New "ironclad" Stadium deal reached

[Saxum]

8 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

How does it make sense to build a new stadium with LESS seats than the current stadium despite taking up 600,000 more square footage?  I mean it literally has a 66% bigger footprint than old stadium but 8000 less seats.  
 

Especially for a team that sells out every home game regardless of weather or how good or bad the team is.

 

8,000 less seats is almost 12% less seats than the current stadium.  That’s just gonna make tickets cost even more and harder to get.  
 

Bills literally just made a deal to build the second smallest stadium in the NFL in terms of seating capacity.  Only Soldier field will have less seats (only 500 less seats).

 

This makes no sense, why have less Bills Mafia at each home game?  Best and loudest fan base in the league.

 

I agree and hopefully design is made so it is expandable maybe even adding stadium covering for offseason to help reduce maintenance costs.

 

The Bills are trying to make it more modern and eliminate some of the low priced fans blamed for much of the troubles in stadium.

They are going to raising prices of everything from beer to hot dogs to pizza logs to parking and add even higher priced restaurant style food.

They are going to TRY to get people in stadium earlier to have more sales but I think that will be harder with Buffalo's tailgating tradition.

IMO it would be better to try to get people to stay after game to help traffic spread out.  Make it a place you can watch afternoon games.

I do hope they expand the trailer lot since that lot seems to sell out every time.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

So what are the odds Shoop and the Dope will argue this is a terrible deal?

[SoCal Deek]

1 minute ago, BillsfaninSB said:

Im in construction and prices are out of hand.   If they built this stadium at the same as Lucas I’m sure it would be  well below $700M. 

Wait....ABOVE or BELOW ?

[thenorthremembers]

Just now, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

So what are the odds Shoop and the Dope will argue this is a terrible deal?

Wont be listening in to find out.

[Alphadawg7]

2 minutes ago, Shake_My_Head said:

 

Well, there is that pesky reality that the Buffalo area population is 14% smaller (nearly 190,000) than when the Ralph was built.   

 

More seats => more out-of-town fans.    

Then why don’t you have that problem now in a 70,000 seat stadium?

[Virgil]

Just now, Alphadawg7 said:

All the newest stadiums have between 3,000 and 18,000 more seats than this new stadium.  So how is “smaller the way to go”?  No one else is doing “smaller”.  
 

And they added 600,000 more square feet as it is, there is plenty of room to move around and still keep your seating capacity up.  
 

We are literally building the smallest stadium in the NFL.  For the best and most engaged fan base in the league…one that sells out every home game.  
 

Im all for having more space to move around, but you can do that and still keep your capacity bigger than the smallest in the NFL.

 

I worry about all of this extra space and how that effects seat density in the better areas.  Jacksonville does the same and it really impacted the amount of quality seats on the lower lever between the 30's

[Greg S]

12 minutes ago, Draconator said:

 

 

I could see the Sabres getting a game in the new stadium at some point with the NHL's outdoor games.

[dpberr]

That's quite a steep bill for one county to lift. 

[Alphadawg7]

Just now, Virgil said:

 

I worry about all of this extra space and how that effects seat density in the better areas.  Jacksonville does the same and it really impacted the amount of quality seats on the lower lever between the 30's

The seats are still tiny and crammed in at all the new stadiums.  I don’t understand why they make the stadiums more “spacious” but the seats impossibly small.  

[BillsfaninSB]

4 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Even if cost doubled in that time frame which it hasn’t $1.4B should still be enough. 

I have built 15 Urgent Care sites (remodels) over the last 2.5 years.

 

Construction only costs in that time went from just under $300/sf to over $500 sf for the last site. 

[MWK]

Sucks that it's not a dome but we knew that. Pumped we got this done!!!

[SoCal Deek]

Just now, Virgil said:

 

I worry about all of this extra space and how that effects seat density in the better areas.  Jacksonville does the same and it really impacted the amount of quality seats on the lower lever between the 30's

I believe that most of the square footage figures refer to the concourse area outside of the seating bowl itself...especially with an outdoor venue. The one thing lacking at Rich Stadium was always the support space (restrooms, concessions, circulation area)...but this is also partly due to the fact that both the upper and lower decks open up into one consolidated concourse. If the new stadium is built above ground they'll need to double up on all of those areas, and therefore consume more square feet.

[Bob Chandler's Hands]

5 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Even if cost doubled in that time frame which it hasn’t $1.4B should still be enough. 

Comparing 2004 to 2022 (Lucas Oil Field opened 2008, so let's assume it was scoped out 4 years prior, same as this stadium will open 2026, scoped out in 2022) I went to an inflation comparison web site and it's almost exactly a 50% increase in overall costs in the US. So $720M would equate to $1.08B. and to your point, that was with a retractable roof in Indy. 

The other factors to consider are that construction inflation may be higher than overall inflation (I don't know), and building something in NY vs. IN may be more expensive (very likely). 

[Saxum]

10 minutes ago, billsfanmiamioh said:

There’s 5k standing room on top of the 60-62K. And the “best home fan base in the nfl” still has trouble selling out games

 

That is partly due to Bills marketing limiting season ticket sales to out of area fans while same time selling tickets to travel agencies marketing to opposing fans.

They used to all Buffalo Bills Backers groups but blocks of tickets but you can only get them now via resellers who you need to buy amenities like tailgates with provided food for markups.

 

Bills fans fill other stadiums.

[Olliemets]

Would love to see renderings soon. From what I read 80% of the seats are covered, which is in line with Seattle's Stadium (Which I love). Roof over most everything but the field, and big sheltered concourses that won't funnel the wind through the stadium.

 

If a similar design to the Seahawks home, I can see it being loud as hell.

[nedboy7]

I just hope the Pegula's have enough money left after this deal. 

[Shake_My_Head]

13 minutes ago, dpberr said:

That's quite a steep bill for one county to lift. 

 

Tax exempt revenue bonds over 30 years.   At 3% interest, that works out to annual debt service payments of about $12-$13 million.    Probably recouped from hotel tax or ticket tax revenue.  Not that big a nut.

.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Shake_My_Head

[BillsfaninChicago]

This has to be a very dark day for Mike Florio! 😂 

[BillsfaninSB]

This is a good day.

 

I bought a Bills hat a few days ago and was wondering if i would have to put in Goodwiill in the near future. 

[May Day 10]

3 minutes ago, BillsfaninChicago said:

This has to be a very dark day for Mike Florio! 😂 

 

"Well, I havent seen a signed lease agreement yet, so the possibility remains that the Bills could relocate to one or more of Toronto, San Antonio, Portland, Mexico City, or Albuquerque."