Pittsford, N.Y. (WBEN) - The upcoming season of Buffalo Bills football is fast approaching, and game day experiences in Orchard Park are about to change drastically over the next three years.
Construction of a new state-of-the-art football stadium, the new Highmark Stadium, is well underway across the street from the current facility along Abbott Road, and will not be ready for game action until the start of the 2026 season.
While there is plenty of excitement to go around with the prospect of a new stadium that keeps the Bills in Western New York for the long-term, many members of "Bills Mafia" are already planning ahead for the upcoming alterations to their game day experiences in-and-around the stadium grounds.
LISTEN LIVE TO WBEN:
"Obviously with being such a tailgate atmosphere for games, I think with certain lots being closed, overflowing into other lots and just changing the game day routine for people I think would have the biggest impact," said Bills fan Nick from Amherst at Bills training camp. "Is my lot gonna be closed? Am I gonna be able to get there at the same time that I'm usually able to get there? How does that impact my experience? That's something of concern."
Arguably the No. 1 concern among Bills fans heading into the upcoming season and beyond will be parking and traffic flow around the stadium, especially for anyone who parked in a stadium lot that is now lost to construction.
"We've been parking in Lot 6 now for the last year. When [the stadium] starts to be tore down, that now will be gone," said Bills fan Mike Ryan from Tonawanda while visiting Bills training camp. "That's just a concern of mine with all of the construction, where are we going to park?"
"I just hope they have a plan in place to accommodate people and what their routine typically is, and hopefully give them a suitable alternative," Nick added.
For Bills fans like Bryan Schuster from Orchard Park, he, too is concerned about what stadium construction will do to further impact the game day experience for fans. Along with parking being a concern, he also feels it will be important to be parked and set up earlier than before in order to avoid any hectic congestion in the region.
"We generally try to get there as early as we can anyways, have a little fun before the game starts. We will definitely look to do that, maybe even earlier this year," said Schuster while at Bills training camp with his three kids.
While it may be important to try to beat any game day traffic, fans like Ryan are a bit worried that others may be following suit to try and all get to Orchard Park earlier than they have been.
"I think everybody else is going to have the same idea, so you might even have to be super early. I don't know how early I want to get there, but you might have to do it," Ryan said. "We're gonna have to do what we've got to do."
Although fans will have to adjust to the game day experience with stadium construction ongoing for, at least, the next three seasons, it will certainly be an experience to watch the new facility be constructed up-and-close, even during the heart of the football season.
"I've been taking my grandkids down probably every other week or so just to see the progress going on," Ryan admitted. "For me, I see the progress, but they're so young - one's 9 and one's 5 - they really don't understand the progress until maybe there's a structure being put up, and then they'll see it better. So I'm looking forward to that, seeing the structure built and the progress made from that, and taken down. I want to have my own story with my grandkids."
As Bills fans make their preparations for game days in 2023 and the next few years, the organization has been doing its own prep work to ready for the upcoming changes to game day operations around the stadium thanks to ongoing construction.
Bills' Vice President of Operations and Guest Experience, Andy Major is hopeful construction will have a minimal impact, especially in the first year of the project.
"We are trying to prepare to make sure the fans have as easy as an ingress and egress as they possibly can, and make sure it's safe. That's the No. 1 concern the Bills have, as well as all of our partners that we work very closely with," said Major in an interview with WBEN at Bills training camp. "But I do think fans will see a little bit of a difference."
Friday will be the first sort of simulation for game day operations in-and-around the stadium with the challenges of construction. However, it will be likely half the scale of a regular season game when the Bills host their annual "Return of the Blue and Red" practice at Highmark Stadium.
The following week on Saturday, the Bills will be able to ramp things up more when the team hosts its only preseason game of the year against the Indianapolis Colts. Major feels this will be the first real chance to get a grip of what the regular season might bring.
"We think this is a work in progress," he said. "We're not afraid to make changes and adjustments every single game if we have to, but hopefully we get it to a point where, 'OK, we were right about what we thought, and now it's a matter of just tweaking a few things to make it better and better each game as we go along.'"
Since the stadium construction process got started back in May, Major says the Bills have had a number of different meetings and calls with all kinds of partners to come up with a proper game plan for the upcoming season. This includes the likes of Erie County, New York State Department of Transportation, NITTEC and Comet Flasher, partners that help with traffic, signage, coning, and more to allow for the safe ingress and egress of fans at the stadium.
"We're looking into pedestrian walkway areas, closing portions of Big Tree Road to help with fan ingress and safe traffic, and modeling of how it might work with the construction project up and running," Major said. "Working with those kinds of companies as well, to give us the best possible plan for the parking lots, for how to get fans to the stadium, in-and-out. It's been a lot of work, and honestly, I think the best feedback we're gonna get is after we start hosting events, and we start seeing how that is actually working."
The Bills have also been listening to fans, and completely understand the concerns of many when it comes to parking and accessibility to parking for upcoming games this year and beyond.
The organization is sorting out parking matters in a few different ways to start. This starts with working very closely with lot owners around the community that are within walking distance of the stadium.
