Bills new stadium’s Family Circle coming together as major visitor attraction
The Family Circle plaza will be open year-round, as one of a number of gathering spaces outside the perimeter of the ticketed areas of the stadium, where people will be able to come to enjoy and experience the Buffalo Bills' new stadium and campus 365 days a year.
The more welcoming main entrance to the Buffalo Bills new stadium is taking shape and it’s sure to be a visitor attraction.
The area at the stadium’s north entrance, which was part of the first renderings that the Bills put out three years ago, will include a Family Circle with multiple massive bison on display and a Bills legend wall.
This rendering of new Highmark Stadium shows several bison as the centerpiece of the facility’s Family Circle.
It will essentially serve as a park and attraction that’s also a historical landmark for the Bills, telling the story of the team and the history of the Western New York area where they’ve played since 1960.
The plaza will be open year-round, as one of a number of gathering spaces outside the perimeter of the ticketed areas of the stadium, where people will be able to come 365 days a year.
“People all the time will pull into Bills Drive or the Bills Team Store to try to get a picture at the new stadium but there’s no good place to do it. This will be that area now,” said John Polka, vice president of stadium development.
“They’ll be able to park, walk through here, grab pictures. You’re here to come see where the Bills play, and even if you’re not coming to a game, you can come hang out here,” he said.
A view of the Family Circle is seen last week as construction continues at the new Highmark Stadium.
The plaza will be an integral part of the main entrance to the facility that is on track to open next year. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Workers have installed a base with rebar to install the bison, which are being built now, the team said. A rollout of the bison will likely happen toward the end of the year. But all the site work around the base where the bison statues will sit is progressing.
The Family Circle will also include multiple benches, landscaping, plantings and green space, lighting holes and an audio system.
The Bills legends who are currently up on the Wall of Fame at Highmark Stadium across the street on Abbott Road will be part of the wall in Family Circle set up around the bison.
Telling the history of the area will include insight and input from the Seneca Nation to help honor their past.
“We’ve made significant progress on it,” said Frank Cravotta, senior vice president of design for the Bills. “We’re just not quite ready to show the world.”
The Bills expect the Family Circle to be a popular game day area for fans, and the team is still figuring out how to take advantage of that, Polka said.
The area will be outside the security gate of the over $2 billion stadium so anyone can come there to visit or hang out without having to have a ticket for the game or need to get into the building.
“This will be open so that people can come here any day, have lunch,” Cravotta said.
“We’re expecting there will be a lot of people here whether it’s to come hang out before the game or just the masses to come through this way,” Polka said.
While parking lots on the south end of the stadium are mostly complete, the team is still working on lots on the north end and around the Family Circle. Much of the sidewalk, curbing and underground utilities are done there, but paving will continue on the northern end until later this year.
The Bills are also building the entranceways into the stadium, which will be much wider and separate security screening from ticketing, unlike how it is at the current Highmark Stadium.
There will first be entranceways for security screenings, all with walk-through open gate systems that do not require fans to empty their pockets, and then ticket-taking gates.
The Bills said it will make getting into the stadium much quicker and more seamless.
There will be around a half-dozen entry gates to get into the stadium. The largest gate will be behind Family Circle because that’s where the team anticipates the highest volume of fans will come from on their way in. There will be more ticket gates than security entrances.
“Going through security is usually faster, but what holds things up now is the ticket scanning, so at the new stadium, you’ll come through security easier and then you disperse to entry (ticketing) locations where your section is,” Polka said.
The lots will be at the same grade as the entranceways and the main concourse of the stadium, making for a smooth flow into the building, Cravotta said. There will then be escalators and stairs available to access the upper levels with the first- and third-floor section concourses completely open to the stadium and walkable all the way around.
“You can imagine on game day that you already feel the energy and excitement once you walk in,” Cravotta said. “As soon as you walk through those doors, you’re going to hear everything that’s going on.”
The team is also considering a wall honoring workers on the project in front of the building’s main glass entrance. All the names of the workers who worked on the project would be put on the wall.