🏟️ How The Buffalo Bills Designed the Perfect Football Stadium

In partnership with

I’m not one for huge New Year’s resolutions, but I saw this video recently that I really liked regarding hobbies. It was a novel self-development framing that I resonated with; maybe you will, too!

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: How The Buffalo Bills Designed the Perfect Football Stadium

📉 Biggest Loser: Why 11 NFL Teams are Losing their Stadium Names in 2026

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Coolest Sporting Event You’ve Never Heard About

Hands Down Some Of The Best 0% Interest Credit Cards

Pay no interest until nearly 2026 with some of the best hand-picked credit cards this year. They are perfect for anyone looking to pay down their debt, and not add to it!

Click here to see what all of the hype is about.

Learn How To Apply Now

🗞 The Big Story

The Buffalo Bills are building the most high-tech stadium in all of sports, but not for the reason you might think.

Overdue Upgrade: Currently, the Bills play at Highmark Stadium, originally built in 1973, making it the 4th oldest stadium in the NFL.

But across the street, the team is in its second year of construction for its brand new, $2.1 billion stadium that is set to be complete by 2026, and some of the features they’re including are genuinely insane.

For starters, the new Highmark Stadium will use:

• 25,000 tons of steel

• 1.5 million square feet of concrete

• 1,300 miles of wire

It’ll also feature a 360-degree concourse so that wherever you’re standing in the stadium, you’ll have a complete, unobstructed view of the field.

But perhaps the most notable design feature is the roof (or rather the lack thereof).

Roof or No Roof, That is the Question: From the beginning, Bills owner Terry Pegula wanted the team to play outdoors. That, along with the high cost of building a dome or retractable roof, meant that the team had limited options when designing the new stadium.

So, what they settled on is a canopy that will cover over 60% of fans from rain or snow.

But on top of this canopy, the team built the world’s largest snowmelt system designed to handle up to seven feet of snow at a time.

The roof features sensors that can monitor temperature and precipitation so that snow can be melted and pumped out of the stadium as it’s falling.

An added bonus of this canopy design is that all crowd noise will be reflected down to the field. The team has even installed speakers underneath the canopy to hopefully make this new stadium one of the loudest in all of sports.

📉 Biggest Loser

11 NFL stadiums are about to be forced to change their names, and not for the reason you might think.

But this move could make each city hundreds of millions of dollars.

Background: In 2026, FIFA will host the men’s World Cup across 16 different cities in North America, including at 11 NFL stadiums here in the US.

Now, per FIFA’s rules, these host stadiums aren’t allowed to be sponsored by brands that don’t already work with FIFA.

This means that all 11 stadiums will be forced to change their names during the 2026 World Cup, like from AT&T Stadium to Dallas Stadium or MetLife Stadium to New York New Jersey Stadium.

Teams will even have to go as far as covering or removing the signage on the outside of their stadiums, and broadcasters won’t be allowed to reference the venues by their sponsored names.

So why is this a good thing?

Cost of Doing Business: In recent history, hosting a World Cup has meant spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build new stadiums, hotels, and even airports to accommodate the influx of tourists.

However, in North America, all that infrastructure is already built, meaning host cities - especially here in America, don’t need to spend nearly as much to host World Cup matches.

In fact, some cities, like Seattle, are spending as little as $10 million on a temporary grass surface, policing, and practice fields.

Meanwhile, the last time the World Cup was hosted here in the US, in 1994, it generated an estimated $1.4 billion for host cities.

And while I’m typically skeptical of these sorts of economic impact studies, there’s no denying that the estimated 5 million fans planning to come to these cities will be good for local economies - especially when these cities already have the stadiums, hotels, and airports built.

So, honestly, removing the stadium sponsor’s name for a few weeks is the least they can do.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

The most iconic tennis match ever is one you’ve probably never heard of, but the craziest part is it almost never even happened.

Background: In 2007, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were the No. 1 and No. 2 tennis players in the world, respectively; however, even though they had already played each other 10 times in their career, Nadal held a commanding 7-3 head-to-head lead.

This is because 9 of their 10 matches had been held on a clay playing surface, which Nadal has dominated throughout his entire career.

In fact, at the time, he had won 72 straight matches on clay, not losing on the surface in over three years.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer was known for dominating grass tennis courts, winning 48 straight matches on the surface, good for five consecutive years without a loss.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that in Nadal and Federer’s only match on grass, Federer won — meaning the best way to settle who was the better player was to allow each guy to play on his preferred surface.

The Match: So on May 2, 2007, in front of 6,800 fans in Spain and 200 million viewers across the world, Nadal and Federer played in the Battle of the Surfaces on a half-clay, half-grass court that was built in 19 days for $1.6 million.

However, a night before the highly anticipated match, event organizers realized that the grass they had moved indoors had been infected with worms… resulting in them having to replace the entire half of the court and almost causing the event to be canceled.

Luckily, they were able to replace the grass in time, and the following day, the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, beat Roger Federer in a close, three-set match that would never be replicated again.

⏱ In Other News

• Why Gruden x Barstool might be shortlived.

• Women’s sports newest, $110M team.

• The cost of relegation? $1 billion.

🎁 Share the Bottom of the Ninth

When you refer new readers to the Bottom of the Ninth, you win exclusive prizes.

➡️ Here is your unique link to share: https://bottom-of-the-ninth.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

You’re currently at 0. That’s only 1 away from receiving a Bottom of the Ninth Sticker!

*Please do not use fake email addresses — they will not qualify as referrals. Thank you!

👋 Happy Friday and Happy New Year!

Last year, this newsletter community more than doubled in size. Do I smell a 5x in 2025?

In all seriousness, my favorite thing as a creator is sending out this newsletter, knowing that thousands of like-minded sports-business nerds read it as a part of their weekly routine.

I love it even more when you all email me back with your thoughts and suggestions.

Keep them coming in ‘25!