Buffalo offers Browns fans a glimpse of their stadium future
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The Browns' Shedeur Sanders and Bills' Josh Allen shake hands after a game at Huntington Bank Field last December. Photo: Nick Cammett/Getty Images
The Browns host the Buffalo Bills on Saturday in a preseason clash featuring two of the NFL's most devoted fanbases — and two franchises in different stages of a stadium transformation.
Why it matters: Buffalo's new Highmark Stadium offers Browns fans an early look at the opportunities (and trade-offs) that could come when Cleveland leaves the lakefront for Brook Park in 2029.
The big picture: Few NFL fanbases have as much in common as Browns fans and Bills Mafia.
- Both cities sit on Lake Erie and carry Rust Belt identities. They've spent decades building football cultures around cold weather, elaborate tailgates and overcoming heartbreak.
Fun fact: Buffalo was one of two NFL teams to vote against Art Modell's move of the Browns to Baltimore in 1996.
Stadium status: Buffalo opened its $2.2 billion stadium this summer in suburban Orchard Park, replacing the Bills' longtime home across the street.
- The new building has wider concourses, more covered seating and modern amenities while preserving the parking lot tailgate culture that defines Bills Sundays.
- That's similar to the Browns' pitch for their $2.6 billion Brook Park dome: more parking, easier access, modern amenities and a surrounding entertainment district.
Yes, but: Buffalo didn't really leave home. The Bills have played in Orchard Park since 1973.
- The Browns' move is more consequential, taking the team from its downtown-adjacent lakefront home to a 176-acre suburban site near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
What they're saying: Fans with ties to both teams have mixed views.
- "Moving the stadium to Brook Park and building a dome will allow them to do more events and hopefully generate business for the overall region," says Jim Haggerty, a Bills fan who lives in Cleveland.
The other side: Eric Barr, another Cleveland-based Bills fan with season tickets to both teams, calls the move "complete trash" that is "ruining the history on the lake for a money grab and ruining the tailgating culture."
- Cleveland native and former Buffalo resident Anthony Prusak similarly calls the move "sad," arguing the Browns are leaving behind the public investment in infrastructure around downtown Cleveland.
The bottom line: Buffalo suggests a stadium can change without changing a fanbase's identity.
- Brook Park's test will be whether the Browns can modernize everything around the Dawg Pound without modernizing the Dawg Pound out of existence.