Reports from the stadium?

[NeverOutNick]

Unbelievable experience! Sat right in front of the horn with constant legends coming in behind us with Kelly, Bruce, William Fichtner, and the incredible concert of onerepublic just a couple feet away! Also had Jared Goffs wife in the seat in front of us and she was super cool and sweet. She gave my cousin her inaugural keys souvenir. Got to experience this with my daughter and 3 cousins! Fireworks were on point and the loudness on 3rd downs was REAL! My only “complaints” and they didn’t dampen my mood at all because it was a once in a lifetime experience was the horn was annoying once it ran out of smoke (just an awful ear ringing noise) and the sound system was not clear at all where we were sitting it sounded muffled. 
 

The whole stadium was electric! The fans, the design of the stadium with all of the memorabilia and the workers were all next level amazing. I will never forget this experience! Josh and Kincaid have a real bond like they hung out all summer at church camp and Walker is a game wrecker! He comes up big like Chris jones does, and did it twice to kill the momentum. Wish I could post these videos and pictures to show you all a glimpse of how epic this game was. This season feels different and special! Go Bills

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Just now, NeverOutNick said:

Unbelievable experience! Sat right in front of the horn with constant legends coming in behind us with Kelly, Bruce, William Fichtner, and the incredible concert of onerepublic just a couple feet away! Also had Jared Goffs wife in the seat in front of us and she was super cool and sweet. She gave my cousin her inaugural keys souvenir. Got to experience this with my daughter and 3 cousins! Fireworks were on point and the loudness on 3rd downs was REAL! My only “complaints” and they didn’t dampen my mood at all because it was a once in a lifetime experience was the horn was annoying once it ran out of smoke (just an awful ear ringing noise) and the sound system was not clear at all where we were sitting it sounded muffled. 
 

The whole stadium was electric! The fans, the design of the stadium with all of the memorabilia and the workers were all next level amazing. I will never forget this experience! Josh and Kincaid have a real bond like they hung out all summer at church camp and Walker is a game wrecker! He comes up big like Chris jones does, and did it twice to kill the momentum. Wish I could post these videos and pictures to show you all a glimpse of how epic this game was. This season feels different and special! Go Bills

She is absolutely drop dead freakin gorgeous. Nice to hear that she's cool too. 

Walker is a star in the making. 

[wjag]

I sat in the upper deck with the big scoreboard to my left. It was an akward enough angle and with the field being to my right, I rarely looked at it. Like others have said, I never figured out where the TOs were.  The smaller board was too far away for my old eyes to really discern the data being displayed. 
 

One thing I noticed late in the game was they were blacking out scoreboards on XP kicks.  As soon as the ball was in flight, they came back on.

 

Loved being under the canopy. 
 

Sound pregame is not great, but I think that was because it was a show with constant talking.  I heard enough in game to understand the flow.

 

The stadium lighting is impressive.  The modern things they can do with the video boards, stage and video display ring that wraps the stadium was all used to great effect.

 

So so so happy I went.  It was a memorable experience.

[Son of a K-Gun]

1 hour 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?

 

Definitely noticed that and was one of my only complaints...should be easily rectified.  Would be nice having more down and distance graphics along the sidelines too, the one board around midfield was pretty small. 

 

Some of the colouring choices on the boards could be improved as well...pretty sure there was light blue text on a blue screen.  I am colour blind and couldn't read it at all.  Would prefer something high-contrast.

 

43 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.

 

The smoke really seemed to linger from my view upstairs.  

[warrior9]

8 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Stadium looks great on TV.  The broadcast appearance, looks like a FIFA European soccer game.  Like a darker contrast…can’t really explain it.

I liked how the uniforms looked darker with the grass. I get what you're saying. 

[GottaRun]

1 hour 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?

Down and distance displays are comically small and need to be enlarged

[Ojolaffub]

I’m in 410 row 5. Great view of the field and just a little obstruction from the glass by the stairs coming into the section but not a big deal. The line for the men’s room was ridiculously long. I guess they are shared with the 300 level but much worse than the Ralph. My wife said the ladies room was awesome with no wait.

