What will the changes be at the stadium?

[MAJBobby]

I want him to announce a Deal for a Down Town Dome Stadium.  

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

Did they run out of food and drink on Sunday like they did early in the Green Bay game?

[Albany,n.y.]

1 hour ago, loyal2dagame said:

Maybe they are changing the cashless system,  because it sucks....

It's even worse at Met-Life stadium.  I'm going to the Bills game on 11/14 and I got a notice that I must use VISA only cards.  Now they have machines at Met-Life where you can buy a VISA debit card with cash.  I wonder how well that works and what the fees are.  

 

Since I have Mastercard & not VISA I ended up buying a VISA gift card & put $100 on it for both games & left my debit card at home.  One thing that I found was that if you look, most prepaid debit cards are reloadable, but they make you do a lot of stuff like registering with them, giving private info that sometimes includes your Social Security number and charge a monthly fee. I was about to give up but then I found that the gift card has none of that nonsense & the fee was a one time $5.95 charge.  

[RiotAct]

1 minute ago, Albany,n.y. said:

It's even worse at Met-Life stadium.  I'm going to the Bills game on 11/14 and I got a notice that I must use VISA only cards.  Now they have machines at Met-Life where you can buy a VISA debit card with cash.  I wonder how well that works and what the fees are.  

 

Since I have Mastercard & not VISA I ended up buying a VISA gift card & put $100 on it for both games & left my debit card at home.  One thing that I found was that if you look, most prepaid debit cards are reloadable, but they make you do a lot of stuff like registering with them, giving private info that sometimes includes your Social Security number and charge a monthly fee. I was about to give up but then I found that the gift card has none of that nonsense & the fee was a one time $5.95 charge.  

all the more reason to tailgate and eat and drink your fill before going in!

 

Bad enough that most stadiums charge exorbitant prices for the concessions.  If a team is going cashless they definitely shouldn’t be passing the costs on to the customer (but we know how that goes).

[727Bills]

Hopefully they start following math/physics and not science and adjust accordingly 

[teef]

19 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

It was great.

 

I've been going to see Williams for the last 5-6 years and it's so much fun. The man is almost 90 and he's still going strong.

 

If you get a chance to see him in concert, do it! All of the great music from movies you get to listen to is just spectacular.

When I was in college, John Williams would perform on campus every parents weekend.  It was great.  They’d pump you full of booze, and close with some Star Wars awesomeness. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Pepsi is out, Coke is in.

Entire stadium is now 'peanut free'.

75% off all Sabres items.

[Logic]

40 minutes ago, Mango said:

From a general sense, I felt a little bit "dirty" being anywhere indoors or out with 70,000 people. I just got off the phone with a buddy who got married this weekend who said the same thing about his wedding, and that was only about 100 people. 

Surprisingly, I had people mock me about wearing my mask in line for entry to the stadium. The people in my section asked me WTF I was wearing a mask when I got back from the bathroom and went on a rant about mask wearing being a bunch of trash. There was no enforcement of masks indoors, bathrooms, etc. 

 

Maybe it was just my own assumption, but not a single person at the gates checked for vaccine cards or negative covid tests. Maybe it is because I have the NYS passport on my phone, when I download my ticket, it automatically authorizes it, but I never provided any of that information to anybody getting my tickets or going through the gate. 

I have to say, as much as I love the Bills, it was rather uncomfortable for a number of reasons, part of them my own, but a good chunk not. If the Pegula's are unwilling to enforce and/or mandate certain requirements to keep people safe, I am glad the county is stepping in. 

EDIT: For all the eye rolls, vomit, etc. responses. I am in my mid-30's with an extensive athletic background. I am on gabapentin for neuropathy and colchecine for an enlarged heart, both due to Covid in December. I lost family who did the whole "if you are scared stay home" thing, until they had to go to the hospital because of a trip and fall. That person then gave it to my grandfather (they lived together) who now has congestive hear failure due to covid. He went to the hospital with complications and never came home and has since sold the house. I got covid from him, because there was nobody else to take care of him while he was sick, pre hospitalization. 

It is no joke out there guys. 

I'm sorry to hear you got harassed for wearing your mask. Absolutely ridiculous that that would happen during a pandemic that has killed over 600,000 Americans and left countless other with long haul ailments.

I double-masked the entire game. I don't really care how many eyeroll or vomit emojis that elicits. Being densely packed into a crowd of 70,000, many of whom were shouting drunkenly and spewing spittle droplets everywhere, felt like a reasonable/logical situation in which to wear a mask -- indoors or not. I did not catch any crap from anyone at any point. I would have happily chirped back at them if I did, but luckily it didn't come to that.

