Pro Football Talk – 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.

Okay first things first. As a 30-year-old man that has aged out of “do anything for the team” fanhood status years ago, any team that is asking for public money to build a stadium can go piss up a rope. I’ve got enough debt I have to pay back for useless things like student loans, so the last thing I need is a bill for some billionaire’s shiny new toy. Maybe its because I live in a mega sports market like Boston where we would all collectively laugh in an owner’s face if they threatened to move the team.

But I digress…

So Roger Goodell has been beating this drum for a while that the Bills NEED a new stadium to be competitive. Umm have you ever been to New Era Field? Because I have and let me tell ya, it would be a travesty to replace what the glorious Bills Mafia calls home.

All sarcasm aside, New Era Field is a pretty legit stadium. It’s surprisingly nice, it’s got a retro vibe to it with the sunken stadium seats and its loud as hell. Sure it’s not going to beat out the Falcons or the Rams new stadium in terms of amenities, but to say the stadium is the reason this team hasn’t been competitive since the 90s is laughable.

Now, Buffalo the city? Maybe put a little taxpayer money towards repairing some of the dilapidated buildings downtown or putting YouTube commenters like this in the psych ward.

Buffalo Man was NOT a fan of my Buffalo review.

So to Roger Goodell I say you are crazy. New Era Field needs to be a museum of the truly crazy football fans of this country, not torn down to build a soul-less, mega stadium for rich guys.