By: Lucas R. Watson, Contributor
The new Buffalo Bills stadium: a source of endless frustration and difficulties for some, and pride for others. A slew of issues rose from this construction. From ticket prices to travel, a relaxing Sunday with the Bills is becoming a distant memory.
Many who had season tickets or were long-time seat holders now have to repay for their seats in a new stadium where the costs have skyrocketed to insane metrics. The stadium will also boast less capacity than before. Less seating and overall capacity than the previous one will jack up non-season ticket prices and lead to more people being forced to tailgate if they wish to see the game or be near the stadium.
Despite the fanfare for the new stadium, it will not have a cover or dome. A domeless, coverless stadium in Buffalo – a city notorious for inclement weather and poor field conditions – severely restricts options for the stadium to serve as a concert venue, a host for the Super Bowl and a number of games that can be played during harsh winds or storms. This is likely to cut off a huge source of revenue for the region and the stadium itself.
The most important thing, that – unfortunately – is not changing is the transportation and traffic issues in the area. As someone who has lived in South Buffalo and made frequent trips to Orchard Park, Hamburg, West Seneca and Lackawanna, it’s impossible to travel the area on a Sunday or during any other events held at Highmark Stadium. Abbott Road to Ridge Road is in complete gridlock, as well as Southwestern Boulevard. With less stadium capacity and a higher likelihood of people going to and from the stadium by car due to tailgating, these traffic issues will only worsen.
There are no plans set forth to expand transit options from the stadium to Downtown Buffalo, apart from an express bus line which will hit only a few stops. There are also no substantial updates on the local infrastructure happening either. One solution would be to create a light rail line to connect the southtowns to the rest of the City of Buffalo.
It appears the only thing considered in these construction plans is the city’s blind pride in the Buffalo Bills, not the fact that the team sits on the smallest economic market of any other team in the NFL and is a member of one of the smallest cities represented in the NFL. Nevertheless, we decided to build a new stadium instead of focusing on what the Bills can do to really help the City of Buffalo and the Greater Buffalo Niagara region.
So, what now? There’s nothing which can be done with the stadium that’s already well underway. There is not even talk of new developments in the area surrounding the stadium, like hotels and businesses. There are two bars and a small handful of businesses that occupy the space around it, the rest is largely suburban sprawl and completely unwalkable.
We see this new stadium and find it a point of pride for Buffalo, putting all of our eggs into one basket and hoping it pays out, instead of focusing on our tourism, tech and medical industries which can help the region far more than a poorly thought-out stadium in the middle of Orchard Park will.
But, again, there isn’t much we can do besides wait and see what happens.
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