What's so infuriating about anyone having a problem with a masked person is that they don't have ANY CLUE what considerations played into that person's decision to wear a mask -- they could be immuno-compromised, have young children or elderly relatives at home, etc. Not only that, but the current stadium rules LITERALLY REQUIRE YOU to wear a mask in the concourse, so these people are essentially just harassing someone for following stadium rules and for exercising safety and caution during a pandemic. Ridiculous.

Going forward, I'm hoping that teams either mandate proof of vaccination or strictly enforce mask wearing. I personally won't be attending any more games unless and until that happens. The vast majority of the time, it feels safe to me to be maskless outdoors. Being packed into a crowd of 70,000 screaming, drunken people -- many of whom are likely to turn to you at any given moment and scream "LET'S GO BILLS" directly into your face from 10 inches away -- did not feel like one of those times. 

[billsfanmiamioh]

4 minutes ago, Logic said:

I'm sorry to hear you got harassed for wearing your mask. Absolutely ridiculous that that would happen during a pandemic that has killed over 600,000 Americans and left countless other with long haul ailments.

I double-masked the entire game. I don't really care how many eyeroll or vomit emojis that elicits. Being densely packed into a crowd of 70,000, many of whom were shouting drunkenly and spewing spittle droplets everywhere, felt like a reasonable/logical situation in which to wear a mask -- indoors or not. I did not catch any crap from anyone at any point. I would have happily chirped back at them if I did, but luckily it didn't come to that.

What's so infuriating about anyone having a problem with a masked person is that they don't have ANY CLUE what considerations played into that person's decision to wear a mask -- they could be immuno-compromised, have young children or elderly relatives at home, etc. Not only that, but the current stadium rules LITERALLY REQUIRE YOU to wear a mask in the concourse, so these people are essentially just harassing someone for following stadium rules and for exercising safety and caution during a pandemic. Ridiculous.

Going forward, I'm hoping that teams either mandate proof of vaccination or strictly enforce mask wearing. I personally won't be attending any more games unless and until that happens. The vast majority of the time, it feels safe to me to be maskless outdoors. Being packed into a crowd of 70,000 screaming, drunken people -- many of whom are likely to turn to you at any given moment and scream "LET'S GO BILLS" directly into your face from 10 inches away -- did not feel like one of those times. 

Sounds like you should have stayed home. What did you honestly expect it to be like? 

[Logic]

7 minutes ago, billsfanmiamioh said:

Sounds like you should have stayed home. What did you honestly expect it to be like? 

Maybe I SHOULD have stayed home, you're right.

I expected a relative lack of mask compliance. I didn't expect for 99.9 % of the fans in attendance to completely ignore the "wear masks in concourses and indoor areas" rule and for the stadium staff to not even TRY to enforce it. I guess that was naïve on my part. 

I also didn't necessarily expect the non mask wearers to be harassing the mask wearers, which I did witness happening a bit in the concourse and bathrooms to other people and which another poster attested to having experienced himself.



 

[Mango]

8 minutes ago, Logic said:

I'm sorry to hear you got harassed for wearing your mask. Absolutely ridiculous that that would happen during a pandemic that has killed over 600,000 Americans and left countless other with long haul ailments.

I double-masked the entire game. I don't really care how many eyeroll or vomit emojis that elicits. Being densely packed into a crowd of 70,000, many of whom were shouting drunkenly and spewing spittle droplets everywhere, felt like a reasonable/logical situation in which to wear a mask -- indoors or not. I did not catch any crap from anyone at any point. I would have happily chirped back at them if I did, but luckily it didn't come to that.

What's so infuriating about anyone having a problem with a masked person is that they don't have ANY CLUE what considerations played into that person's decision to wear a mask -- they could be immuno-compromised, have young children or elderly relatives at home, etc. Not only that, but the current stadium rules LITERALLY REQUIRE YOU to wear a mask in the concourse, so these people are essentially just harassing someone for following stadium rules and for exercising safety and caution during a pandemic. Ridiculous.

Going forward, I'm hoping that teams either mandate proof of vaccination or strictly enforce mask wearing. I personally won't be attending any more games unless and until that happens. The vast majority of the time, it feels safe to me to be maskless outdoors. Being packed into a crowd of 70,000 screaming, drunken people -- many of whom are likely to turn to you at any given moment and scream "LET'S GO BILLS" directly into your face from 10 inches away -- did not feel like one of those times. 

 

 

I fully agree. I unfortunately will not be going to anymore games. I am not a "hide in your house kind of guy". But I am a "follow the rules, and do your best not to accidently kill your neighbor" kind of guy. I had certain expectations of the game based on how I live my life and my inner circle. 70,000 people screaming packed in like sardines seems like a bad idea unmasked, the guy next to me was spitting on me every time he was talking to me as well, I ended up just being masked for most of the game. 

