I’m annoyed, and I’m here to defend the new Highmark Stadium, because there’s a rash of emotional scam artists looking to dog pile on any piece of negativity they can find, and it has gone too far.
Let me be clear about what I’m not saying. I’m not claiming Highmark is perfect. I haven’t been there yet, and I know nothing in modern sports construction is flawless. There will be flaws. There always are. But this stadium also looks AWESOME.
What I’m pushing back on is the tidal wave of negativity that’s crashed across social media suggesting this is some kind of disaster, a calamity, an epic failure of a stadium. That’s not true. It’s just not true. There are so many incredible visuals, nods to the fans, and modern amenities for fans and players.
I also want to separate out something real from the noise. I’m a partial season ticket holder with the Mets, so I know exactly what it feels like to be sold a seat with a slick 3D rendering, then show up on opening day and realize the view doesn’t match what you were promised. If Bills season ticket holders showed up this past weekend and found obstructed views they weren’t properly warned about, that’s a legitimate grievance. You put real money down, money that could have gone toward a mortgage, tuition, a car payment, because you love this team enough to make that sacrifice. If the organization let you down on that promise, you have every right to be frustrated, and I’m fully in your corner.
But that’s not who I have a problem with. My problem is with the bottom feeders. The digital creators, the TikTokers, some traditional media too, latching onto every scrap of negativity like feeder fish riding alongside a shark, contributing nothing themselves, just living off whatever scraps come by. I’ve watched my feed fill up with claims that this is somehow the worst stadium in the NFL, that Buffalo flushed $2 billion down the drain on a total eyesore. That’s not analysis. That’s ragebait, plain and simple, because attention is the currency right now, and the easiest way to get it is to make people angry.
Maybe I’m biased here. I’m a New Yorker, and upstate and Western New York get overlooked by national media unless something enormous happens. Watching that play out with this stadium is genuinely frustrating, especially knowing most of the people piling on will never set foot in Highmark. It’s a drive-by lambasting so they can post “another Bills failure” and move on to the next target.
Let’s talk about actual context, because if you think a brand-new $2 billion facility is the worst stadium in the NFL, you haven’t been to many stadiums. Have you been to MetLife? Fifteen years ago, tri-state taxpayers helped fund a $1.6 billion project that turned into a tuna can in the swamp. No character, no personality, no connection to the Jets or the Giants or New Jersey. Highmark has natural grass, a canopy that partially protects fans, incredible sightlines, and actual regional identity built into the design, right down to nods to the Peace Bridge. Or take Nissan Stadium in Nashville, arguably the worst stadium I’ve ever stepped into: chain-link fences, no real signage, retired numbers hung on small metal placards like an afterthought. That’s what an actual stadium failure looks like. Highmark isn’t in that conversation.
And can we talk about how meaningless the “the scoreboard isn’t big enough” complaint actually is? Nobody went to the old stadium for the Jumbotron. Nobody’s ever gone to Lambeau and complained about screen size. The entire identity of a Bills game has never been about passively watching a ribbon board, it’s about being locked into the moment, into the fandom, into the actual football. A stadium that pulls people’s eyes toward giant screens instead of the field misses the point of what made the old building special in the first place.
Here’s what actually matters to me, and it’s simple: outdoors, and grass. They got both right. I’d have taken outdoors alone and been satisfied, because watching more franchises retreat into domes, the Chiefs, possibly Denver, possibly Washington, is genuinely depressing to me. That’s not what this sport, or this fanbase, is supposed to be.
If season ticket holders have real complaints about what they were sold versus what they got, that’s fair critique and deserves to be heard. But if you have no actual stake in this team and you’re driving by just to torch a stadium you’ll never visit because it gets you engagement, I don’t have any patience for that. I’ll be at Highmark for the Chargers game in late September, and my guess is I won’t walk away calling it the worst stadium in the NFL. Not even close.
