A column by CHUCK POLLOCK
So the long-awaited debut of the Buffalo Bills Highmark Stadium Part Deux is set for Saturday night.
Oh, you didn’t buy season tickets or purchase a personal seat license?
Well, that comes under the heading of “tough luck.”
For years, the Bills have hosted the Return of the Blue and Red Practice, but this year’s event comes with a caveat … you must be an team investor in the form of either season tickets or a Personal Seat License.
In short, only the privileged few thousand will be privileged to watch stretching, warm-ups, 7-on-7s and 11-on-11 without interruption from the peons.
Of course, when word got out of the Bills elitist approach to the stadium introduction, members of the team’s crack community relations staff conjured a compromise. Now the Bills will present a Wegman’s-sponsored “open” practice at the convenient time of 8:30 in the morning on Aug. 18. Admission is free if you can get out of work as it’s on a first-come, first-served basis.
And that reintroduces a nagging question which surfaced when plans for the new stadium were announced.
The original Rich Stadium, which opened in 1973, seated 80,020.
Over the next 53 years, capacity shrunk to last season’s 71,608.
The new Highmark holds 60,108 but can be extended to 63,000 for special events.
Those proficient in basic math quickly assessed that the new stadium, constructed, in league with the Cowboys Jerry Jones, held 11,500 fewer seats.
That reality evoked a rather obvious question: “Why REDUCE capacity by nearly 20%?
Stadium apologists quickly fashioned their explanation: “It prioritizes” tightler sight lines, accoustic iuntensity and modern club spaces.”
Apparently, none of those considerations would have been addressed by making the stadium larger.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
