Highmark Stadium went live Saturday night with the annual Blue and Red open practice, and there seem to be as many opinions about the new building as there were fans in the stands and cars in the parking lots.
I spent most of my time at the Buffalo Bills’ annual Blue and Red practice talking to fans on the concourses, and they were unanimously ecstatic about the $2.2 billion project that included $850 million in public funding.
One season-ticket holder, Mike Dolan from the Northtowns, said he woke up Saturday morning feeling “like a kid on Christmas” because he knew he would finally get to see the new stadium and find out where his seats are.
“I’m not going to lie. I had to hold back happy tears on the way in,” Rochester native Laren Hettler said. “I got a little too emotional at just the excitement. I’m sad that the old stadium is gone, but we have this. It’s just overwhelming.”
But as the night went on, unanimous praise began to splinter. Social media was awash with photos of complaints about this and that. Photos of seats with obstructed views were jarring.
A new era in Buffalo as Bills unveil their new stadium
Tim Graham and Madison Eades
One side-by-side showed the rendering the fan said they were sold and the actual seat that was obstructed. The public-address system was unintelligible. The scoreboards are too small. Then the rain started to fall, and fans who thought they would be protected by the canopy — which was advertised to cover around 65 percent of the seats — got drenched.
I didn’t witness any of these negative experiences firsthand, but there’s plenty of evidence that new Highmark Stadium’s reveal wasn’t an undisputed success. I asked fellow Bills beat writer Joe Buscaglia what his first impressions were as he and I discussed the Bills’ new home venue.
Buscaglia: I took some time ahead of the practice to give myself a little tour and get familiarized with the surroundings, both from a fan and media perspective. The first thing that stood out, just from walking in and around the stadium, was that some of the concourses and the way it was built reminded me a bit of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. There are certainly Buffalo touches throughout, and things that make it unique compared to that building, though. Some of the touches are pretty cool, to be honest.
Graham: Wasn’t this supposed to look like Tottenham Hotspur Stadium? I sensed a Meadowlands vibe as well, particularly in the press box. Nobody wants to hear praise or complaints from the media about how we live on game day. Still, my overall take on the press box was that the view is similar to the Jets’ and Giants’ — better than most newer stadiums, but in general it felt like an average NFL press box. Much nicer than what we had at The Ralph, though.
Buscaglia: Yeah, I quite liked the spot up in the press box. It gave me an All-22 coaches film vibe, and I’m into that. Here’s a cool little feature up there. They put in mechanical windows near the top of some of the glass, so that way we can hear the natural roar of the stadium sound. Little touches like that make it a bit different.
Other than the media side, I made it a point to find my way up behind the main scoreboard to the opening on the lakeside of the stadium by the 300s. It has a view of downtown Buffalo off in the distance, and you can look down and see some of the area surrounding the stadium and the family circle area, with those massive bison visible from pretty far away. I haven’t seen anything quite like that at an NFL stadium before. It’s a viewpoint worth checking out if you make it to the stadium. I do wonder, though, what that opening is going to be like when the wind and snow start whipping around Orchard Park as it always does. What stood out most to you, Tim?
A view of the new Highmark Stadium’s Family Circle off in the distance, featuring the steel bison statues that greets fans. (Joe Buscaglia / The Athletic)
Graham: I loved the Western New York touches throughout the building, whether it was the public art in the M&T Bank Lounge or the neighborhood nods at the different concession stands. But based on some of the negative experiences and worries fans expressed about what they paid for through PSLs and face-value tickets, I’m starting to wonder if the Bills paid too much attention to the cute little details and not enough to the baseline experience. The big picture — quite literally the one scoreboard — was not a very big picture at all. I’ve also heard concerns about wind in the concourses, which construction workers have been whispering about for the past year. They say the wind howls through there. Much was made about the new Highmark Stadium being weatherproof, but the wind and rain already seem like issues. Maybe they won’t be on the field, which is what some of the technology was meant to address, but the fans endured Saturday night.
Buscaglia: How it responds to the different weather elements, all around, will be one of my biggest questions. But until we get there, I do have to compliment them for the level of efficiency in getting around the stadium. Everything inside the facilities has a pretty direct path to where you want to go, and that is a massive improvement over the last stadium. For instance, just from the media side, we walk in the door, and the elevator to where we need to get to is there and as easy as can be. At the old Highmark Stadium, each media person would need to go down a few levels on a staircase and play Frogger through a wave of exiting fans before traversing down more stairs to get down to the main tunnel for post-game stuff. By the NFL’s scope, it was kind of unheard of — so much so that I took a video of the entire thing in the stadium finale last year to fondly remember its ridiculousness. It was a great workout if you did it quickly enough. So, to me, the streamlining was really noticeable.
Graham: I heard some complaints from fans about the lack of escalators to take them to the upper levels, but I’m going to chalk that up — for now — to familiarizing themselves with a roughly 1.6 million-square-foot venue. The Ralph was so spartan that you knew your exact gate from street level and walked straight to your seat, or at least its vicinity, before you began wading through hordes of revelers of various consciousness, standing in endless lines for the restroom or concessions. I’m sure that within a few weeks, the new Highmark Stadium citizenry will have mastered routines like the backs of their double-fisted, beer-holding hands.
Buscaglia: Yeah, everyone will have their own special route to their seats before long, just like everyone has their own route to get down to the stadium that resides right near some neighborhoods. I do want to give them credit for bringing in some really local food and dessert options. It’s really difficult when you have a stadium that cost over $2 billion, and that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in Buffalo and its surrounding areas, to push forward the local charm that existed within their last place. Bringing in local vendors really helps that piece of the puzzle, even if the stadium has more of a corporate feel than many are used to.
All in all, I think it was a good debut for the new home of the Bills. Now we’ll see how gameday operations go on Saturday, when the Bills take on the Carolina Panthers in the first preseason game in the history of new Highmark Stadium.
See you there, TG.
