior precast panels was set at the beginning of March and will continue through spring and summer.
• Exterior perforated metal panel installation will begin in the next few weeks.
• Grading and utility infrastructure for the playing field has begun with the target installation of the natural grass turf in the fall of 2025.

 
The milestone comes just 20 months after the ground-breaking of the new 60,000-plus-seat facility, designed by the Bills in conjunction with Legends and the architectural firm Populous.

The new building will seat about 60,000 down from about 72,000 from the team’s existing stadium that opened in 1973 and is considered technologically outdated and experiencing cracks in its structure. Though the new stadium doesn’t include a roof it will feature curved sides to cover a majority of the seats.

And unlike the current facility which faces East-West the new building is positioned facing North-South to better protect the fans from the winds that blow in off nearby Lake Erie.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “I know how much the Bills mean to this community. It’s part of the spirit, it’s part of the identity. I really believe this is going to secure the franchise here for decades.”

Bills owner Terry Pegula recognized the construction site workers who have been on-site since the ground-breaking and helped keep the stadium construction on schedule.

“Today is not about Terry Pegula, Kathy Hochul, Mark Poloncarz, or Roger Goodell. Today is about you hard workers; men and women. Electricians, carpenters, operating engineers, painters, teamsters, ironworkers. The list goes on and on,” Pegula said.

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