Success comes with a price: The cost for a season ticket to see the Buffalo Bills is going up for the 2022 season.
“To keep it open air is part of the Buffalo bravado,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in January, “which people love to showcase.”
The Bills said the average increase will be $11.57 per game, bringing the average price per ticket (including club and regular seats) to $113 – an increase of 11% from 2021.
The average cost of a general admission ticket will rise to $107.05 – an increase of $9.84 per game, while an average club seat will be $275 – an increase of $21.04 per game from 2021. Those prices are both less than the NFL average, which in 2021 was $107.05 for a general admission seat and $319.46 for a club seat.
According to the Bills, their average season ticket price is 14% below the league average. At least 20 teams have announced planned price increases for the 2022 season.
“We think it's fair market value,” said Chris Colleary, the team’s vice president of ticket sales and service. “We compare other teams' prices, we compare our historical prices, we compare the value of that seat as a season ticket, the value as a single game. … We're evaluating every seat, every row.”
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“The bottom line on it is we have to get a new stadium in Buffalo,” Goodell, a Jamestown native, said. “The governor has recognized that. It has to be a public private partnership. … She has shown great leadership in bringing the parties together … but there’s a lot to negotiate here.”
While the price increase is across the board, it varies by location. In the 100 and 200 levels, the average increase is $13.61 per game, with some seats going up $3 per game. In the 300 level, the average increase is $7.59 per game, with some seats going up $5 per game.
According to the team, about 20% of tickets at Highmark Stadium are available for $60 or less per game – more than 13,000 seats – and season tickets start at $45 per game, one of the lowest prices in the NFL.
“That's always been important to us,” Colleary said. “We want to have price points for everybody. This is a blue-collar community, and we want to be cognizant of that when we're setting our pricing.”
The Bills are coming off a second consecutive AFC East championship and have made the playoffs in four of the past five seasons – a sustained run of success not seen since the Super Bowl years.
“It's one of the factors,” Colleary said. “The cost of doing business to remain competitive on the field is increasing. It's definitely a factor for us to help kind of maintain that success. I've been here 18 seasons and this is the best five-year run we've had in a long time. It's a factor, but it's not the main factor.
“The other factors, we do look at home opponents coming in. When you look at this year, Tennessee and Green Bay, in addition to Pittsburgh and the Patriots, so you know, really strong home opponents. So lots of different things factor in.”
The Bills capped season tickets during the 2021 season at about 60,000 and announced in May that they had sold out. Since then, a waiting list of about 3,000 has formed, according to Colleary, the first time that’s happened since the 2015 season.
“We're evaluating increasing the season ticket capacity a little bit more to make sure we can accommodate these folks on the wait list,” he said. “I just want to echo what Brandon Beane said the other day, we're just so appreciative of the support from our season ticket members. We can't thank them enough on behalf of the entire organization. Their passion and loyalty, they set the bar for all of our fans.”
The Bills are hopeful their Canadian season ticket holders will be able to return for the 2022 season after they’ve largely missed each of the last two years because of tightened border restrictions as part of the Covid-19 pandemic. Colleary said Canadians make up between 5% and 10% of the team’s season ticket base, and on a given game day typically account for between 10% and 20% of the fans in attendance, prior to the pandemic.
Another thing out of the team’s control is the weather. There was no doubt about it – the 2021 season stunk in that regard, with seemingly every home game impacted by rain, wind, extreme cold or some combination of all three. That made club seats a popular choice, especially late in the year.
“It further emphasized how passionate and loyal our fans are,” Colleary said of fans who braved the weather. “They're like the post office, they come through no matter what the weather is.”
According to figures compiled by ESPN, the Bills averaged 67,816 fans at their nine regular-season home games, which ranked 14th in the 32-team league. Average capacity at Highmark Stadium was 94.7%, which ranked 21st.
The changes are expected to be communicated to fans via email Tuesday, when the window for renewals opens. It runs through March 15. Interest-free, extended payment plan options continue to be offered by the team.
Single-game tickets are expected to go on sale the day the schedule is released. That’s typically done in April or May.
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