“State of the Art” facility debuts for fans and season ticket holders
Preseason debut game at the new Highmark Stadium set for Saturday August 15 again Carolina
COLUMN by Chuck Pollock, Senior Sports Columnist, photo from the Buffalo Bills
It debuted Saturday night.
The Bills new $2.2 billion stadium — Highmark Part Deux — was introduced to the “personal-seat-license”-paying fans and some season-ticket holders in the form of the Return of the Blue and Red intra-squad scrimmage.
Reviews were mixed
The hometown Buffalo News was, uhhh, polite in its assessment.
But even though team management maintained that complaints accounted for only about 1% of the nearly 52,000 in attendance — essentially the number of season-ticket holders in the 61,000-seat facility — it seemed like more.
But even if that percentage is accurate, their gripes were loud and not necessarily easy fixes.
Among the complaints were flawed sight lines, substandard audio, obstructed seating and failure of the supposed 62% weather-protected seating.
The obstructed-view tickets got the most attention as miffed customers took to social media to show visions that were blocked by railings, glass partitions and stair cases.
IN THEIR own defense, the Bills issued a statement about the obstructed-view seats: “Saturday’s practice was a great opportunity to test the new stadium. We are currently assessing internal and external feedback regarding the facility’s operation following the first event.
“We’ll use the nest six weeks to refine any details as we prepare for the (r egular-season)home opener, Thursday, Sept.17,” said Pete Guelli, Chief Operating Officer of the Bills and Sabres at a Monday press conference along with Vice President of Stadium Development John Polka.
“I was an amazing, incredible night,” Guelli maintained. “The reaction we got from the majority of fans has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s a state-of-the-art, best-in-class facility. Nothing in that building compares to the old stadium. And I think, for the most part, people were blown away.”
He added, “Any building you would walk into there would be some obstructed seating. There are seats where we could create a different design, put in an obstructed area, or they give you the option to put in a seat that might be obstructed for football or can be used for any other event like a concert. There’s always partial-view or limited-view seats and we think those were pretty clearly depicted in our virtual venue.”
The Bills defense is that fans who chose those seats knew what they were getting when shown a virtual view.
Polka pointed out, “Seats with truly obstructed views have not been sold as a PSL or for any football games. If we have a concert in the round at the 50-yard line or a stage in the north end zone, we may sell a ticket for those events, but not football.”
Some complaints were about fans and vendors walking by their seats while action was in progress.
Andy Major, senior vice president of venue operations, pointed out that the scrimmage “was just practice.”
He said the team will follow the “Wait until the whistle” rule before vendors and fans can move about during regular season and playoff action.
There were complaints that the Jumbotron screens are too small but that was by design. Team owner Terry Pegula decreed that he wanted fans to be watching the action on the field, not the in-stadium telecast.
The issue about the audio appears to be temporary as the Bills placed speakers on the sidelines to emulate in-game crowd noise to make the scrimmage seem more realistic.
The facility has been touted as 62% covered, protecting most fans from the weather.
But don’t tell that to those who were caught in Saturday’s downpour and evacuated their seats until the rain let up.
And don’t get me started on the new uniforms. Did the Bills raid the Lions locker room?
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
Some of what fans had to say on social media, from the Buffalo Bills:
