8 New NFL Stadiums Opening This Decade (and What They Cost)

The NFL is in the middle of the most expensive building boom in American sports history. Since 2020, three franchises have opened new stadiums, four more are under construction or approved, and the combined price tag is closing in on $25 billion. A meaningful chunk of that isn't coming from billionaire owners or ticket revenue — it's coming from taxpayers, through hotel taxes, infrastructure bonds, and state appropriations.

This list covers every stadium that has opened this decade plus every project under construction or past the votes and financing needed to call it "real." It skips vague wish-list stadiums with no site or funding deal — with one exception: the Chicago Bears, whose saga has shifted so many times it belongs here as a case study in how not to plan a stadium. Every claim below is dated, because as the Bears prove, these deals change fast. Costs are totals as reported at groundbreaking, approval, or opening — not adjusted for the overruns that hit nearly every one of these.

Master Comparison Table

Table current as of August 22, 2026. Costs and dates on unopened projects are subject to change.

1. SoFi Stadium — Inglewood, California

Status: Open (since September 2020)

SoFi Stadium is the one every subsequent owner has had to answer for. Built for the Rams and Chargers, it opened in September 2020 at a final cost of roughly $5.5 billion — early 2016 estimates were closer to $2.66 billion, but the budget nearly doubled, making it the most expensive stadium ever built. It seats 70,240 for NFL games and expands past 100,000 for events like the Super Bowl. It's not a dome: a translucent ETFE canopy covers the bowl while the sides stay open to the Southern California air, with 27,000 embedded LED "pucks" turning the roof into a giant scoreboard. Crucially, it was privately financed — Stan Kroenke's development company led the project, with the Rams and Chargers each contributing $200 million in NFL loans and seat-license revenue. Inglewood granted infrastructure support and tax arrangements, but there was no public bond vote. It's the closest thing this era has to a stadium built without a taxpayer fight — the standard other owners get held to.

2. Allegiant Stadium — Las Vegas, Nevada

Status: Open (since 2020)

Allegiant Stadium brought the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas at a cost of $1.9 billion, with $750 million covered by public funds raised through a Clark County hotel-tax increase — a mechanism meant to shift the burden onto tourists, though economists debate how cleanly that works in practice. Designed by Manica Architecture, the 65,000-seat venue is a true fixed dome with a retractable natural-grass field tray that rolls outdoors between games for sunlight. Its black, angular exterior and indoor "Al Davis Torch" have made it one of the most photographed stadiums in the league. The Raiders' move from Oakland — where voters had repeatedly rejected stadium funding — is a frequently cited example of a team using relocation as leverage to get a deal a prior city wouldn't approve.

3. New Highmark Stadium — Orchard Park, New York

Status: Open (opened June 2026)

The Bills' new home opened across the parking lot from the old stadium in June 2026, with its first public event on August 8, 2026, at a total cost of more than $2.1 billion. Designed by Populous, it seats 60,108 — over 10,000 fewer than the stadium it replaced — under a partial canopy covering roughly 60% of the seating bowl, leaving the field open to preserve Buffalo's cold-weather identity. It's also the most publicly funded stadium on this list in dollar terms: New York State and Erie County committed roughly $850 million, a deal Governor Kathy Hochul defended as protecting a civic institution and critics called a giveaway to a team that wasn't credibly threatening to leave. For what changed for fans — seating, sightlines, concourses — see our New Highmark Stadium seating chart and capacity guide.

4. New Nissan Stadium — Nashville, Tennessee

Status: Under construction

The Titans broke ground on their new domed stadium in February 2024 and are targeting a summer 2027 opening on an adjacent riverfront site. Designed by Manica Architecture, the $2.1 billion venue will seat 60,000 under a translucent ETFE dome — Nashville's first fully enclosed NFL stadium. The funding split set a record at the time: $1.26 billion in public money (roughly 60%), split between $500 million from the state and about $760 million from Metro Nashville sports-authority revenue bonds and hotel/rental-car taxes, against roughly $840 million from the team. Officials framed the public share as protection against escalating rent and relocation threats; watchdog groups called it, dollar-for-dollar, the largest public stadium subsidy in NFL history at the time. As of August 2026, construction remains on schedule for 2027, with the current stadium set for demolition once the new one opens.

5. EverBank Stadium "Stadium of the Future" — Jacksonville, Florida

Status: Under construction (renovation, not new-build)

This is a renovation, not a ground-up stadium, but it's a big enough overhaul to belong on this list. The Jaguars and the City of Jacksonville approved a $1.4 billion rebuild that guts and rebuilds the bowl in phases while the team keeps playing there, targeting completion before the 2028 season. Each side is contributing $625 million, with the city adding another $150 million to prepare the site — putting the public share at roughly 55%, notably without new taxes, drawn from existing city revenue. HOK is the design firm on record, and the finished venue will hold 62,000 for NFL games, expandable to 71,500 for college football. A large canopy provides shade without fully enclosing the bowl. EverBank is one of several NFL venues carrying a bank's naming rights; see Every Stadium Named After a Bank, Ranked for how that trend compares league-wide.

