Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It appears Bisons ownership is making efforts to look into renovating and upgrading elements of Sahlen Field in Downtown Buffalo.
According to a report from the New York Post, Bisons owner Bob Rich Jr. has hired a local lobbying firm co-owned by former Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello to seek assistance regarding funding for those upgrades with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's Office in Albany.
Masiello told the Post he’s planning to have discussions with the Hochul administration, as well as the City of Buffalo about "overhauling" the 16,600-seat ballpark opened in 1988. He also says there is no dollar figure in mind, at this time, and that plans are still being finalized for renovations.
John Cimperman from Barnstorm Sports and Entertainment believes it's about time for Sahlen Field to receive a necessary facelift.
"The stadium was state-of-the-art 30 or so years back, but the whole environment and the landscape of professional sports venues has definitely changed," said Cimperman in an interview with WBEN. "I would agree, it's definitely time to take a look at what improvements can be made to the venue just to make it more fan friendly, and keep up with a lot of the competitive venues not only in Buffalo, but, quite frankly, across the country."
While Cimperman feels the sightlines of the ballpark are great for taking in a baseball game, the focus of the upgrades to Sahlen Field has to be on the fan experience areas.
"That's the concourses, that's a lot of the food and beverage facilities. And I think what you've seen a lot in sports venues is these more so communal fan gathering areas, where people can come together, and, in some cases, it's a standing room only environment where they can watch the game and be much more of a social experience than just kind of a static experience sitting in your seat," Cimperman explained.
While he says the renovations and upgrades are not anything that he sees as being urgent, it's something that will keep Sahlen Field up-to-date with other ballparks across the nation.
"Any organization should always be evaluating their venue and fan improvement," Cimperman said. "Unless there's structural or safety issues, it's not urgent, but it's definitely time just to look at how you can improve the experience and at the end of the day, drive more fans into the venue, and then ultimately drive more people into Downtown Buffalo."
If there is one issue with this move from Bisons ownership, Cimperman feels it is the timing of the request to Gov. Hochul's Office, especially given the ongoing priorities in Orchard Park with the construction of the new Buffalo Bills stadium along Abbott Road. Cimperman also feels there needs to be some serious attention brought to KeyBank Center, home of the Buffalo Sabres, downtown.
"It's never ideal to be looking for public funding, but it's definitely time to evaluate the opportunities," Cimperman said. "When you do that, you come back to the state with, 'Here's what it can do incrementally, to drive visitation, here's what it can do incrementally to bring more people into downtown,' and a big part of it is the economic impact of a ballpark in the city. So I think those things need to be discussed and evaluated, and then it's an opportunity to go to the state and say, 'Hey, help us support this.'"
Does Cimperman believe the state, and even the City of Buffalo are willing to work with the Bisons and the Rich family at this time to help update and refurbish the ballpark?
"I hope so, and the reason I say that is facilities like the arena, facilities like the ballpark are really important to downtown. It's not just the people that go into the building to watch the event, but it's also what they can do ancillarily to help the other businesses in the downtown area," he said. "So a downtown facility, being an arena or a ballpark, is very important to kind of the vibrancy of the metro area."
A call to the Bisons regarding this story was not returned.