[Heitz]

My 3 cents:

 

It was LOUD, like blow my ears out loud, just an incredible experience. Fans were fired up and excited to be in the new building.

 

It was weird to go to a Bills game and NOT know where the heck I was going 

 

The concourses in the upper level felt busy, but not crazy packed like some of the other areas mentioned by other posters. There were a few areas with no TVs and no line of sight, but they were few and far in-between.

 

The bathrooms were nice, at one point there was a line backed up out the door as everyone waited for a spot to open. What none of us realized is that there was a whole OTHER side of the bathroom with lots more urnials not being used because know one knew they were there. We'll learn, I suppose!

 

I was in 441 which gave me great views of the entire field, no problems getting to my seat and it felt steep, but not "on a cliff" steep.

 

I didn't the think the screens would be a problem, but IMO they were. From my seats the larger one was at a pretty "side view" angle making it hard to read the stats and the smaller on felt really far away and they were using small fonts so it was really hard to see the stats (does that say Kion has 5 catches or 8?). The down a distance were on one of the ribbon boards across the stadium and seemed tiny. I spent a lot of time squinting through my new glasses to see stats.

 

As mentioned, the amount of TV time out and downtime entertainment was a little much. And the screens kept just going black after plays (someone said that was for kicks and is an NFL rule now?)

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick is an all-time Buffalo Bill, him going through the table and then throwing it down was amazing.

 

I had the Rizzo's Chicken Parm, sauce was delicious, the chicken was good, but the bun was trash.

 

My favorite thing had to the views from the concourse; I went out to get a beer and take a walk a few minutes before the half and it was awesome being able to walk to the side and see the field and they play. I also like all the little art touches around, gave the place a little personality.

 

All-in-all it was amazing, IMO - such a great, modern building, almost felt hard to believe it's ours.

 

And a big s/o to the TBD / Hammer's Lot tailgate - it was a fantastic day! The Brisket on Weck that Smoking Pete's were giving out were unbelievable, Wing Jesus was frying up some nice wings, everyone was in great spirits even the Detroit fans were like "you guys are the best". And a big thanks to @JÂy RÛßeÒ for the lift - TBD takes care of its own

 

Not sure when I'll be back again, but I'm already looking forward to it!

 

GO BILLS!!  

[Jalan81]

2 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

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

Someone else mentioned they got rid of the drummers too?

 

 

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.

Exactly, they would have to film in anamorphic to accommodate it. 

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

Why didn’t the people who went to the stadium experience show you the view from the seat?

 

Some have. The complaint is that the Bills showed views in mid-row which didn’t accurately represent the obstructions on the ends of each row.

 

(Not saying they’re right; just passing along what they’re saying).

 

For what it’s worth, the stadium looked highly impressive on TV. 

[thronethinker]

For those of you who attended the Games at Rich stadium in 90/91 before they removed seats for the club levels, How does the noise level now compare to how it was then? We were getting around 83,000 people into those games, and it was much louder then, so if that can be achieved at the new stadium it would definitely mess with the other teams like it did when they added the 12th man to the stadium wall back in the day....

[Jalan81]

31 minutes ago, Son of a K-Gun said:

 

Definitely noticed that and was one of my only complaints...should be easily rectified.  Would be nice having more down and distance graphics along the sidelines too, the one board around midfield was pretty small. 

 

Some of the colouring choices on the boards could be improved as well...pretty sure there was light blue text on a blue screen.  I am colour blind and couldn't read it at all.  Would prefer something high-contrast.

 

 

The smoke really seemed to linger from my view upstairs.  

It was confused on where to go🤦‍♂️

[RiotAct]

37 minutes ago, wjag said:

I sat in the upper deck with the big scoreboard to my left. It was an akward enough angle and with the field being to my right, I rarely looked at it. Like others have said, I never figured out where the TOs were.  The smaller board was too far away for my old eyes to really discern the data being displayed. 
 

One thing I noticed late in the game was they were blacking out scoreboards on XP kicks.  As soon as the ball was in flight, they came back on.

