Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - With a regular workday Thursday, traffic is expected to be heavier around rush hour in Orchard Park. That's because the Buffalo Bills will host Tampa Bay in a nationally televised game. The Bills, however, don't anticipate that parking will be an issue.
Eric "The Hammer" Matwijow of Hammer's Lot says it's a good idea to get to Orchard Park before rush hour. "Get here as soon as possible," says "The Hammer." "The weather's [going to] be beautiful to get the tailgate out, and just pre-plan where you're [going to] end up parking." He says his lot will open around 2pm. "Six hours of tailgating is more than enough to come out, eat, play some games, and obviously they're going to have some libations and there we don't want to have people go too overboard," explains Matwijow.
Andy Major with the Bills admits the traffic pattern will be different because it's a Thursday night game, with people coming from work or school. He says there is good news. "We've got plenty of parking, we haven't turned fans away at all this season, because they couldn't find a parking space," says Major.
Major says anticipate heavy traffic come rush hour. "We typically see a lot of the staff that work the game days, a lot of the fans that come to the games show up a little bit later because they're working, and then they show up to the parking lots a little bit later," says Major. "Certainly, that five o'clock to six o'clock window, we open the parking lots at 4:15, gates to the stadium and inside the gate open at 6:15, and kickoff is at 8:15. So this gives the fans plenty of time to kind of get in here even if they're working to get inside find the parking spot they want, then also get into the gates."
One issue Erie County Sheriff's Sgt. Jeremy Lehning tells WBEN deputies at the stadium have been dealing with is vehicle parking on the side of streets like Southwestern, waiting to get into the stadium. "They'll start double parking and it just compiles the problem," says Lehning. "People are going to show up, they're going to wait. We don't have any place to put you, and eventually we're just going to move you around like essentially what happens at the airport until the lots open."
One possible solution to solving that issue is to open the stadium lots earlier than four hours before kickoff. Matwijow likes the idea. "I think that wouldn't be a bad idea. If they opened up another hour, make it five hours before kickoff just to relieve some of that backup," says Matwijow. But Major says don't expect it, stating the Bills open earlier than NFL best practices policy. "The NFL policy is open the lots three and a half hours before kickoff so we're already opening earlier than the policy," explains Major. He says four hours of tailgating seems to be plenty in the Bills' lots. "But we know there are some diehards out there that want to go longer. That Sunday game, the fans were out there early in the morning, tailgating for a night game, and probably a lot of those are the ones we ended up having issues with on game night."
The Bills host Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
