Reports from the stadium?

[PromoTheRobot]

3 hours ago, Billsatlastin2018 said:

From going there, since the late 80s, I guessed $50.

 

Further away… saw $40, maybe $30.

BING-FING-O! 🙄

Not that long ago it was $10. I used to scoff at the Patriots charging $50.

Edited October 3 by PromoTheRobot

[Buffalo716]

1 minute ago, Simon said:

 

It was more likely some redneck vodka my Dad bought out of the back of somebody's truck 

Truthfully that's probably the best vodka available!

[Simon]

Just now, Buffalo716 said:

Truthfully that's probably the best vodka available!

 

At least for the 2nd half of the bottle...

[stevewin]

I took the Elevated Tour today - some observations

 

Stopped at the outside Buffaloes first.  Think they look cooler up close than from pictures - you take in more the overall scale than worrying about the placement of slashes and other minutiae.  There were no lights on or anything - just totally static.  We were there for about 10 mins and were about to leave and my son commented "and smoke can come out their nose too" and on cue the smoke came out which was pretty wild and freaky 

 

When we first entered the stadium literally every one of the five of us involuntarily said "Wow" one after the other when we walked in and looked up

 

When we first gathered before the tour on the lower concourse we noticed it was definitely breezy - we couldn't tell which direction it was coming from - and it wasn't too bad,  the flags on the goal posts weren't really moving.  Afterwards I realized at no other time in the stands at various levels or down on the field etc did we notice the wind.

 

When we first looked out on the field each one of us thought the size of the jumbotrons was fine

 

I knew at a high level from pics the main clubs and common areas,, but didnt realize how many different club sections there are and how extensive- some are special tickets and some access by virtue of your seat.  If you just look on ticketmaster and didn't know any better you wouldn't know that some sections on one side or one EZ give access to a club while those on the other side don't.  

 

Our guide said the number of suites went down from 123 at old stadium vs 79 in new stadium.  One thing that sticks out  though is there is a LOT of real estate reserved for clubs.

 

The common area with view to the city/lake is really cool.   The guide said that deck is at the highest level of the old stadium - which is wild when you see it iis basically at the base of the new stadium upper deck It was kind of striking to me though how it opens up that whole EZ entirely to unconfused wind.

 

The size of the wind confusion slashes/openings in the exterior panels were much bigger in person than I thought they were from pics

 

I can see what some people have said about the bathroom design potentially causing backups.  There is an initial small group of urinals then a bunch of stalls on the side you enter - then a whole room of urinals on the other side - but if people were waiting for stalls and blocking people from entering the urinals on the other side that would be a major flow problem

 

One of the stops was the broadcast booth.  Was funny bc last week with Brady doing the game I was reminded of stories last year of people right in front of the broadcast booth flipping him off and yelling expletives at him Didn't hear any such stories last week, and seeing the booth now know why.  In the new stadium there are no seats in front of the booth - the camera platform is directly below it and it is well isolated from the crowd

 

The press conference room was a fun little photo op to get a pick standing at the podium

 

One interesting thing I didn't know is that the player walkway past the fans is optional - they can choose to take an alternate route direct to the locker room and skip the fans altogether.  So any player that you see walking by fans there has done it as a choice

 

They were getting the locker room ready when we got in there - not all the numbers were up yet.  Guy next to me goes "Josh gets two lockers?" - there were two lockers next to each other with Allen above.   I had to remind him that one of them was for Kyle  (not that Josh doesn't deserve a double locker 😛 )

 

When showing the small indoor practice field the guide mention if the home team has an 'amenity', it must be there for the away team as well.  But, he said, this was a 'feature' so didn't need to be replicated for the opponent

 

I mentioned in the game thread that the field looked pristine - even (especially) when right down on field level.  There definitely was basically no crown as well.  They were painting the lines and EZ logos which was cool to watch

 

Had my Dad in a wheelchair for most of it - they did a nice job catering to ADA, there were two guides and whenever there was stairs one of them took us to an elevator to meet up with the group at the next stop.  One thing was our guide said at the beginning he didn't like to use microphone (saw other guides using it) - so he didn't - so we actually missed a lot of what he was saying since group was fairly large and it was hard to always be up close to him (esp w/ wheelchair). A lot of the info was pretty basic - and the biggest thing was just to see the different areas - so dont think we necessarily missed a lot of crucial info but it would have been a lot easier for everyone I think if he used it

 

It was a cool experience- overall everone was glad we did it

Edited October 3 by stevewin

[coloradobillsfan]

Walked in the entrance for the first time, had to use the restroom.  Men's room door is locked?  Women's open.  Somebody says 'oh it's only open to the people outside the doors'.  ?? So why is there a BIG sign that says restrooms visible on the inner concourse ??  As I'm walking to the apparently-open-for-us restrooms I pass by 2 employees with 'stadium experience' jackets.  Thought they might appreciate me letting them gently know I just walked in the door and already had a mild disappointment.  Instead he cuts me off twice, telling me the same thing - it's only open to the outside fans.  I gave up.  

Sat in upper deck 420 and found the game announcements far too muddy to hear.  Needed every bit of my glasses-aided vision to see the down and distance.  Yeah I'm full of piss and vinegar after the loss.  It's still a beautiful new stadium, loved the artwork, food was good, and sightlines were fine.  I bring terrible luck when I see the Bills play (they lose a good 3 of 4 games I go to, last being Denver playoff game) so don't worry I'll stay away for a while

 

[stevewin]

I'm still a little salty from the game so may come off a little negative but here are a few observations from my first game at the new stadium yesterday

 

Entering the stadium we had my dad in a wheelchair.  At the old stadium (and other venues we've taken him to in wheelchair like Yankee stadium and US Open) there is either a handicap entrance that bypasses the line, or there are staff that spot the wheelchair and direct/escort you through.  We might have missed it, but couldn't find anything of the sort for both the (long) outer security check lines, or the (long) inner ticket lines.  Luckily there were some good samaritan fans in the lines that helped us through.  I plan to contact the team about this.

