Reports from the stadium?

[haroldwaide]

Loud doesn't do this stadium justice.  I don't believe the decibel meter on the jumbotron, and even if I did, the 116 was pre snap...as mentioned earlier, the sacks brought more noise.

 

No stampede this game.  Are they even doing it this year?

 

I was actually able to leave my seat in 402, go to the bathroom, Ang get back to my seat with time to spare.  Never could in the old stadium 

 

The real train horn is a nice touch.

 

Cell service was much improved from the old place even if it was 5G ( I didn't pay attention) but it was cool to actually use my phone during commercial breaks or for Injury updates.  Again, something I never could do before.

 

Keeping my seasons was definitely the right choice.

 

Edited September 18 by haroldwaide

[machine gun kelly]

4 hours ago, sven233 said:

The stadium looked great on TV.  

 

What I want to know, though, from someone that was there, is how the noise level was.  Comparable to the old stadium?  Louder?  Not as loud with 10k less fans?  Sounded good on TV, but I want to hear from people that were there.

Just waking up now (gotta love that whole three hours of sleep), and you beat me to it Sven.  Watching in Tampa, it looked electric, and the fireworks was awesome.  Even the halftime band was excellent.

 

I was hoping to be surprised someone from Guinness (book of world records, not the Irish pint) was there and recorded the loudest game in history of any NFL stadium.  Hey, a guy can dream.  We do have bar none the most rabid NFL fans on the planet.  We are a family.  I proudly say I’m a proud representative of the Mafia, Bills Mafia that is…

 

Go Bills!

[May Day 10]

It was great. Our seats are a nice birds eye view, better watching the game, had more space, no heads blocking in front.  

 

Concourse got really jammed up pregame at both levels.  Bathrooms were in and out, we found one before kickoff and once at the end of the 3rd quarter.

 

It was really, really loud in there on defense, especially 3rd and 4th down. 

 

However, a concern of mine came true.  The game presentation bombards the senses like a sabres game.  They feel the need to fill 100% of the time with very loud music, horns, Maddie glab, etc.  Even halftime was non stop loud.

 

It wore me down pretty quick and I became more sluggish during the game.  The quiet time where my senses could recover was when the game was going.  I noticed most people around me had the same experience.  The pervasive noise level of the music and all the other bs just beats people into their seats.  

 

People halfway down our section were told to sit by an usher.  I dont like that.  We have the back 2 rows and we stood much of the game.

 

The auxiliary scoreboards are a downgrade from the old stadium.  Instead of 4 being at the sides of each goal line, they just have 2 at the 50 yard line.  They are pretty small and the font on them, especially down and distance was very small.  Also, the way they displayed stats during the whole game was weird, they just displayed defensive stats with yards allowed, so it just seemed like stats in reverse.

 

Edited September 18 by May Day 10

[Einstein]

34 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

However, a concern of mine came true.  The game presentation bombards the senses like a sabres game.  They feel the need to fill 100% of the time with very loud music, horns, Maddie glab, etc.  Even halftime was non stop loud.

 

That’s just cruel and unusual.

[Einstein]

4 hours ago, Bills!Win! said:

 

-No 7 nation army for kickoffs 

 

That is kind of odd. I wonder what would cause them to change that.

Someone else mentioned they got rid of the drummers too?

 

4 hours ago, Bills!Win! said:

I understand the complaint about the video boards now. Why not make them span the whole screen? We don’t need ingame stats. Thats what phones are for

 

Problem is they can’t.

 

They went with a very wide, but not very tall, screen. If you span the game across more of the screen, the aspect ratio is thrown off and the game will look warped/stretched.

 

They just needed to install larger (taller) boards.

[May Day 10]

I saw the drummers outside the stadium pregame and they had a tuba player

[Admiral Sean]

People are actually saying the jumbotrons aren’t big enough???

 

 

[billsfan89]

6 hours ago, Blank Stare said:

I was there and it was incredible. First-rate game day experience and production. I’m actually interested to see what it looked like on tv. Super loud initially, but when we jumped out to that big lead, it seemed to have subdued some of the noise. 

On TV it looked fantastic, very much like a Premier League high end soccer stadium in as good a way as possible.

[IslandBillsFan]

Great experience!!!  Maybe it was the beers but I found it hard to see the down/distance.  On the jumbotrons, it was barely visable from a distance.  On the sides it was still small.  

 

Anybody else, notice this?

[nucci]

7 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

On TV it looked fantastic, very much like a Premier League high end soccer stadium in as good a way as possible.

Blue uniforms stood out and looked great on TV

[wjag]

I have nothing but praise.  It was an awesome experience.  Sitting in actual seats WITH leg room was nice. And I actually parked smarter this time and got home reasonably painlessly.  Kudos to Buffalo and all the fans.  It was special.  

[Not at the table Karlos]

6 hours ago, JohnBonhamRocks said:

Actually did have an obstructed view, which I did not know until getting to my seats because I split seasons and only get 2-3 games… oh well.

 

Otherwise, it was awesome. Loud. Bright. Decent food/beer selection/price. 
 

Still long bathroom lines. 

Why didn’t the people who went to the stadium experience show you the view from the seat? They showed everyone and encouraged us to take pics and show everyone that’s buying tickets 

32 minutes ago, Admiral Sean said:

People are actually saying the jumbotrons aren’t big enough???

