Why Do the Bills Need a New Stadium ??

[Irv]

4 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

I'd tell you want to put down but I'd get warning points.  You should since I have never used drugs unlike you and your LSD, etc.

 

What school did you not go to?  You're unintelligible.   

 

[Punching Bag]

Just now, Irv said:

 

What school did you not go to?  You're unintelligible.   

 

 

A school where plagiarism was not allowed unlike your elementary school.

[May Day 10]

15 hours ago, corta765 said:

 

Much cheaper is a relative thing. The cost is around $500 million for Reno vs a new which could be the same potentially or in the $600-700 million range. Neither situation is cheap straight up. It's going to be a massive investment in either scenario and for the team, region, politicians, etc.. its a valid question to ask whether to rebuild or go new when the costs are massively different. The studies have been done on locations a few years ago.

 

I get that your one of the fans which things are perfect and if for eternity things never changed for Bills stadium you would be fine with that. There however are many who are not that way and wayy more forces then just us fans at play that will dictate will the Bills play. If you don't think the city of Buffalo would love to take in the tax revenue that Orchard Park gets plus the general aura/prestige of having the team downtown your dead wrong. Doesn't mean there going back either, but the grand picture is massive.

 

 

In my estimation, the amount of upheaval and cost downtown would be much more than $100-$200 million worth.  I think we are talking $200-$400 million range.  Land acquisition, demolition, disposal (likely hazardous materials mixed in there), numerous additional engineering studies, re-building a piece of 190 and access/egress, rebuilding roads, pipes, electric, etc.  There is a LOT of work that needs to be done.  When it is all said and done.... why?  10 games and a few concerts. The same new stadium could be built in place with virtually no 'overhead' costs they (we) need to pay for downtown.  If we were a bigger city and could build something and attract the volume and prestigious events that Dallas and Atlanta could get, I would be all for it.  If it were a baseball stadium with 81+ dates a year, or even an ampitheater that gets 20-30K down there 40+ times, sign me up.  Football stadiums, as has been proved by many studies, do not help or revitalize an urban area

 

This has nothing to do with nostalgia of Orchard Park.  I kind of loathe the drive down there, I live in the north towns.  Its just economical.

 

Also, not sure how the 'city of buffalo' would receive tax revenue from a downtown stadium. 

Edited August 7, 2018 by May Day 10

[CLTbills]

I've never understood the "new stadium" nonsense. I live in Charlotte and there was a lot of talk about how once the Panthers were sold, they would "have" to build a new stadium to replace the old, outdated one. 

I've been to a few games there (mostly all Bills games). It's a pretty nice damn stadium, compared to NEF. And I LOVE New Era Field. Some of my greatest memories are there as a kid. I just feel building a new stadium will alienate a HUGE portion of the fan base that simply won't be able to afford single-game tickets, let alone PSL's. Lets face it, Buffalo isn't exactly a white-collar town, where people just have 25 grand laying around (per seat) to throw down for a PSL.

Did you watch the game when the Bills played in Atlanta last year in their big fancy new stadium? The home of the defending NFC champions, who took the previous year's Super Bowl to overtime, in the early part of the season.... you'd think there'd be TONS of hype. The place was EMPTY. 

If you want to kill the gameday experience and have a half-empty stadium, that nobody wants to pay for in the first place...... then yeah, go ahead and build a new stadium.

Edited August 7, 2018 by CLTbills

[mjd1001]

On 8/4/2018 at 11:01 PM, BUFFALOBART said:

Older guys tend to be OVER 'trendy bars', and there is always going to be a small percentage of idiots at any stadium, regardless of the price of admission. If you want 'a new, and different experience', start going to away games. You 'won't buy season tickets again', but you want everyone else to pay the freight for your expensive change of scenery.

Some fan..............

Some fan?  Yeah....that would be a person who is a fan of the 'event', not just the game.  People can be a fan of the game or a team just as much from home as they can from the stadium, or be just as much of a fan watching in from more comfortable seats in a nicer venue as they do surrounded by concrete. It drives me crazy that people say to be a 'real' fan of the team you need to watch it in person at one of the oldest stadiums in the league.  Wanting a nice experience doesn't have to  make someone less of a fan.

[LabattBlue]

On 8/5/2018 at 9:01 AM, PromoTheRobot said:

Be prepared to be disappointed. The Bills won't build a new open air stadium. They would renovate NEF first. Anything new will have a roof.

^^^ This!  

[Boatdrinks]

2 hours ago, BUFFALOBART said:

The current facility provides a 'nice' experience.

Is it shiny objects that you are attracted to??????

'New' is not always 'better'

All that glitters, is not gold....

