Los Angeles Chargers 16 at Buffalo Bills 24 - September 27, 2026

Back in 2001, a friend and I spent seven months crisscrossing the country for baseball, documenting the journey on a website called mlbroadtrip.com (it is still available on the Wayback Machine for those interested). We met several other fans who contacted me through the website and joined us for a game along the way. The most memorable of those was the Buffalo duo of Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell, who were nearing the end of their Ultimate Sports Road Trip chase to see a game in all 121 home venues in the Big 4 sports. We all attended the first game in Toronto after 9/11, and a year later, they completed their quest at Ford Field in Detroit, getting some publicity in the process. We kept in touch during my time in Japan and after I moved to NYC and joined Club 122, we saw each other on a regular basis as Buffalo is an excellent sports destination. 

Over the years, many other stadium chasers joined the club and we started annual Club 123 meetups in 2019 in Milwaukee. When the Bills announced that they would build a new Highmark Stadium, Andrew and Peter immediately announced that they would host the Club 124 meetup when the stadium was opened, which turned out to be 2026. When the NFL schedule came out, the group decided on the Week 3 matchup against the Chargers. Fast forward to this past weekend and about 25 chasers convened on Orchard Park to share stadium stories. Andrew and Peter put on a great tailgate at Bert's Bikes and Fitness (parking $80, but you can find spots for $30 just a short stroll away) with Beef on Weck the highlight among all the food provided. Dan and Molly, who live about a mile from the stadium, joined the club (congrats!), making 32 members in all. Of those, 14 were in attendance at the game, a great showing. 

There was even a Club 124 venue trivia contest that I somehow won on a coin flip (sorry Gary), taking home this cool hat amongst other Buffalo goodies. Big thanks to Andrew and Peter for putting all this together! Next year: Nashville!

After a couple of hours of catching up, however, it was time to tour the stadium. Naturally, every other one of the 60,361 fans on hand decided to do the same, as this was just the second regular season game to be held here. Although capacity has been reduced from 71,608 at the Ralph (which has already been demolished) to 60,108 here, the stadium is also more compact and hence concourses are very crowded before the game. 

Entry, on the other hand, was very speedy, with the security barrier well away from the ticket scanners. We entered by Gate B, which leads right to midfield facing the logo. There are a couple of large silver buffalo sculptures on the northeast side of the stadium as part of the Bills Family Circle, but we did not stop by. 

Inside, the first thing you notice is the colourful seats, though there is no apparent pattern. Red seats dominate the lower portion of both seating bowls while blue is more prominent near the top.

The picture below was taken at one of the less crowded spots. On both levels, it takes quite a while to navigate the entire concourse as there are a few bottlenecks here and there.

Along the concourse are several displays but the crowd makes taking good pictures difficult. As you would expect, concession and restroom lines were long. To wit, one of our group left just before halftime and missed the first few plays of the third quarter. NFL halftimes are only 12 minutes long; I'd rather have them 18 minutes with two less commercial breaks during the game.

You can venture into the seating bowl, but several areas are part of a club and you obviously need a club ticket to get into there. The group was initially offered seats here at $716 per person but had to decline. In the end we still paid a ridiculous $335 each on the secondary market, though prices dropped as game time approached.



The most impressive display for me was the ticket stub mural along one corridor near the northeast entrance. It is interesting to notice the rise in ticket prices over the years. Of course, with hard tickets a thing of the past, this sort of artwork will no longer be possible.

Continuing around the lower bowl, we stopped here and there for pictures of the field. As you can see, the stadium is much tighter than the previous one and it gets very loud when the visitors are on offense. A scoreboard shows the decibel levels and it often reached close to 120 dB, similar to a jet plane taking off nearby.

The picture below shows one of the club sections, where the seats really don't face the field so much.

Buffalo has a strong relationship with Canada (current administration notwithstanding) and the Peace Bridge is a good symbol of that. The week before, O! Canada was sung on Thursday Night Football, but that was not repeated for this game.



The shot below is from the southeast corner. Sun could be a problem in some seats lower down, but up top, the roof keeps you in the shade. It also keeps you cool as there can be a bit of a breeze up there, so bring a jacket even if it's sunny. Of course, by November, these weather concerns will be moot as it will likely be chilly no matter what.