 

 

In the preseason they only used a third of the screen at times for replay and you couldn’t see much of anything. They used most of the screen yesterday 

[Not at the table Karlos]

4 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

In the second half, some absolute genius way up in the 400s, to the left of the "main" scoreboard, started drumming (on a snare) "Let's Go, Buffalo" while the Bills were on offense. Two consecutive drives. Some fellow geniuses began chanting along with it. 

 

Otherwise, I thought the fans were generally energetic and loud when appropriate. 

I was shocked how loud banging on that cover was. 

[Bills!Win!]

37 minutes ago, IslandBillsFan said:

Great experience!!!  Maybe it was the beers but I found it hard to see the down/distance.  On the jumbotrons, it was barely visable from a distance.  On the sides it was still small.  

 

Anybody else, notice this?

Absolutely. Also had no idea how many timeouts each team had or where to find it 

 

also it took some time getting used to having 2 Jumbotrons. My body is used to looking to the one side of the field that I could’ve easily looked at the one right next to me haha 

Edited September 18 by Bills!Win!

[LetsGoRed]

6 hours ago, Blank Stare said:

I was there and it was incredible. First-rate game day experience and production. I’m actually interested to see what it looked like on tv. Super loud initially, but when we jumped out to that big lead, it seemed to have subdued some of the noise. 

Pregame lighting was very cool. The aerial shots with the fireworks were spectacular. It's still going to take some getting used to only seeing glimpses of the inside of the stadium.

 

Prime must have been muting the crowd (TNF had serious sound mixing issues prior to the start of the game) because it didn't seem noticeably louder to me. There were times when the PA system drowned everything out. Couldn't really make out the crowd singing the Shout song or Mr. Brightside.

 

Curious if the pyrotechnics haze was as noticeable for those there as it was for us stuck at home watching. It seemed to linger on the field for a full quarter after halftime.

[wjag]

Also loved the Sabres at the game and the cheer they got as they slammed their Bills horns one after another.  So awesome 

Edited September 20 by wjag

[Kaenon]

14 minutes ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

I was shocked how loud banging on that cover was. 

Agreed.

I was maybe 5 sections over and it felt like it could be heard throughout the whole stadium.

[SDS]

Lower 200 level. Very elevated experience. There was so much room in between the aisles that the person sitting down barely had to move their legs when you were walking past them down the aisle. Site lines were fantastic, but the higher glass by the steps to prevent someone from tripping and falling over the edge is a real obstruction. 
 

Walked around the 100 level and IMPO, that was a ***** show. No traffic flow. Bottlenecks so deep that you were junk to ass for 10 minutes moving inch by inch. Once you broke free of the log jam it was barely any better. It was the proverbial 10 pounds of ***** in a 5 pound bag. I pray to God I never have to walk around that level again. 300 level was much less congested.

 

The sound for the pregame show was complete *****. However, shout, the anthems, and the band all sounded fantastic. I don’t know why there was a discrepancy between the two. 
 

I don’t know how anyone could compare how loud the stadium was compared to another, but it felt as loud as any playoff game I had ever been to. The people sitting next to me were a part of the flag ceremony and they said the noise in the seats was nothing compared how loud it was on the field.

 

Down and distance visibility is indeed an issue.

 

got into the stadium two hours early and Wi-Fi wasn’t working well at the start. But after 30 minutes something turned on and it was fantastic all game. I could send photos and videos and they would be delivered almost instantly.

 

For a stadium that size, were they supposed to remove even more seats to make the video boards larger? I thought the size was fine. When they do show a video that uses the entire width of the screen, they appear massive. If you remove the game day data from the replays you’re only adding junk side video that doesn’t offer you any additional insight to the play.

 

The people next to me said the chicken tenders were fantastic. I had enough fantastic food prior to the game that I did not get anything for myself.
 

When I first got to my seats, the feeling that came over me was that my eye watering PSL was completely worth it. After walking around the 100 level for far too long, I was ready to burn it down due to poor signage and poor advice from guest services on how to actually get back up to the 716 club.

 

It looks like fans in the 100 level stood up for the entire game. Short kings and petite queens make note.

 

Regardless of any complaints you heard from me, the stadium is fantastic. I can’t believe we play there now. I can’t believe we had an actual band on an actual stage playing in a game in Buffalo New York. 

 

Given that the stadium was built in Orchard Park and not downtown Nashville, I thought it was appropriate for the area. Top-notch viewing experience without pretending to be something that we are not. The whole in game experience just felt classy. Like we were actually a team and community that was on par with other cities. 
 

I left very happy.

[agilen]

23 minutes ago, LetsGoRed said:

 

Curious if the pyrotechnics haze was as noticeable for those there as it was for us stuck at home watching. It seemed to linger on the field for a full quarter after halftime.

It was noticeable, but I wouldn’t say problematic. On thing that was noticeable to me - there really was absolute zero wind. Now it wasn’t a windy day or anything outside, but the air is almost stagnant inside. It’ll be great for football, but you’ll be sweating through 2 shirts when they have concerts there in the summer.

[SDS]

2 minutes ago, agilen said:

It was noticeable, but I wouldn’t say problematic. On thing that was noticeable to me - there really was absolute zero wind. Now it wasn’t a windy day or anything outside, but the air is almost stagnant inside. It’ll be great for football, but you’ll be sweating through 2 shirts when they have concerts there in the summer.

you wear a shirt?