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New Stadium Talk as of owner’s meetings


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I suppose that this can be combined with other thread but feels like it should be broken out. Now that we are in peak offseason this is a good time to discuss the comments of Terry and Kim.

 

 

Above are some tweets from @john wawrow that he took away from yesterday. It sure sounded that way to me as well. What were your thoughts???

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Please don't move the stadium downtown!! 

 

I have been to plenty of stadiums across the league and downtown stadiums have the worst tailgating.  St.Louis was the worst that I have been to.  The only thing going on outside of the stadium were street vendors peddling their souvenirs.

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My thoughts on this are pretty simple. Wherever it goes next is going to be a “business decision” not a fan experience decision. What is best for the government and best for the Pegulas are not necessarily the same. It will almost certainly be a public/private deal. The expression “split the difference” is a little ironic IMO. That’s how I see this thing playing out. 

 

The Pegulas want to maximize revenue and the government wants to minimize cost. My guess is 65,000 seats, downtown (somewhere), with a price tag in the $1B range. It will be split almost evenly between the state and the Bills. 

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1 minute ago, Kirby Jackson said:

My thoughts on this are pretty simple. Wherever it goes next is going to be a “business decision” not a fan experience decision. What is best for the government and best for the Pegulas are not necessarily the same. It will almost certainly be a public/private deal. The expression “split the difference” is a little ironic IMO. That’s how I see this thing playing out. 

 

The Pegulas want to maximize revenue and the government wants to minimize cost. My guess is 65,000 seats, downtown (somewhere), with a price tag in the $1B range. It will be split almost evenly between the state and the Bills. 

How does it work with naming rights? Would New Era have to bid on it and how much does the corporate sponsor typically contribute to the overall cost? 

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As long as my Bills are still in WNY, I’ll consider it a win.

 

I know that will be hated by some. I love games in OP. I also loved games before OP. If it comes to it, I’ll love games after OP. 

 

 

 

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Edited by Augie
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27 minutes ago, Forward Progress said:

Please don't move the stadium downtown!! 

 

I have been to plenty of stadiums across the league and downtown stadiums have the worst tailgating.  St.Louis was the worst that I have been to.  The only thing going on outside of the stadium were street vendors peddling their souvenirs.

Some are better then others. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Cincy all have downtown stadiums with decent tailgating. It’s just more scattered because the lots are smaller and spread out. Indy has s nice big lot but they don’t tailgate well, it’s mostly done at the bars/restaurants around the stadium. That’s just been my experience. 

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2 minutes ago, Augie said:

As long as y Bills are still in WNY, I’ll consider it a win.

 

I know that will be hated by some. I love games in OP. I also loved games before OP. If it comes to it, I’ll love games after OP. 

 

I'm just sayin', I would LOVE a downtown stadium with places to go before and after games.  I'm just at a different place in my life and mega-tailgating in a parking lot isn't as important any more.

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I tend to agree... I think it's becoming clearer that they want a downtown stadium in conjunction with some improvements to KeyBank Center.  The thing they are going to have difficulty with IMO are the PSLs.  They are going to lose a lot of existing season ticket holders if the PSL is excessive, and other teams that have done this have been unable to sell tickets as seasons.  They then get dumped on the secondary market by scalpers, often at heavy losses, particularly late in the season.  Eventually scalpers stop buying and then the team gets stuck with excessive inventory.

 

I could see them keeping the OP facility as the team's HQ and practice facility.  Most teams with urban stadiums have this kind of setup in the suburbs.

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47 minutes ago, Forward Progress said:

Please don't move the stadium downtown!! 

 

I have been to plenty of stadiums across the league and downtown stadiums have the worst tailgating.  St.Louis was the worst that I have been to.  The only thing going on outside of the stadium were street vendors peddling their souvenirs.

Tailgating will be fine....not a lot of stuff downtown. They'll be able to create some decent sized lots

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2 minutes ago, Forward Progress said:

 

That's good to hear.  As long as the great tailgating tradition continues, I'm on board.

I have a feeling that the organization will do its best to ensure there are enough places to tailgate. I do think they want to curb the dangerous stuff though.

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Im not so worried about the tailgating downtown as much as the traffic.

 

 

A Sabres game with 15-19K people locks up traffic to a miserable degree.  People leave Sabres games (no matter the score) between the 2nd intermission and 2/3 through the third period to avoid getting stuck.  Its awful.

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2 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

I have a feeling that the organization will do its best to ensure there are enough places to tailgate. I do think they want to curb the dangerous stuff though.

 

Yup, I think they’ll be trying to find that perfect balance between the two. I’m fine with paying a bit more for my seasons & for the experience in general as long as it’s close to or maybe even better than the current experience. I’m not advocating the full on carnage / WWE type stuff but I want to know I’m at a football game. If we’re going to have a downtown stadium I don’t want to feel like I’m at a hockey game at sterile Keybank center.

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