Go watch the game in a 'trendy' restaurant if you need to satiated in such a manner....

These things will not be a determining factor on the Bills stadium nor will fans overall opinions. It will be about making money , and the Bills ability to increase revenues  in the current facility are limited. 

[Jrb1979]

Driving through Cleveland on my way home from Cedar Point I passed the Browns stadium. From what I could see it looks like a really nice stadium. What about building one like that?  

[Bob in STL]

I used to love Rich Stadium,  but the time it became The Ralph it was losing luster, New Era is pretty much a second rate facility by today’s standards even with the so called “improvements”. 

 

Best experience in NFL?  Sure, if you like drinking and rowdy behavior - which I really did at one time - then New Era is fine.  I also like the parking options and tailgate set up.  Once you get inside the Stadium the experience drops because the design is so inconvenient by today’s standards.  The overall amount of drunkenness, craziness (fires, table jumping, fighting, etc), arrests, and such seem to be on rise.  

 

I am so proud of Buffalo’s comeback. I would love love to see a new modern gorgeous stadium down in the city, with plenty of parking and green space for tailgating.  Let’s it replace some of the wasted land to the south.     Design it with 80,000 seats again and shape it to be loud.  Reflect the city history in the design.  

 

Buffalo is is a city on the rise again and a new stadium would be awesome.  

[Augie]

On 8/7/2018 at 8:55 AM, CLTbills said:

I've never understood the "new stadium" nonsense. I live in Charlotte and there was a lot of talk about how once the Panthers were sold, they would "have" to build a new stadium to replace the old, outdated one. 

I've been to a few games there (mostly all Bills games). It's a pretty nice damn stadium, compared to NEF. And I LOVE New Era Field. Some of my greatest memories are there as a kid. I just feel building a new stadium will alienate a HUGE portion of the fan base that simply won't be able to afford single-game tickets, let alone PSL's. Lets face it, Buffalo isn't exactly a white-collar town, where people just have 25 grand laying around (per seat) to throw down for a PSL.

Did you watch the game when the Bills played in Atlanta last year in their big fancy new stadium? The home of the defending NFC champions, who took the previous year's Super Bowl to overtime, in the early part of the season.... you'd think there'd be TONS of hype. The place was EMPTY. 

If you want to kill the gameday experience and have a half-empty stadium, that nobody wants to pay for in the first place...... then yeah, go ahead and build a new stadium.

 

I was at that game, and it really wasn’t what it may have looked like on TV. There are so many bars and reastaurants a lot of people were there. The place was new and, like a new restaurant, they had not worked the kinks out of the food and beverage operations. They have super cheap concession prices, but the lines were so long I gave up a few times. A boatload of people were also just walking around to see the new “palace”.  There were more people than you might think, and WE WON! 

 

I’ve been back for MLS events since then, and they draw HUGE crowds and seem to have worked out the F&B operations. Now....if only that roof would start working.....

7 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

I used to love Rich Stadium,  but the time it became The Ralph it was losing luster, New Era is pretty much a second rate facility by today’s standards even with the so called “improvements”. 

 

Best experience in NFL?  Sure, if you like drinking and rowdy behavior - which I really did at one time - then New Era is fine.  I also like the parking options and tailgate set up.  Once you get inside the Stadium the experience drops because the design is so inconvenient by today’s standards.  The overall amount of drunkenness, craziness (fires, table jumping, fighting, etc), arrests, and such seem to be on rise.  

 

I am so proud of Buffalo’s comeback. I would love love to see a new modern gorgeous stadium down in the city, with plenty of parking and green space for tailgating.  Let’s it replace some of the wasted land to the south.     Design it with 80,000 seats again and shape it to be loud.  Reflect the city history in the design.  

 

Buffalo is is a city on the rise again and a new stadium would be awesome.  

 

I don’t thi k there’s much of a chance that it will be that large. That would be hard to fill at the higher prices, and things seem to be moving to somewhat smaller spaces with more suite and protected revenue. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

On 8/7/2018 at 8:55 AM, CLTbills said:

I've never understood the "new stadium" nonsense. I live in Charlotte and there was a lot of talk about how once the Panthers were sold, they would "have" to build a new stadium to replace the old, outdated one. 

I've been to a few games there (mostly all Bills games). It's a pretty nice damn stadium, compared to NEF. And I LOVE New Era Field. Some of my greatest memories are there as a kid. I just feel building a new stadium will alienate a HUGE portion of the fan base that simply won't be able to afford single-game tickets, let alone PSL's. Lets face it, Buffalo isn't exactly a white-collar town, where people just have 25 grand laying around (per seat) to throw down for a PSL.

