Buffalo Bills Stadium Proposals and the University at Buffalo

The Buffalo Bills' New Stadium Working Group is keeping its options as open as possible as they investigate ways to build a new stadium and keep the team in Western New York. Those options have gotten more and more far flung by the week.

The latest "swath" of options includes Niagara Falls. Buffalo Rumblings does a good job of calling out why that's not such a hot idea.

Another problem presented by a move to Niagara Falls would be traffic. To get to Niagara Falls, most Buffalonians and Western New Yorkers in general would be required to head over the Grand Island bridge, a tricky bottleneck on the highway with only surface roads as an alternative. Sites in Orchard Park, downtown Buffalo, and virtually anywhere else wouldn't have this hurdle to clear.

This ties into UB because John Wawrow of The Associated Press. also reported that there were talks about the new Bills field house being built on UB's campus where they would also place their offices.

Another idea is having the Bills relocate their headquarters to the University at Buffalo campus in the Erie County town of Amherst, where a new practice facility would be built and shared with the school's football team. That proposal would satisfy a long-term need for a Mid-American Conference program seeking to broaden its profile.

I asked someone inside UB Athletics if they had been engaged by the stadium working group, or by any political official on a possible Bills / Bulls alliance. The UB Official flat out said that there was not, and has never been a discussion with the University on this matter.

If the BIlls put their offices at UB, and the stadium elsewhere it would be a big change from the current world where the Bills keep both in one place. At first I believed that might make such an arrangement a non starter. Then remembered that the Vikings do something similar here in Minnesota. Their team offices are not located downtown with the stadium.

So if there is an enterprising state representative who wants to make a name for himself with UB Alumni perhaps pitching such an arrangement to UB and his fellow law makers would be a good idea. If the Bills and Bulls could work out a schedule which would accommodate both the football teams and UB's other non revenue sports then the benefit to the school would be enormous.

Beyond the cost savings of building your own field-house with privately raised money you would be able to sell recruits on the idea that the staff of an NFL team is on campus all the time.

As to the stadium location itself? In this humble writers opinion the stadium belongs downtown on the water front. It's the only venue which makes sense for the team, for the city, and for the region.