I cannot imagine going back to a game under current protocols/enforcements. I am not sure what my expectations were, but my experience was not them. 

[4_kidd_4]

I really like the “freedomz!!!” types harassing someone for choosing to wear their mask.

 

That’s some butter-cream richness right there.

[Jobot]

2 hours ago, PetermansRedemption said:

Favorite quote I’ve heard on masks:

 

If it worked so well the first time, why do we need it again? 
 

If it didn’t work the first time, why do we need it again? 

 

Total whiff.

 

Masks did work, people are now refusing vaccines, more variants mutate, Covid comes back, so we need masks again. It's obnoxious hearing idiots think that they're clever when they're clearly the source of the problem.

[mead107]

Screw it send my money back and I will watch at home or bar

 

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

Ohhh are the mean old politicians trying to keep hospitals from being over crowded and their staff from being over worked??? Those villainous scoundrels!!!!

 

If only they understand Football is Life!!!

 

Although with some many people packed like sardines in a pandemic, Football could also be death…

 

But mostly Football is Life!!!

[Logic]

10 minutes ago, Mango said:

 

 

I fully agree. I unfortunately will not be going to anymore games. I am not a "hide in your house kind of guy". But I am a "follow the rules, and do your best not to accidently kill your neighbor" kind of guy. I had certain expectations of the game based on how I live my life and my inner circle. 70,000 people screaming packed in like sardines seems like a bad idea unmasked, the guy next to me was spitting on me every time he was talking to me as well, I ended up just being masked for most of the game. 

I cannot imagine going back to a game under current protocols/enforcements. I am not sure what my expectations were, but my experience was not them. 

Agreed on all counts.

I fully realize that by going to an event of such size and magnitude, I am accepting a certain degree of personal risk. I was under no illusion that I was walking into a completely safe and protected situation. 

That said, the onus has to be on the team, the stadium staff, the league, the county, etc, to at least ATTEMPT to mitigate that risk by implementing certain common sense measures, like enforcing -- or at least TRYING to enforce -- the "masks in concourses and indoor areas" rule. Saying "Full speed ahead, full capacity!" and not at least ATTEMPTING to implement SOME basic, simple common sense measures just doesn't make any sense to me. 

I went to the game as a sort of litmus test. I recognize that COVID is now endemic and that it's not going away any time soon. Attending the game was a way of dipping a toe in the water to see how it felt to return to doing one of my favorite things in life -- attending a Bills game. It didn't feel great. It might not have felt great no matter what, because of the basic nature of that type of event. But I can't help but feel that it would have felt SOMEWHAT better if people heeded the basic rules, the staff cared to enforce them, and there weren't hostile, lunatic anti-maskers harassing fellow fans. To each their own, but it just wasn't a great experience in my opinion.

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Logic

[TBBills]

12 minutes ago, Logic said:

Maybe I SHOULD have stayed home, you're right.

I expected a relative lack of mask compliance. I didn't expect for 99.9 % of the fans in attendance to completely ignore the "wear masks in concourses and indoor areas" rule and for the stadium staff to not even TRY to enforce it. I guess that was naïve on my part. 

I also didn't necessarily expect the non mask wearers to be harassing the mask wearers, which I did witness happening a bit in the concourse and bathrooms to other people and which another poster attested to having experienced himself.



 

Didn't expect humans to act like humans... Ok

[SirAndrew]

I predict it’s an announcement that gets this topic locked 😂 

[4_kidd_4]

5 minutes ago, Logic said:

Maybe I SHOULD have stayed home, you're right.

I expected a relative lack of mask compliance. I didn't expect for 99.9 % of the fans in attendance to completely ignore the "wear masks in concourses and indoor areas" rule and for the stadium staff to not even TRY to enforce it. I guess that was naïve on my part. 

I also didn't necessarily expect the non mask wearers to be harassing the mask wearers, which I did witness happening a bit in the concourse and bathrooms to other people and which another poster attested to having experienced himself.



 

 

Well I definitely hear you here, and I anticipated it and stayed home. 
 

A sunday at the stadium is supposed to be an escape. It just hasn’t been for a while now. The whole anthem protest thing really revved up the armchair patriots, and the unfortunate toxic divisiveness was now being shouted at one another at the games.

 

Sunday was the first opener I’ve missed in person in about 25 years. I’m vaxxed and not worried about being outside at the game & tailgate. However, my best friend & seatmate has a heart condition and also takes care of his mom with MS. So there’s multiple layers of risk there. He was going to go anyways and mask up the whole day.  We talked earlier last week and he literally said “I feel like I’d get harassed for masking, and it would ruin the day”. So we ditched our tix.

 

Unfortunately, sounds like he was absolutely correct. And that’s sad.

[SCBills]

Haaa……

 

Those of us that live down south welcome all the heathens who wish to join us at road games.