Did you watch the game when the Bills played in Atlanta last year in their big fancy new stadium? The home of the defending NFC champions, who took the previous year's Super Bowl to overtime, in the early part of the season.... you'd think there'd be TONS of hype. The place was EMPTY. 

If you want to kill the gameday experience and have a half-empty stadium, that nobody wants to pay for in the first place...... then yeah, go ahead and build a new stadium.

 

From what I understand... PSLs aren't that effective. Die hards will buy them, the rest get sold to ticket brokers. Brokers already help sell most of the single game tickets, so the consumer suffers with higher prices.

 

And they finance the PSL so it's not like u have to have the 50k right now.

Edited August 12, 2018 by dneveu

[mjd1001]

18 hours ago, BUFFALOBART said:

The current facility provides a 'nice' experience.

Is it shiny objects that you are attracted to??????

'New' is not always 'better'

All that glitters, is not gold....

Go watch the game in a 'trendy' restaurant if you need to satiated in such a manner....

Once again, I am amazed by how open minded people are on this forum....I like what I have, and if you want something different, too bad.  Geez

[RochesterRob]

14 hours ago, Bob in STL said:

I used to love Rich Stadium,  but the time it became The Ralph it was losing luster, New Era is pretty much a second rate facility by today’s standards even with the so called “improvements”. 

 

Best experience in NFL?  Sure, if you like drinking and rowdy behavior - which I really did at one time - then New Era is fine.  I also like the parking options and tailgate set up.  Once you get inside the Stadium the experience drops because the design is so inconvenient by today’s standards.  The overall amount of drunkenness, craziness (fires, table jumping, fighting, etc), arrests, and such seem to be on rise.  

 

I am so proud of Buffalo’s comeback. I would love love to see a new modern gorgeous stadium down in the city, with plenty of parking and green space for tailgating.  Let’s it replace some of the wasted land to the south.     Design it with 80,000 seats again and shape it to be loud.  Reflect the city history in the design.  

 

Buffalo is is a city on the rise again and a new stadium would be awesome.  

  80,000 seats are too many and the entertainment dynamics are different from a few decades ago in that people have more entertainment options.  It's not like 1975 where you have the choice of going to the park, movie theater, or game and not much else.  However, I would not go the other extreme with 50,000 seats as some suggest and leave money on the table.  There will be games of high demand and games that generate little interest so my proposal would be for around 65-70 K people with the team allowed to determine how many seats will be available for each matchup.  Block off the seats the team does not plan to sell for a given game.  

[PromoTheRobot]

14 hours ago, Bob in STL said:

I used to love Rich Stadium,  but the time it became The Ralph it was losing luster, New Era is pretty much a second rate facility by today’s standards even with the so called “improvements”. 

 

Best experience in NFL?  Sure, if you like drinking and rowdy behavior - which I really did at one time - then New Era is fine.  I also like the parking options and tailgate set up.  Once you get inside the Stadium the experience drops because the design is so inconvenient by today’s standards.  The overall amount of drunkenness, craziness (fires, table jumping, fighting, etc), arrests, and such seem to be on rise.  

 

I am so proud of Buffalo’s comeback. I would love love to see a new modern gorgeous stadium down in the city, with plenty of parking and green space for tailgating.  Let’s it replace some of the wasted land to the south.     Design it with 80,000 seats again and shape it to be loud.  Reflect the city history in the design.  

 

Buffalo is is a city on the rise again and a new stadium would be awesome.  

 

It's also worth noting that for all the professed love for football in the elements, December games are pretty empty. But Promo, the playoff drought! I'm old enough to remember the playoff years and December games were always a tough sell. The fact is there are more people who want to be comfortable at games, not risking pneumonia.

[purple haze]

14 hours ago, Bob in STL said:

I am so proud of Buffalo’s comeback. I would love love to see a new modern gorgeous stadium down in the city, with plenty of parking and green space for tailgating.  Let’s it replace some of the wasted land to the south.     Design it with 80,000 seats again and shape it to be loud.  Reflect the city history in the design.  

I doubt we would get an 80,000 seater.  It will be smaller, like Heinz Field, Mid-60,000's. It would create more demand with less supply.

 

Aesthetically, I would love to see a stadium like Seattle has.  Or like Yankee Stadium, but built with a football configuration.  Both buildings are unique, and both "looks" would fit into downtown.

[DriveFor1Outta5]

30 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It's also worth noting that for all the professed love for football in the elements, December games are pretty empty. But Promo, the playoff drought! I'm old enough to remember the playoff years and December games were always a tough sell. The fact is there are more people who want to be comfortable at games, not risking pneumonia.