6. Brook Park Stadium — Brook Park, Ohio

Status: Under construction

The Browns broke ground on their new domed stadium in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb near the airport, in May 2026, targeting a 2029 opening. Reported costs vary by outlet — $2.4 billion per the NFL and ESPN, up to $2.6 billion in some wire coverage. Designed by HKS, the 67,500-seat venue will have a fixed, folded-plate transparent roof and a Dawg Pound end zone with a steep 34-degree pitch modeled on European soccer terraces, putting the closest seats just 16 feet from the field. The funding is the shakiest of any project currently under construction: Haslam Sports Group is covering $1.76 billion privately, but Ohio's promised $600 million is tied up in litigation, and Brook Park's own $245 million contribution hasn't received final approval. Construction proceeds on the strength of the private commitment while the public pieces stay unresolved.

7. New Commanders Stadium — Washington, D.C. (RFK site)

Status: Approved, pre-construction

After decades in Maryland, the Commanders struck a deal to return to the RFK Stadium site in D.C., with the Council granting final approval in September 2025. Infrastructure work began in April 2026, with a full groundbreaking planned for early 2027 and a target opening in 2030. At a projected $3.8 billion, it's the most expensive project on this list, though also the most privately funded by percentage: the Commanders are committing roughly $2.7 billion, covering construction, a parking structure, and cost overruns, while the District's roughly $1.06 billion covers infrastructure, a separate garage, and utility work — about 28% of the total. Designed by HKS with a neoclassical colonnade exterior and a translucent, partially climate-controlled roof, the venue is planned to seat 65,000 plus 5,000 standing-room spaces. Zoning delays have pushed surrounding mixed-use development to after the stadium opens.

8. Chicago Bears Stadium — Site Undecided

Status: Proposed — no site, financing, or timeline finalized as of August 22, 2026

This entry is the one most likely to be out of date the moment you read it — treat every detail as a snapshot, not a conclusion. The Bears bought the 326-acre former Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, Illinois, for $197.2 million in 2023 and spent two years pursuing a domed stadium there before Illinois lawmakers balked at the roughly $855 million in public infrastructure money sought. Through 2025 and 2026, the team began courting Hammond, Indiana, instead, examining two sites near Wolf Lake — one a former industrial dump, the other next to an oil refinery and a Superfund site — with Indiana offering at least $1 billion in taxpayer backing funded by new taxes on tickets, hotels, and concessions. As of an August 13, 2026 update, president Kevin Warren said the Bears are "focused on building a stadium in Hammond" while declining to rule out Illinois, and the team has stopped announcing target dates after missing earlier ones. The Bears have committed $2 billion of their own money regardless of site; no total project cost, capacity, or roof design has been finalized publicly. Update this entry before republishing.

Who's Actually Paying?

Add up the public commitments across the four projects with finalized funding — Allegiant ($750M), Highmark ($850M), Nissan ($1.26B), and the Commanders' RFK deal ($1.06B) — and taxpayers are on the hook for roughly $3.9 billion, before the Browns' and Jaguars' contested or partial figures are even counted. That's a lot of public money flowing into buildings that generate private revenue for billionaire ownership groups.

The case for public money is consistent: stadiums anchor entertainment districts and keep teams — and their tax revenue, jobs, and civic identity — from leaving for a more generous state, and the "public" dollars are often structured as hotel or rental-car taxes aimed at visitors, not residents. Nashville and Las Vegas both leaned on that framing. The case against is just as consistent: economists studying stadium subsidies have found the promised economic impact rarely materializes, the jobs created skew low-wage and seasonal, and the relocation-threat leverage teams use works precisely because a rival city's bid can't easily be verified as serious. The Bears' Hammond flirtation, unresolved as of this writing, is that dynamic playing out live. SoFi is the counterexample proving it doesn't have to work this way — but it also required an ownership group able to write a $5 billion check, which is rare in this league.

What's Next After 2030

Beyond the projects listed here, older stadiums face renovation pressure of their own instead of outright replacement — venues like Tampa's Raymond James Stadium have gone through phased upgrade cycles to stay competitive without a full rebuild, a cheaper path some franchises may choose over starting from scratch; see our Raymond James Stadium guide. Expect similar pressure on 1990s- and 2000s-era stadiums (Arrowhead, Lambeau, Soldier Field) as host cities watch this decade's spending. Naming-rights turnover is also a safe bet — half the venues on this list have already been renamed at least once, a pattern covered in 10 Stadiums That Changed Names the Most. The biggest open variable remains the Bears: wherever that stadium lands, expect groundbreaking in the back half of this decade and an opening in the early 2030s.