ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — More than 70,000 fans are expected for the Buffalo Bills home opener on Sunday afternoon.
With the construction of the new stadium across the street, officials with the team say traffic is really going to be a learning experience for them.
Bills VP of operations and guest experience Andy Major says parking will be the biggest change this year.
Bills Mafia is encouraged to arrive early and avoid Abbott Road, which closes at 8 a.m. Gates for parking open at 9 a.m.
Officials with the Bills also encourage fans to carpool, if possible. You can also use the NFTA's game-day express service to the stadium.
New this year, part of lot 4 is closed, and lot 3, which is normally the employee lot, is now open to the public. The RV lot is also closed.
To analyze the flow of traffic for future games, the Bills are also getting some help from the Erie County Sheriff Office's helicopter.
"We will be working with the sheriff. They'll have their helicopter up in the air to keep an eye on the traffic for us. We'll be monitoring everything from our command center, video surveillance everywhere, not just the fan behavior, but also the traffic flow, the patterns, any learnings we can get from Sunday, we'll put that into practice for the next game," Major said.
The Bills are also requesting you give feedback on any hiccups you may see or experience Sunday.
You just have to call their ticket office or reach out to them on their website.
And looking ahead to the colder games in the season, now you can bring in battery-operated clothing to stay warm.
"We have worked with the NFL, we've talked to other teams who allow battery operated clothing in the NFL, and we've worked with the sheriff, all of our law enforcement partners to really work through that program, so yeah, we will make an adjustment on that so that will be a permitted item. fans will still go through the normal security screening but at cold weather games, they'll be able to wear their warm weather clothing on game day," Major said.
Also new this season, there is also a new security feature at Gate 5.
You can walk through the screening devices with your bags and not have them searched to get into the game sooner.
Bills officials say eventually this will be added to other gates as well.
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