ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — New data obtained through a freedom of information request by 2 On Your Side shows that a little more than 3,600 personal seat licenses have been sold for the new Buffalo Bills stadium.
According to a report submitted to Empire State Development by the Bills Stadium & Events Company, a separate entity controlled by the Bills and Pegula family created to oversee the stadium, 3,602 club level PSLs were sold between March 13 and June 30.
This figure amounts to $65.4 million in sales. The PSL sales consisted of only club level seats. A spokesperson for the Bills said broader seating options will be made available to season ticket holders in September.
According to the PLS report obtained by WGRZ, $18.9 million has been collected so far from PSL sales. The revenues generated from PSL sales offset the cost of the stadium and are transferred into an account managed by Empire State Development.
"The good news is people are buying them," Bills Insider Vic Carucci said. "There was a point when people looked at the sticker shock."
Outlined in the 18 pages of data obtained by WGRZ, PSL seat prices range from $8,000 per seat to $50,000 per seat.
As we previously reported, there was considerable sticker shock by some season ticket holders when they were invited into their PSL sales meeting.
As of June 30, there are still 58,353 PSLs that need to be sold.
Carucci points out that at the current pace of PSL sales, the Bills would have only sold roughly 36,000 PSLs by the time the stadium opens.
"Nine-hundred a month, and you look at 24 months out, and you do all that math, and you still come up pretty short," Carucci said. "Again, this assumes the pace doesn't change along the way."
A spokesperson for the Bills told 2 On Your Side that those 60% of account holders that have gone through the PSL process ultimately purchased the license.
The data obtained by 2 On Your Side indicates that 1,338 individual account holders purchased 3,602 PSLs between March and June.
That would indicate that during the first quarter of reporting by the Bills, 2,330 account holders were brought through the PSL process.
"Will there be enough revenue there to make Terry Pegula's investment, which is the overage, the money that he's got to pay above and beyond what was in that lease for the cost of the stadium, can all that work out?" Carucci said. "I think there is, my concern, will everything align very well — the success of the team, the economy, all the things that factor into people pulling big dollars out of their pocket to buy these PSLs
As for how long the process takes, a spokesperson for the Bills told 2 On Your Side that approximately the average account holder takes about 90 minutes to go through the PSL presentation and that Legends Hospitality can accommodate 50 appointments per day.
The only way to purchase season tickets for the Buffalo Bills at the new stadium is to purchase a PSL.