The Buffalo Bills are in the midst of finding a new owner and preparing for the NFL Draft, but commissioner Roger Goodell said that the team will also have to find a new place to build a stadium in order to stay in western New York long-term.
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According to ESPN, Goodell, a native of Jamestown, N.Y., believes that if the team doesn't find a place to build a new stadium to replace Ralph Wilson Stadium as the team's home, it may not be able to stay prominent in the western New York region, though it wouldn't be able to leave the Buffalo area until 2020 at the earliest.
"Yes, I do," Goodell told ESPN in New York City Wednesday when asked if he thought the Bills need a new stadium to stay viable in Buffalo. "We said at the time when they entered into a new lease that this is really a short-term solution. We need to find the right long-term solution that's good for the community and can help the Bills to continue to be successful in western New York."
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Ralph Wilson Stadium has been the Bills home since 1973 and doesn't have the same amenities that most state-of-the-art NFL stadiums do around the league, despite $130 million in renovations taking place there this past offseason.
The Bills have entered the second year of a 10-year lease with Erie County to stay at Ralph Wilson Stadium, ESPN reports, but Goodell wants the team to start working on a new home as soon as possible.
The Bills, Erie County and New York state have formed a 20-member committee that will explore the possibility of replacing the old stadium, but county executive Mark Poloncarz hasn't ruled out a more extensive renovation.
"At this time, all options should be part of the discussion and nothing should be disregarded," Poloncarz said in a statement released in response to Goodell's comments, according to ESPN.
The NFL has hired an architectural and design firm to come up with three or four feasible sites across the region that could house a new stadium for the Bills. Following the death of longtime owner Ralph Wilson, the Bills are looking for new ownership, and a sale could be done by July ESPN reports.
Under the agreement that the Bills have with Erie County, the team's new owner wouldn't be able to relocate it until 2020 and it would take two separate votes for the team to approve new owners and for the league to improve the relocation of a franchise.
"There's two votes. There's one vote to approve an ownership, and if a team potentially relocates, it's another vote," Goodell told reporters, according to The Buffalo News. "We're not making those one vote."
The Bills -- much like their stadium -- have had better years than they've had in 2013, where they finished with a 6-10 record and in fourth place in the AFC East.
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