ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Fresh off the excitement of the Bills big win on Sunday, there is more talk about what else we may see around the new Bills stadium after it opens in Orchard park in 2026.
Another NFL franchise made similar developments near its stadium, and there's a Western New York connection.
There is still plenty of vacant, underutilized land along Southwestern Boulevard near the stadium complex.
And yes, there has been talks before around development. But, it has intensified again as a Bills executive spoke last week about the new stadium and the land around it.
Pete Guelli, who is Chief Operating Officer of the Bills and Sabres, was asked by reporters about the stadium area last week. He replied, "We're excited to see what that entire property can look like. It's gonna be a world class facility and our goal is to program it much more than ten dates a year and then we'll start turning our attention to the outlying property."
Last week, the Associated Press reported there is preliminary planning for an entertainment zone with restaurants, bars, and shops on the site of the old stadium once it's torn down.
A Bills spokesman on Tuesday said, it is too preliminary and would be quote, "premature" to discuss that type of development any further.
The Orchard Park town board has been thinking about stadium surrounding development with a recently revised zoning district plan for that part of town to eventually allow structures higher than two stories.
And, there is Orchard Park Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Don Lorentz, who still has his on-site museum idea featuring Buffalo sports and music legends, and perhaps even a destination hotel site.
Lorentz told us, "We have some other developers who have expressed interest. I know one of the major contractors for the new stadium. They've expressed an interest. So you know all in all, this is the first time that we have actually had people saying it's not just a desire, but it's actually something that we could put into concept now because some of these restrictions are gone."
He also pointed out, "We would have a reason for people to develop around that now. I think that's been the missing link all this while. Nobody was staying there so we - yes we had this huge opportunity when you have 70, 80 thousand people coming to a game - but they're not able to take advantage of that."
Lorentz spoke with folks who planned the 45 acre year round Titletown complex with restaurants, bars and much more which opened around Green Bay's Lambeau Field in 2017. He said, "They immediately have a complex around the stadium and the one has a toboggan hill and they have ice skating and they have all kinds of things like that. Is that something that the old stadium could become?"
The man who made that happen with a $600 million direct investment from the Packers team, according to WTMJ Radio, was Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy who directed their master plan.
Mark Murphy was a scholar and all star triple athlete who graduated from Clarence High School and was once known as "Western New York's Best Student Athlete". After college, he played for Washington in the NFL, became an attorney, and then an assistant executive director of the NFL Players' Association (players' union) all before he became the Green Bay Packers President/CEO in 2008.
He has been in charge out in Wisconsin with their stadium development.