Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Bills fans were hit with a bit of sticker shock last week when the team launched their program to sell seats from the current Highmark Stadium.
A full seat or bench will cost either $550 or $650 before shipping. It's a big difference from the $10 fans paid for seats during a renovation in 1999.
At the end of the day, Erie County expects to take in $500,000 to over $1 million.
The Stadium has over 70,000 seats. If just 20,000 sales are made available at $550, that would total $11 million.
So where did the money go?
"It's not going to be the revenue that most people would anticipate," said Erie County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo with WBEN on Thursday.
"There is labor involved in removing that seat and transporting it," said Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick with WBEN on Friday. "If someone works on my car and puts in a fuel pump... the fuel pump may cost a few hundred dollars but the labor involved is probably a lot more. That might go a long way towards explaining the low number."
It's unclear if the removal of seats will require the same highly specialized labor as auto repair.
Sale of the seats is being managed by the Bills, Erie County, venue management group Legends Global, and memorabilia marketplace CollectibleXchange.
Erie County will receive 100% of the net proceeds from all county-owned assets, including the seats, according to the initial announcement. However, an amendment to the new Bills Stadium agreement approved last month by the County Legislature states that they will split net revenue from the sale 50/50 with CollectibleXchange.
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That revenue split will happen only after after CollectibleXchange recoups its expenses for removing, refurbishing, storing, and marketing the seats and other memorabilia.
"When we did walk through all the expenses I was just as surprised," Lorigo said. "But when you think about it, it's not just the seats, it's not just the turf. Think about every microwave, pizza pan, napkin dispenser that's in that stadium has to come out and we have to pay somebody to do it."
"It does become quite the job that needs to be done."