Some Bills fans feel angst over new stadium ticket decision

Making a decision on their future at the new Buffalo Bills stadium has not been easy on some season ticket holders in club seats.

It has caused frustration and anxiety as fans wonder whether they made the right choice. That even goes for some season ticket holders who have said yes.

“I keep kicking myself, questioning whether it was a good move, but I love the Bills and I love going to the games,” said Charlie Jufer, a retired Wilson Central School teacher, coach and administrator. He bought a single aisle seat in Section 220 for $4,200 per season with a $10,000 one-time personal seat license fee.

Over the past several months, most season ticket holders in the club seats have been through the team’s Stadium Experience Center in Amherst, where they heard a sales pitch from a representative of sales consultant Legends for seats in the new stadium. The ticket holders are expected to make a decision on the spot or soon afterward.

It would be an easy call for most to continue on once the new Highmark Stadium opens in 2026, if it weren’t for the cost, including having to pony up thousands of dollars on a personal seat license just for the right to pay significantly higher ticket prices for club seats.

Some have reported ticket prices almost doubling for comparable seats in the clubs at the new stadium, though season ticket holders in general admission, which make up the majority of the venue’s seats, have not yet been through the experience center to find out pricing.

The team says the experience and amenities in the club sections will be a big upgrade from the current stadium, but fans are having to decide whether that is worth the significant upfront investment.

That is especially relevant for the Bills season ticket base, which lacks the big corporate presence that teams in bigger markets can tap into. For the Bills, individual fans – not companies – are a big part of the team’s season ticket base.

For those people choosing to buy season tickets in the new stadium, it will mean less disposable income for other entertainment activities, including trips to Bills road games. For some, the decision is made even more difficult by people’s long family ties to the team, the potential for breaking years of traditions and the fear of missing out.

The Buffalo News spoke to six club seat season ticket members – three who have purchased tickets at the new stadium, and three who – for now – have said no.

“At first, I started to have anxiety, thinking about whether I would regret this either way or the other,” said Luke Mages of Clarence, who decided against continuing as a season ticket holder in the new stadium.

“All I could think was, ‘If I do this, was I going to sit at the stadium regretting that I paid all of this money, or if I don’t do this, I am going to regret not being there?’ ” he said.

Mages, 41, and his wife even visited England last season for the Bills’ London game to watch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, since the Buffalo football stadium on Abbott Road is modeled after it. Although the British stadium was beautiful, it was still not sold.

“And then, God forbid, the Bills don’t do well,” Mages said.

Even though he moved to Virginia and only makes it two to four home games each season, Buffalo native Joe Bruzgul decided to purchase two tickets to keep his family group together at the new stadium. Their current season ticket group has already been whittled down from 10 to four tickets.

His father is not continuing after more than 30 years as a season ticket holder, so Bruzgul and his brother sought to keep the family tradition alive by each purchasing two tickets, although his brother went down from four to two. It is also a way his father can still go to games with the group.

Bruzgul believes there will be fewer reasonably priced tickets available for individual game purchases. He also thinks that the thousands of people on the waitlist for season tickets will likely scoop up what is left as current members say no.

“I have been agonizing over this decision and was going to let it go by,” said Bruzgul, 33, who lives in Blacksburg, Va., where he and his wife work and she goes to school. “But in this moment, I am excited. I think I made the right choice.”

He added: “The seat license is not a nice thing, and it’s very frustrating. I don’t really see it as a value, but it just came down to, ‘Do you want to go or not?’ ”

The pull of family and tradition was not strong enough for Neil Raddu of Buffalo.

He started going to Bills games in 2002 with his grandmother, who had season tickets in her name in the Jim Kelly Club. He was 12 at the time and crowded with his grandmother at the games.

But ultimately he said no to paying a $15,000 PSL and significantly increasing ticket prices at the new stadium.

“That was our hobby together,” he said. “At the end of the day, the NFL is a business, and loyalty doesn’t keep the lights on at night.”

For Adlana Buck of Busti in Chautauqua County, it has been a dream since her teenage days to become a season ticket holder, but back then, her family did not have the means to purchase them.

Buck, 54, moved away from the area and spent 20 years in Florida before coming back to Western New York in 2009. The Southwestern High School graduate purchased tickets at the new stadium for her and her husband and added on a third ticket for her 12 -year-old son, whom she said has begun to discover football.

“I want to be there from Day 1 once they take the field in the new stadium,” she said. “The Bills have been a passion for me since I was a teenager. Fortunately, now I am in a position where I can be a season ticket holder. It’s just really important to me and my husband. I enjoy the games and the whole in-person experience there, and we want our son to experience that.”

Angelica James of Wheatfield said her season ticket group of eight is interested in buying tickets at the new stadium, but it needs to be at a lower price point.

Initially, she and her husband reluctantly said no to the club seats they were offered, and are now frustrated with having to move to the back of the line for general admission tickets.

“We don’t know what it will look like and whether we will ever get a call back,” said James, a season ticket holder of four years, who goes with three other couples. “My husband is chomping at the bit to get tickets, but it may be another year until we even know if we’re eligible for them. The way they’re doing this seems kind of crazy.”

Jufer, the retired Wilson school official, usually goes to a few road games each season, but said he’d have to cut back on that to be able to afford the seat license and increasing ticket prices.

Others may have to do the same, or at least cut out or decrease their budgets for other entertainment and recreation, potentially affecting other businesses and the local economy.

He was also upset that he put down $2,000 toward his $10,000 PSL and took advantage of the 10-year financing being offered by the Bills through M&T Bank, but was instead charged the full amount.

He was reimbursed the money three days later, but not before it caused issues with his bank account and some of his purchases.

“This is not good business (practices),” Jufer said.

Coming Monday: How the Bills spent their community investment money