The latest renderings of the new Buffalo Bills stadium

“It’s ramping up a lot,” he said during an interview with The Buffalo News at the NFL’s annual convention at the Arizona Biltmore. “We’re closer to reality now.”

The new renders, released by the team on Monday morning, show a full exterior view, an idea of ​​the facility’s massive height, the mechanics to prevent a swirling wind on the field, and Bills-centric touches inside the building.

“What we’re trying to do here (with the renderings) is really tune in to what it’s going to look like,” Raccuia said. “When we talk about creating a place for Bills fans to live and breathe it, we want to make sure everyone knows you’re inside the Buffalo Bills home, from the color to the decor to the light, when you enter it. ”

Final documents for the $1.4 billion project, which involves county, state and Bill officials, have not yet been finalized, but it could be this week. The Erie County Legislature has yet to approve the final documents, a process expected to take at least 30 days after the County Legislature receives the agreements.

The full view of the west side of the stadium features a tailgate area in the car parks and a club level atrium.

“Part of what we’re showing is what the branding will be like, and also the size of the building,” Raccuia said. “The Highmark stadium is not perceived as such a large structure at the moment because it is built so deep into the ground. That will be 16 stories in the air.

“For me, having lived here all my life, I grew up driving past the stadium and now thinking about how the landscape will change – you will see the stadium from miles away and if you are on the upper deck, you will You see the water and the Buffalo skyline.”

One rendering, Raccuia said, is the look of the “first full interior bowl.” An ancillary line will include a lower level, two levels of suites, the NFL’s first-ever “upper deck club” and field-level club seating.

A close-up exterior view shows the brick and metal configuration that will help ensure wind is not a factor in the game and an inconvenience to fans. It’s called “wind entanglement.”

“The wind is coming in and it has a direction and it knows exactly what it wants to do – go into the stadium and twirl,” Raccuia said. “We want it to come in and go through the perforated metal pieces (that line the outside of the stadium). The wind gets confused and the perforations are random and so it starts to block the wind and cut it up and tangle it and when the wind then reaches the canopy the canopy is tilted so that it actually rides on the canopy and don’t fall into the stadium so that the wind doesn’t blow into the stadium.”

Raccuia said the “wind tangle” model is “very common in European football and extremely unique in the NFL.”

Three renderings show locations inside the stadium.

One shows how the Bills will use light to clad the steel, concrete and flooring.

“We will bring light into the game,” said Raccuia. “This makes the standard metal pillars shine. Paint doesn’t wear off well, but light is always available.”

The default for the light is red and blue, but Raccuia said green and pink could be implemented for the league’s annual Salute To Service and Crucial Catch campaigns, as well as an all-red look when the Bills wear their riot uniforms .

Raccuia said it’s important to the Bills to have a club area big enough to comfortably host large pre-game gatherings.

“Western New Yorkers like to get together and like to party together,” Raccuia said. “You go to an event, everyone stops at the bar first – they don’t go straight to their table. You are having a house party and no matter the size of the house, everyone is in the same place (the house). This stadium is being built so that people can gather and enjoy Bill’s football together.”

Throughout the stadium, the Bills will have “Shout” walls.

“It’s a huge megaphone and fans can say, ‘Where would you rather be?’ or ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey,’ and it’ll reverberate through the halls,” Raccuia said. “Fully interactive, fan engagement.”

Raccuia said the Bills’ primary goal in designing the stadium was “to make sure no matter where you sit, you get the same feeling.”

He added that groundbreaking is expected in 30 to 45 days at the site across from Highmark Stadium.

“It’s coming fast,” Raccuia said, adding that part of setting a date for the groundbreaking is coordinating the schedules of officials instrumental in the stadium deal.