 

There was a light rain burst before kickoff, and similar to the preseason game (or open practice?) where it rained, a ton of people in the lower bowl took refuge in the concourse which made it virtually unpassable for a while.  Luckily the rain stopped quickly and it eventually opened up as people moved back down to their seats.  I know people will say well people weren't prepared for rain - but I think its going to be very interesting to see how many people run to the concourse and congest it for future games when there is bad weather

 

I've come to the conclusion that the poor bathroom flow resulting in longer than necessary lines is not necessarily an idiotic design (though it could be better), but more that people are idiots and the design is not idiot-proof.  When you enter there are urinals on one side, and stalls on the other - then there is a whole other bank of urinals past that.  How many idiots would just be standing at the very entrance to the first bank of urinals instead of just walking into the freaking bathroom down to the far end.  Each time I entered the bathroom I just walked past at least one idiot just standing at the entrance waiting for a urinal at the first bank, holding the whole line back, while there were urinals open at the far end.  Each time I suppressed my urge to say "Just go to the far end, idiot" and just walked to an open urinal at the far end or waited for a couple seconds for one to open up.  The idiot-proofing would be to put all urinals first, and the stalls at the very end - but I doubt the configuration will ever change - and I doubt there will ever not be idiots amongst us.  Maybe they could hang some signage as you enter - to proceed into the bathroom and use the 2nd urinal bank as available 

 

Also relative to the bathroom - I've never been to a sporting event (or any event for that matter) where people so aggressively and angrily policed people trying to bypass the line by sneaking into the exit.  Each time someone entered the exit there would be people in the line yelling at them, one time a security guard actually chased after someone into the bathroom exit.  The last time I visited the bathroom I was exiting and the guy in front of me suddenly spun around and yelled "Hey #######!" and actually chased and grabbed a guy who had just passed us who was going  into the exit.   Everyone thought a fight was going to break out -   the bathroom vigilante was incredibly agitated/angry and pushing and yelling at the perpetrator - but the exit-enterer was very drunk and not interested in a fight.  Eventually someone from guest services next door heard the ruckus and broke it up

 

Side bathroom story: the first time I was at the urinal a kid next to me was excitedly telling someone on the other side "We got free beer!  We walked in the exit of the 'AI checkout' [referring to the grab and go] and just grabbed some beers and walked out without ever scanning our card.  We broke the code!"  I wanted to tell him what he broke was actually the criminal code.   Also since the grab and go relies on camera recognition/tracking not sure if he's since been identified, with consequences

 

I didn't really walk the concourse during the game - but one thing that is different experience is the concession areas in rooms tucked behind the outside wall.  It is good for traffic flow to not have concessions blocking the walkway - but it is a little strange to not just be able to look down the concourse and not see obviously what is being sold there from a distance

 

The most egregious stadium design flaw I found with the stadium GameDay experience was the egress from the side opposite Abbott to go around counterclockwise to Abbott (player entrance end, not the end with the Buffaloes).  Where we exited, going counterclockwise was the physically shorter path.  Almost immediately the walkway was shoulder to shoulder people moving no more than a shuffle.  It must have taken us 20 minutes to just go around the outside end zone end of the stadium.  People were NOT happy -  esp cranky after the loss- and there was lots of cursing directed towards the Bills organization and the Pegula family name during that seemingly endless slow shuffle. Just an incomprehensibly bad design to have a walkway that is too narrow - with other exits also spilling people out onto it along the way.  Since it goes above the player and service entrances it would not be something that could be easily widened.  My advice is if you are exiting on the opposite side of Abbott after the game and need to head towards Abbott, to always walk to the end of the Buffaloes even if it is a longer walk.

 

That being said (yesterday's game aside) the stadium still is great 😛 - we had great seats in ADA section at top of lower level.  Place was very loud when the stupid game flow allowed the fans to be into it.  Thought the scoreboards were more than fine - the high resolution esp stood out.  The PA sound where we were was good (I was able to mostly mentally block out Glab-voice during commercial breaks when she was on)

Edited October 5 by stevewin

[Mango]

My $0.02 as a season ticket holder after 3 weeks. 

Good: 

- New stadium is new and presents really well. 

- The views from my seats are much better than my old seats despite being pretty similar. 

 

Bad: 

- I find foot traffic the same or sometimes worse. 

- Mens bathroom lines are often as long as ever. The wrap around urinals are tough, people aren't looping around because they can't see it. Which means some people are going in the out door and things can kerfuffle. 

- Food and food selection is meh. At least in the 300's. Lines are crazy long too. 

- Audio is bad. Still sounds like somebody is screaming through a pillow. 
- The vibe is becoming more sterile as the season goes on. Lots and lots of people sitting quietly on late 3rd downs. 

- I think fan yelling is creating more noise than the other stadium, but there are less of us, and they took away our noise makers/aluminum seats, which ends up being net neutral when it comes to decibels. 

[DaVinci]

6 minutes ago, Mango said:

Lots and lots of people sitting quietly on late 3rd downs. 

Maybe the crowd has become to posh.