If the rumors Buffalo Bills fans are hearing are true, and personal seat licenses at the team's new stadium reach tens of thousands of dollars, the so-called Bills Mafia might have to sit out more games than they can afford to attend.
"Buffalo are blue collar fans... like hardworking middle-class people that cannot afford this," Meredeth Paddock told local ABC affiliate WKBW.
According to WKBW's Maki Becker, Paddock, who lives in Rochester and has been a Bills fan since she was a little girl, has club seats at Highmark Stadium and loves to take her two sons to the games. Now, she''s not sure she'll be able to afford similar experiences at the Bills' New Highmark Stadium set to open for the 2026 season.
"Everyone feels like they are pricing out the Bills Mafia and they want to fill those seats with corporations," Paddock said.
Related: Report: New Bills Stadium Already $300M Over Projected $1.4B Cost
Meanwhile, Buffalo NBC affiliate WGRZ reported that Joseph Lombardo was contacted a week and a half ago by a representative at the Bills Experience to discuss his season tickets and the personal seat licenses at the new stadium.
Currently, Lombardo has eight season tickets for the M&T Bank Suite at Highmark Stadium at a cost of $24,000 per season over a three-season commitment to keep them. The M&T suite provides a club/suite level experience to a wider audience of small businesses and non-profit organizations, rather than the ultra-wealthy and guests of the state that often occupy the stadium's private suites.
To secure a similar experience at New Highmark, Lombardo will need to invest $400,000.
"I was totally shocked," Lombardo told WGRZ. "Their fees are compared to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, we don't have the economy to afford tickets like that."
That price tag breaks down to $50,000 per seat license, a number Lombardo told the Bills rep he couldn't swallow. To further add to his frustration, according to Lombardo, the seats the Bills were offering him weren't actually inside a suite.
"It was just something that was nowhere near what I could afford," Lombardo said. "They didn't offer any alternative, that was the fee, that was the price, and so I had to pass up my season tickets starting in the new stadium."
According to WGRZ's Nate Benson, a Facebook group with more than 1,000 members was started last week as a space for season-ticket holders to talk about the offers they're getting from the Bills for PSLs.
WGRZ reached out to county executive Mark Poloncarz seeking comment about the issue. A spokesperson said:
"The County Executive expressed his disappointment to the Bills and Legends representatives last week during a tour of the new Stadium Experience, regarding their failure to publicly release the PSL prices. For the record, the county has not been provided any prices/costs regarding the PSLs because we are not a party to the PSL agreement, as the county is out of the football business once the new stadium opens up. We are discussing the matter with the state at this time."
Neither the Bills nor New York governor Kathy Hochul's office responded to WGRZ's request for comment.
"We've supported this team since the '60s, and we're grateful to have a new stadium," Lombardo said. "But we wish that we could have a new stadium that we could afford to go to, and continue our traditions."
