The Buffalo Bills have announced that for the 2025 season — their last at the current edifice — will include a farewell patch for Highmark Stadium (the current corporate advertiser), as the team will be moving into a new stadium (with the same corporate advertiser) for 2026 and beyond. If you haven’t yet seen, here are the plans for the new stadium.
Per the team,
From the thunderous road of The Comeback to the snow blown playoff games, to the opening notes of the Shout Song after every touchdown, Bills Mafia has been part of historical franchise moments for more than 50 years.
The 2025 Buffalo Bills season will mark the end of an incredible chapter at Highmark Stadium. As we prepare to continue our legacy at our new location across the street, we will create lasting memories during our Farewell Season presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.
As such, the stadium with so many (mostly good) memories for Bills fans will be immortalized on a patch the team will wear this year.
They even created a video for the occasion (it’s only eight seconds long). At the end, the patch the team will sport is shown.
Bills Mafia, get ready for a memorable season at Highmark Stadium! pic.twitter.com/HI2IKhQSSr
— Pete Guelli (@PeteGuelli) May 13, 2025
Here’s a better look at that patch:
The stadium has had several upgrades since its opening in 1973. However, the Bills — under the constant threat of relocation — got the state of New York and its taxpayers to fork over $850 million of the construction cost (with $600 million coming from New York State and $250 million coming from Erie County). With the State of New York also paying for all maintenance and repair costs once the stadium opens, it is the largest taxpayer contribution ever for an NFL facility.
While as a New York resident (and taxpayer), I’m not thrilled about the government’s largesse, I am happy the Bills are staying put in Buffalo. As far as the patch? Meh. It’s fine as a patch, but no matter how much love and memories the management and fans may have, I honestly don’t see the need for a “farewell to” patch. It’s also likely the Bills will have a new patch in 2026 celebrating the opening of the new stadium.
Fortunately, the team notes “the Bills will wear as a jersey patch during a select home game to be announced later.” So at least it’s just a one-game only deal.
The Bills aren’t the first, nor will they be the last, to commemorate the building in which they play with a patch.
What are your thoughts? And what are your thoughts, specifically, on special patches to commemorate the closing of (or opening of) stadia? I’m fine with this since it’s just for one game — I definitely wouldn’t want to have a farewell patch for 17 games. We’ll be on the lookout for the game in which the team will sport the patch.
It would make sense if it were either the first or last home game.
Considering the age and history of the facility, yeah a patch is OK.
I think having “Highmark Stadium” on the patch cheapens it, since that was not its name for the VAST majority of its life.
Just another sponsorship patch at that point!
The projected final cost is up to 2.1 billion now, 33 percent higher than original cost and we are only halfway done. The logo is nice, basic and to the point. They even kicked off a merch campaign as well with final season logo apparel. I suspect if they play a January regular season home game, it will be used opening day. It would be silly to use it only once and that game is 2026.
I think this is a good time to bring up how stadiums affect uniform aesthetics. I have always loved watching Bills’ games, especially in the fall when the Sun is still relatively high in the sky. Highmark is an expansive style of stadium with its wide stands that allows all the beautiful sunlight to penetrate all nooks and crannies of the stadium and really high lights the uniforms along with our nostalgic notions of outdoor football.
The new Highmark stadium appears to be being built in the current conventional style of stadium building, a more lateral style with field proximity being the driving force for seat placement at the cost of sunlight.
In my opinion there is nothing worse than the old domes that did nothing for aesthetics or nostalgia (except for that ironic nostalgia when we look back and say, “It was so bad, but I kind of miss it.”) Think about all the great games where sunlight and grass added an element that made games more memorable, the Orange Bowl, Jack Murphy, The Big A, Oakland Almeda, old Soldier Field, Mile High, Shea, Fulton County, The Met, Lambeau, Baltimore Memorial Stadium, Candlestick, The Big Sombrero, the LA Coliseum, etc…
Exactly my train of thought, well expressed!
As a lifelong Bills Mafia I’m going to be quite frank. This was a bottom 5 NFL stadium for quite some time. One a more positive note one of the few venues were the tailgate scene comes close or even rivals the actual in stadium experience. (I myself have never personally partaken but I digress.)
Got lucky and was always gifted Kelly Club tix and that part of seating got substantially better within the last couple years.
But those metal bleacher seats totally exposed to Western New York elements? I’ll take my pizza and chicken wings (bone in obv) and sit in my nicely heated room thank you very much.
While I understand your point, I disagree.
I love this place and will be sad to see it go. It’s an old school stadium. I have frozen, got drenched in storms and burned in the sun. But it’s our stadium. Great views from anywhere. It doesn’t have any bells and whistle and that la what makes it great. And I still call is Rich Stadium
Fair enough. Part of it’s charm for sure. Thank goodness they made the new stadium open air. It’s not like Ruff Buff was going to host any Final Fours anytime soon.
Getting in to the sport as an impressionable teenager and falling in love with the Houston Oilers – that Playoff game crushed me, and I still get a little triggered by it. No need to keep bringing it up: and the first bleeding line of the press release.
Grrrr.
The new stadium will be more comfortable and more suited to these times, but I regret it when character is replaced by comfort. Suffering the elements, crappy food and bad seating are part of the real fan experience. When it gets too comfy is when complacency, distraction and being urged by noisy entertainers and the giant screens to clap or act out in front of cameras starts to kick in. Transformation from a diehard fan to a phone scrolling customer. Which is why I never want to go to an NBA game.
The patch is OK, by the way. I like the chosen perspective of the silhouet, recognizable as Rich Stadium.
I’m annoyed by the ever changing sponsorship of everything, but I like the idea of the patch. The stadium tailgating and cheap seats are really nostalgic for me. It wasn’t pretty, but its ours.
To answer your question about such patches for opening or closing games of stadia, why not? It would mean more than the patches (or gold-laced unis) worn by a defending champion in the season-opening game or series. In Buffalo’s case, it’s a chance to honor the Bills’ greatest moments at their home for 53 seasons. And if they make or even win the Super Bowl, just one more, final memory for the long-suffering Bills Mafia.