"We've got a really good communications team with our new stadium construction project to keep those folks in the loop on what's going on with the stadium construction. Whether it's blasting, noise, or when we might be doing certain things with the construction project," Major detailed. "We can't thank the neighborhood and the neighbors that park cars enough for all that they do with parking cars. Regardless of the construction project, the neighborhoods park more cars than the Bills park, and people sometimes don't realize that or think about that. They're super important to our operation."
Another parking component that will change this upcoming season will be making some lots normally reserved for game day staff now open for the public.
"We've been working with ECC as well, the community college to help us with additional parking for game day staff so that we can use the game day staff parking lot for fans this year," Major said. "Things like that, where we've literally offset the spaces we're losing so that fans aren't losing spaces themselves with parking this year."
In addition, the Bills have been working closely with the NFTA to offer alternative options for fans who may look to avoid parking down by the stadium at all.
"For fans that might want to use bus transportation, how we can get them a special route to the stadium and give them a special egress so it makes it worth it for fans to hop on a bus and not have to deal with traffic," Major said. "Just relax, get on their phones, listen to the radio about postgame, and all of a sudden, here they are at their car, whether it's downtown or other."
Major understands the game day challenges will only get tougher following the 2023 season, as the project will continue to grow while more parking spaces will be lost. However, he's confident with the group and partnerships the Bills have in place, they will continue to work to make the fan experience the best it possibly can be.
Related
Another game day element that has been lost due to stadium construction along Abbott Road is the presence of an RV Lot for some of the more dedicated Bills fans. That lot has officially gone away, as it's right in the heart of where the new stadium is going to be.
"We decided we were unable to replace the RV Lot this year, in 2023, just because of the demand for cars and the construction project. So we wanted to make sure we didn't have to implement any kind of a shuttle service for fans in Year 1, and try to make it as easy for the fans in general as we possibly could," Major explained.
WGR morning show host Jeremy White and his family are among the dedicated fans who are not only season ticket holders, but also elected to camp out every weekend of a Bills home game in the past. Now they have no where to bring their RV.
"As a multi-year camper lot resident, my concern is that I don't have any plan in place right now. I have no idea what we're going to do," said White in a recent interview with WBEN. "My family, we get two, three campers together, usually, and we're like free agents looking for a home. So still up in the air, which is probably not a good thing."
While White is not optimistic he will be able to find an available lot to bring his RV this upcoming season, he still feels his family will be able to figure other options out to take in this year of Bills football.
"We'll just have to park a lot farther away," White admitted. "That's the thing about the RV Lot, it was very close to the stadium, perfect real estate. Now we might have to park further away, walk a little farther."
Like other Bills fans, among White's biggest concerns for the upcoming season will be the ability for people to get into Orchard Park without creating congestion problems.
"That spot right there is right where the field house lot exits out, pretty much right there, that's also where they block off. So it might be OK, because Abbott Road is never open to begin with, but yeah, big construction equipment, and never mind people are gonna want to come over and take a look at it, like rubbernecking the actual construction," White said.
Meanwhile, an early arrival time will be key for White when attending Bills games this upcoming season. He says it's helpful to have more later games to help with traffic on the way in. Though, he adds the way home for many Bills fans might be a different story.
As for the future of the RV Lot during the construction of the new stadium, unfortunately, the Bills will likely be waiting until the facility is finished before establishing a permanent new lot for fans to bring their RVs and camp out.
While that may not be the news RV passholders want to hear, Major says those fans have been kept in the loop and have alternative plans similar to White. He adds the team is definitely committed to not just bring that lot back come 2026, but have it being better than ever.
"We've told those folks, 'You all have the first top priority to return. We're planning to have every single one of you come back, and we want you back,'" Major said. "We want to have a great RV Lot in the future, and that's kind of exciting for our stadium construction teams and the designers, because that's all they're thinking about. Some of them have family and friends that come in RVs themselves, so they're like, 'Alright, we want to hit a home run with this RV Lot when the new stadium [is finished].' So we haven't forgotten about that at all. That's part of what makes Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills, and our tailgating atmosphere so cool, and we recognize that. It's just we've got to kind of take it on the chin for a couple of years, but it's all coming back and will be there for the rest of our history."
Major says the Bills are appreciative of "Bills Mafia", and hope they will stick with the organization through the next three seasons before the new Highmark Stadium is finished. He feels fans are going to see some amazing progress with the new facility being built, despite the challenges that lie ahead come game days.
"We're going to do our very best to communicate anything to the fans that might affect their game day experience. We want them to understand if you have a ticket, we're going to be emailing everybody the information about game day, any changes that might be coming up," he said. "We encourage fans to go to BuffaloBills.com, go to our 'Know before you go' page. It has all the information about access, traffic patterns, recommendations about how to access the Bills and the stadium in the best manner that works for them, regardless of where they're coming from."
Friday's "Return of the Blue and Red" practice gets started at 5:30 p.m. ET at Highmark Stadium.
Related
