Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - There will be another round of watch parties at Canalside for Sabres home games during the Second Round.
The gates at Canalside open at 5:00 tonight, and a crowd of thousands is again expected.
Former Buffalo Police commissioner Joe Gramaglia said that policing these big events hasn't drastically changed, though it looks a lot different then it did just a decade or so ago.
"We used to have members of the SWAT team out at these large events and they used to hide mostly in the shadows but now you're seeing officers and some SWAT members that are very visible, including with their weapons," Gramaglia said. "We weren't sure how that was going to be received, but actually it was a very welcome sight and we heard a lot of positive feedback."
For the city, one of the biggest issues around the watch parties is cost, especially overtime for police working to keep the events safe. Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan has recently proposed increasing the fees for organizers of large events to help cover police costs.
"That's something we talked about for years at Council budget hearings is how do we start holding some of these other organizations responsible for some of these overtime costs," Gramaglia said. "There's a lot of cities around the country that do have agreements with their arenas and their stadiums that they do pay for some of those costs."
"It's a good problem to have."
