Urban Stadiums: The Death of Tailgating

While it may sound nice to city planners and officials, I can assure you that a centralized, downtown stadium is a fan’s worst nightmare. Football and tailgating go together like peanut butter and jelly, and a downtown stadium removes the tailgating aspect from the game all together.

During the development talks for a new stadium of my hometown Buffalo Bills, I was all in on the idea of a downtown stadium complex, where tailgaters could enjoy views of Lake Erie and downtown Buffalo, and take advantage of all the entertainment that a downtown center has to offer. That was until I attended a Buffalo Bills game in Cincinnati to watch the Bills take on the Bengals. It was here I discovered that a downtown stadium is the complete antithesis of tailgating culture. Parking lots are replaced with multi-leveled parking garages, B.Y.O.B tailgate parties are swapped with expensive bars and restaurants, and space to set up corn-hole games and toss around a football are non-existent.

A downtown stadium removes the tailgating culture found in smaller football communities like Buffalo, Green Bay and Foxboro and replaces them with commercial ventures and money grabs all while eliminating the authentic fan experience from the game. While all may not feel the same, as a Buffalo resident I wasn’t raised to envision football as a commercial venture. An urban stadium takes away the feel of NFL football, and I am thankful in the end that Buffalo chose to keep it’s stadium outside of city limits, and where it belongs, in Orchard Park, NY.