Amid snowstorm, Bills 'sole focus' is playing Steelers game at 1 p.m. Sunday
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Extreme winter weather in the weekend forecast for the Buffalo area has already prompted the governor to declare a State of Emergency across Western New York. What does that mean for the Bills playoff game Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers?
"Our sole focus right now is 1 o'clock on Sunday," Bills executive Andy Major said Friday evening.
Still, playing the game as scheduled doesn't appear to be a guarantee. Major, the Bills' vice president for operations and guest experience, conceded that the team and its partners will have to respond to whatever Mother Nature hands them.
"If something happens where a decision is made collectively with the county, the state, the NFL and the team, we'll make those adjustments like we have in years past," Major said.
The temperature at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park will be in the low 20s at kickoff, with a wind chill in the single digits. High winds are expected with gusts 50 mph or higher, which could turn the substantial-but-manageable snowfall into near-whiteout conditions. Travel to and from the game is expected to be treacherous for fans under the lake-effect snow band.
Major said there is not a hard deadline for a decision to be made about playing the game as scheduled. An NFL spokesperson told News 4 on Thursday there had been "no discussion of a change in the game’s status."
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"I'm the most optimistic person you might meet," Major said. "I'm pretty confident in our people and our plans and all those communications and all those agencies. We've worked so closely together all these years and we've all been through a lot of different storms and weather events together, so that's probably why I feel so confident about moving forward.
"But absolutely, you just don't know. The weather is the weather," Major continued. "Mother Nature wins the game most of the time, right? We're not arguing with her, we're going to work in concert with her, and whatever she gives us we're going to do our very best to address and make sure we play that game on Sunday."
The Bills have asked fans to help shovel snow out of the stadium this weekend, offering $20 per hour, plus food and drink.
The National Weather Service's Winter Storm Warning goes into effect in Erie County at 10 a.m. Saturday and lasts through 7 a.m. Monday.
The Bills have had games moved to other cities when snowstorms prevented them from playing in Orchard Park -- but none of those were playoff games. Moving the game out of town, which the Bills did as recently as last season, would feel less likely for a playoff game than moving the start time to Monday. The NFL already has one playoff game scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Monday.
“For my fellow Buffalo Bills fans, here’s the advice," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday. "If you have tickets to the game, listen to the forecast, drive safely back and forth; we don’t anticipate changes right now but stay tuned because mother nature is widely unpredictable.
“If you don’t have a ticket and just want to come out and have some fun, this might be a better day to just sit at home and open up, bring out the six pack – as been advised by leaders in the past – and watch the game from home. It’ll be a lot safer and a lot warmer and allow us to clear the roads easier when there’s fewer people traveling."