Bills & Seneca Deepen Ties
Seneca Resorts & Casinos Secures Naming Rights for Bills' Highmark Stadium Field Club as Founding Partner
Key Points
Seneca Resorts & Casinos becomes the Bills’ ninth founding partner for Highmark Stadium, joining Toyota, Wegmans, Kaleida, M&T Bank, Verizon, PepsiCo and Ticketmaster. Highmark will continue as the stadium’s naming partner and is also listed as a founding partner.
The Field Club—the stadium’s premium space—will carry Seneca Resorts & Casinos’ naming rights and sit inside Highmark Stadium.
A formal land acknowledgement was read acknowledging the Seneca Nation, including the text: 'The Buffalo Bills acknowledge that we gather and work on traditional homelands of the Seneca Nation, the Keepers of the Western Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. We recognize and honor the Seneca people’s enduring connection with these lands and waters, and honor their past, present and future contributions to our region and the Western New York community.'
The deal accompanies broader cross-sport branding momentum for Seneca Resorts & Casinos, including a recent move to become the Sabres’ home jersey patch sponsor.
Seneca Resorts & Casinos has signed on as the ninth Founding Partner of the Buffalo Bills' new Highmark Stadium, the team announced Monday, June 29. The multi-year deal gives Seneca naming rights to the 16,500-square-foot Field Club and the presenting sponsorship of the "Legend of the Game" feature, expanding a partnership that first began in 2006. Buffalo Bills confirmed the agreement will run five years.
The announcement comes just six days after the $2.1 billion stadium's formal ribbon-cutting ceremony and two weeks after Seneca locked in a separate deal to become the Buffalo Sabres' first-ever home jersey patch sponsor, valued at over $2 million annually, per Sports Business Journal.
The Field Club and What Seneca Gets Inside the Stadium
The centerpiece of the deal is the Seneca Resorts & Casinos Field Club. The 16,500-square-foot space sits at field level inside Highmark Stadium. It includes a patio directly behind the team bench and a clear sightline into the player tunnel. Guests get all-inclusive food and beverages, per Buffalo Bills.
Seneca also becomes the presenting sponsor of the "Legend of the Game" feature, which connects fans with the Bills' community of more than 1,300 former players. Bills Legends will make annual appearances at Seneca's three casino properties in Niagara Falls, Salamanca, and Buffalo, according to Indian Gaming.
Seneca Joins Eight Other Brands as Founding Partners
Seneca is the ninth company to earn the Founding Partner designation. The group now includes Highmark, Toyota, Wegmans, Kaleida Health, M&T Bank, Verizon, PepsiCo, and Ticketmaster, per Sports Business Journal. Toyota was added as recently as May 29, 2026, just a month before Seneca's announcement.
Bills President of Business Operations Pete Guelli has built the Founding Partner model as a key revenue pillar. The Bills are on the hook for roughly $1.35 billion of the stadium's $2.1 billion cost, after a fixed $850 million public contribution from New York State and Erie County. Long-term local anchors like Seneca and M&T Bank help stabilize that financial picture. The Bills signed a 30-year lease at the new venue.
Two Decades of Partnership, and a Land Acknowledgement
Kevin Nephew, President and CEO of Seneca Resorts & Casinos, called the moment significant for the whole region. "Our team knows well the feeling of opening world-class properties built for big moments," he said. "This is a big moment... It takes over the whole community," per Buffalo Bills.
The announcement also included a formal land acknowledgement — a rare step for an NFL franchise. The Bills read aloud: "The Buffalo Bills acknowledge that we gather and work on traditional homelands of the Seneca Nation, the Keepers of the Western Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy." The Buffalo Creek Casino sits in the Cobblestone District, the ancestral home of the Seneca Nation, according to Indian Gaming.
A Complex History Behind the Celebratory Moment
The partnership has not always been smooth. In April 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul seized $565 million in Seneca casino revenue after a compact dispute. She then directed $600 million in state funds — largely from that seizure — toward the new stadium project. Seneca Nation leaders said at the time the new stadium was being "paid for on the backs of the Seneca Nation," per City & State NY.
Despite that history, both sides have pushed forward. The Seneca Nation generates an estimated $1.9 billion in annual economic impact across Western New York, per Indian Gaming. Allie R. George, Chairman of Seneca Gaming Corp's Board of Directors, pointed to the "wow factor" of the new Field Club — linking the energy of the casino floor to the intensity of the Bills' sideline.
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