An impressive mosaic can be seen along a hidden wall near a stairway around the south side of the lower concourse. One of the few spots without fans wandering about.

We then made our way upstairs and took a picture of the entire stadium from midfield. You can see the club section above the left end zone with the diagonal wall separating it from the regular seats.

Turning around, you see a number of pennants related to Buffalo above a set of tables where you can stand and enjoy your food. At this point, we hit an impasse. There was some sort of TV bit going on and it turned out that Rob Gronkowski, a native of nearby Amherst, was doing a food segment for Fox Sports. As it finished up and the crew cleared out, they handed out free pretzels and Beef on Weck sandwiches. Sharpy and I happened to be standing there and took a sandwich each, which kept us going for the entire game. Sadly, no free beer was offered.

The Bills play 'Shout!' after every touchdown and there are a couple of displays acknowledging this.

A shot from the north end zone as the clouds rolled in. The far scoreboard is larger than the one on this side and as our seats were on the south side, I could not compare the visuals during the game.

Labatt had a display with frozen opposition helmets. Certainly, they found new ways to advertise with this venue.

There is a Ring of Honor underneath the press box, though getting a good picture with a phone camera can be difficult.

This is from a standing area in the south end zone. There are several drink rails and SRO tickets are sold at a significant discount, so if you can manage to remain on your feet for nearly four hours, this is a good option.

A collection of license plates related to Bills fandom is pretty cool and can be found near Section 402, where we ended up sitting.

After the game, we stayed a while and I took a shot of the empty upper deck with the larger scoreboard. There was no rush to leave and ushers let people stay for quite a while.

It took us nearly 90 minutes to tour both concourses and I'm sure we missed a few things. I'd like to come back at some point and take the tour, which would allow us into spaces otherwise inaccessible to the plebes.

Overall, Highmark Stadium is a worthy replacement to its predecessor with a lot of Buffalo touches. A downtown venue would have been more convenient, but the tailgating opportunities here are fantastic. I hope to return in the near future.

The Game

I'm not going to recap the afternoon in much detail. The Bills were 2-0 and the Chargers were 0-2 and 7.5-point underdogs. Buffalo's James Cook fumbled on the first play from scrimmage and the Chargers scored a touchdown on their initial drive. Later, Josh Allen was intercepted and the Chargers scored a field goal. A third Buffalo miscue resulted in a missed field goal for Dicker the Kicker and the Bills took advantage, scoring twice to tie the game at 10 at halftime. 

The Chargers opened the third quarter with a 13-play drive but could only muster a field goal. Dalton Kincaid made a great catch on the Bills first possession of the half but the ball was punched out as he rumbled for extra yards, with LA recovering for Buffalo's fourth turnover on the afternoon. Fortunately, LA could not capitalize and had to punt, only for Allen to fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter, giving the Chargers possession on the Bills 28. On third-and-5, Justin Herbert threw the ball over the middle and C.J. Gardner-Johnson intercepted at the 1, returning the ball to the Buffalo 42. This was the turning point of the game. The Bills then ran a 13-play drive, culminating in Allen pushing in from the 1 for his second score of the day and the first Bills lead. The Chargers then turned the ball over on downs and the Bills ran another good drive, with James Cook taking it in from the three. Down 24-13, the Chargers elected to kick a field goal to make it a one-score game but they could not recover the onside kick and the Bills were able to get a first down to run out the clock and surprisingly cover the spread.

It was not a good game with six total turnovers and 17 total penalties, but at least the Bills won. Also, note the Nickel City uniform on Josh Allen above. These were so named because Buffalo is also known as the Nickel City and they were universally panned.

Notes

We had our postgame party at Bar Bill North, a few minutes from the airport. A great place with excellent wings and even a chicken wing pizza. Well worth stopping in at one of their locations if you are visiting Buffalo.

Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News attended with us and published an article about the meetup, though it is paywalled. There are ways to beat the paywall but I will leave that to you if you really want to read it.

Next Up

College basketball season is a month away and I have a trips planned to Hawaii, St. Louis and Oregon. Check the schedule for the details.

Best,

Sean