I’m not in favor of a new stadium, but December games have always been a bit of an embarrassment imo. Packer fans fill up Lambeau every week, including December. Bills fans talk a tough game about the elements, but many of them seem to stay away in December. I’d like to see how December games sell if we were consistently competitive. As you mentioned, this franchise had trouble selling tickets in December during the glory years. Football’s fanbase has certainly expanded since that time. It’s possible that a competitive Bills team would sell out December games in today’s NFL. Hopefully we are given the opportunity to find out.  

Edited August 12, 2018 by DriveFor1Outta5

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

On 8/7/2018 at 8:38 AM, May Day 10 said:

 

 

In my estimation, the amount of upheaval and cost downtown would be much more than $100-$200 million worth.  I think we are talking $200-$400 million range.  Land acquisition, demolition, disposal (likely hazardous materials mixed in there), numerous additional engineering studies, re-building a piece of 190 and access/egress, rebuilding roads, pipes, electric, etc.  There is a LOT of work that needs to be done.  When it is all said and done.... why?  10 games and a few concerts. The same new stadium could be built in place with virtually no 'overhead' costs they (we) need to pay for downtown.  If we were a bigger city and could build something and attract the volume and prestigious events that Dallas and Atlanta could get, I would be all for it.  If it were a baseball stadium with 81+ dates a year, or even an ampitheater that gets 20-30K down there 40+ times, sign me up.  Football stadiums, as has been proved by many studies, do not help or revitalize an urban area

 

This has nothing to do with nostalgia of Orchard Park.  I kind of loathe the drive down there, I live in the north towns.  Its just economical.

 

Also, not sure how the 'city of buffalo' would receive tax revenue from a downtown stadium. 

 

....I'd bet before you even start talking land acquisition and stadium cost, the necessary infrastructure improvements alone go north of $1+ BILLION....without major Interstate reconstruction, I think (PURELY opinion) traffic would be a logistical nightmare with access from only three directions due to the harbor.....imagine a Bills game AND a Sabres game on the same Sunday?.....could take weeks to get home......and the billion would have to come from the Feds who will take a minimum of 38 years with their various paralysis by analysis approval process......

[May Day 10]

26 minutes ago, DriveFor1Outta5 said:

I’m not in favor of a new stadium, but December games have always been a bit of an embarrassment imo. Packer fans fill up Lambeau every week, including December. Bills fans talk a tough game about the elements, but many of them seem to stay away in December. I’d like to see how December games sell if we were consistently competitive. As you mentioned, this franchise had trouble selling tickets in December during the glory years. Football’s fanbase has certainly expanded since that time. It’s possible that a competitive Bills team would sell out December games in today’s NFL. Hopefully we are given the opportunity to find out.  

Completely different now than 1992 for a number of reasons.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

38 minutes ago, DriveFor1Outta5 said:

I’m not in favor of a new stadium, but December games have always been a bit of an embarrassment imo. Packer fans fill up Lambeau every week, including December. Bills fans talk a tough game about the elements, but many of them seem to stay away in December. I’d like to see how December games sell if we were consistently competitive. As you mentioned, this franchise had trouble selling tickets in December during the glory years. Football’s fanbase has certainly expanded since that time. It’s possible that a competitive Bills team would sell out December games in today’s NFL. Hopefully we are given the opportunity to find out.  

 

...although I firmly believe we're on the right track with the "Mc Trio", a/k/a McBeane, McD & McDaboll, probably the best since the Polian era, consistently competitive is no guarantee for a $700-$850 (?) million dollar stadium investment....a Lucas Oil type Indy facility makes more sense with the potential for year round usage versus a scant eight home games a year......just speculation, but a stadium/smaller event center/hotel-retail complex may make more economic sense....Packers were, are and forever will be an anomaly even if -20 degrees.....hell, their season tix waiting list is like 60,000+ and the ONLY way you move up is if somebody dies.....OR...you call Uncle Nunzio to "speed things along"..

[RochesterRob]

1 hour ago, DriveFor1Outta5 said:

I’m not in favor of a new stadium, but December games have always been a bit of an embarrassment imo. Packer fans fill up Lambeau every week, including December. Bills fans talk a tough game about the elements, but many of them seem to stay away in December. I’d like to see how December games sell if we were consistently competitive. As you mentioned, this franchise had trouble selling tickets in December during the glory years. Football’s fanbase has certainly expanded since that time. It’s possible that a competitive Bills team would sell out December games in today’s NFL. Hopefully we are given the opportunity to find out.  

  Gotta wonder about the in-stadium attendance for Packer fans during the 1970's and 1980's.  Of course like anything else from years ago everything and everybody was tougher.  Drove 5 hours each way up hill in a blinding snowstorm to Green Bay back during the 1970's.