Highmark Stadium will officially open its doors as the Bills’ new home when they face the Lions on Thursday Night Football in Week 2 on Sept. 17.
The game will be the first Thursday Night Football game on Prime Video this season, and it’s expected that Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will be on the call, The Athletic reported.
The new Highmark Stadium has been several years in the making after state lawmakers announced an agreement between the state, Erie County and the Bills to build a new $2.1 billion stadium in Orchard Park near their now former home.
The brand new stadium had been a source of ire for some in the Empire State after Gov. Kathy Hochul forked over $600 million in taxpayer money, with Erie County providing an additional $250 million to help with the cost of the privately owned venue.
In an interview with The Post back in 2024, a former Gov. Andrew Cuomo advisor called the investment a deal that “was great … if you are the Bills’ owner, but not so for the people of Buffalo or the state.”
There had been further outrage last summer when the public became aware of a $100 million superyacht that Bills owner Terry Pegula — who once threatened to move the Bills out of Western New York if he didn’t get public money for his stadium — was the owner of.
The new stadium is an open-air design, and the franchise recently put up the Bills logo on the outside of the stadium.
Video of that went viral on social media on Monday.
The Bills are moving to a grass field from the turf they had played on at the old stadium.
Buffalo played at their former home dating back to 1973, and it had been renamed Highmark Stadium in 2021.
The NFL will release the full league schedule for the 2026 season on Thursday during a two-hour TV special.
The Bills went 12-5 last season before losing to the Broncos 33-30 in the divisional round, while the Lions went 9-8 and failed to make the playoffs.