 

for the Lions as well, or just the Bills?

[wjag]

9 minutes ago, thronethinker said:

For those of you who attended the Games at Rich stadium in 90/91 before they removed seats for the club levels, How does the noise level now compare to how it was then? We were getting around 83,000 people into those games, and it was much louder then, so if that can be achieved at the new stadium it would definitely mess with the other teams like it did when they added the 12th man to the stadium wall back in the day....

 I honestly don’t think it compares.  I really thought the lack of metal seats for sound “enhancements” would be missed.  Not so.   And one enterprising fellow found a metal panel and began banging on it.  The roof holds in the sound. At least in the upper deck I can say it was deafening, even in pregame activities.  
 

we had a lone Detroit fan, by the way, not very many, considering how close Detroit is, in our section and he eventually left shaking his head.  Maybe the side benefit to sky high ticket prices is opposing fans may not want to fork over 400+ dollars to see their team.

Just now, RiotAct said:

for the Lions as well, or just the Bills?

All XPs.  Probably on FGs as well, but there weren’t that many before I noticed them doing it. First thought it was a new building glitch but it happened consistently throughout 3rd and 4th periods 

Edited September 18 by wjag

[eball]

16 minutes ago, thronethinker said:

For those of you who attended the Games at Rich stadium in 90/91 before they removed seats for the club levels, How does the noise level now compare to how it was then? We were getting around 83,000 people into those games, and it was much louder then, so if that can be achieved at the new stadium it would definitely mess with the other teams like it did when they added the 12th man to the stadium wall back in the day....

 

The new stadium is louder. Crazy loud. Visiting teams will hate it on offense. It impacted at least two Detroit snaps.

 

[Chicharito]

I did t go to any of the preseason games or the practices so this is my first experience outside of being inside during construction. First thing I noticed is how much brighter the stadium is opposed to the Ralph. Secondly is this feels like a baseball game atmosphere. The game really has more fan interaction and more music. BTW I love baseball games so 🍻 to that.

 Only complaint is $59.10 for two roast beef’s, bottle of water and a bottle of pop. It is very expensive to attend the game. 

[Einstein]

 

[rsxfirefighter]

If you have ATT, you have no data. Swear Verizon was data blocking it hahaha.

 

But the stadium does provide free wifi and once I connected it worked for me.

 

Special Shout Out to Hammers Lot for holding a spot for me. Glad I was able to reach out and get a hold on one when I saw it was filled up and we were still an hour away.

 

The pregame atmosphere was just amazing. Everyone having a great time, including the random Lion fans mingling about. 
 

The Stadium is just beautiful and OURS!!!

Never thought I would see us with a new one, but definitely had to be there for opening game.

 

We were top row 400’s under the press box and my ears were rattling numerous times from the crowd noise and you could tell it caused Detroit to false start a few times.

 

The game sight lines are great, Top row seats don’t feel like a million miles away with the way the stadium was constructed.

 

The do need some more speakers because the top half of those 400s the audio was a little echoey and distorted due to them being pointed forward from us. This wasn’t a lack of tuning, but a lack of auxiliary speakers to compensate.

 

The Score Boards took a little to get used to, but unlike other stadiums I felt I saw more of the game on the field and was glad to use them only for watching the up close replays.

 

wish more tv game casts showed more replays like they do in the stadium

 

[Not at the table Karlos]

1 hour ago, Einstein said:

 

Some have. The complaint is that the Bills showed views in mid-row which didn’t accurately represent the obstructions on the ends of each row.

 

(Not saying they’re right; just passing along what they’re saying).

 

For what it’s worth, the stadium looked highly impressive on TV. 

They showed us a view from a couple different seats in our row along with pretty much any seat we wanted to see that was available. My actual view is almost spot on to the rendering outside of the railings on the stairs aren’t in the way in real life. 
 

That being said the experience varied depending on the salesman. From FB posts we had one of the better ones. 

[Simon]

9 hours ago, Blank Stare said:

I’m actually interested to see what it looked like on tv.

 

I'm not big on hyperbole, but it looked (and sounded) very impressive