For some fans, the time and energy put into preparing for and executing a tailgate is just as important as the actual NFL contest they are going to see.

It would seem like the perfect opportunity to take advantage of – and possibly monetize – for the Bills at Highmark Stadium.

But while some NFL teams are stepping up their own offerings to appeal to more fans who enjoy tailgating, don’t expect the Bills to do the same.

The team would prefer, for the most part, to stay out of the tailgate experience.

The Bills provide Tailgate Village for groups taking a bus to games and occasionally host larger groups that call ahead to make plans to tailgate on the team’s property.

They have tried to do more, offering tailgating packages with various partners, both in-season and during the playoffs.

But there’s been little interest from fans.

Bills fans tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to tailgating, many times frequenting the same places and lots each home game as part of a routine or tradition.

That attitude from the team likely won’t change when the new stadium is completed – slated for 2026 – even as premium VIP tailgate experiences become more popular around the NFL.

Andy Major, the Bills vice president of operations and guest experience, said Buffalo’s tailgate is more “organic.”

“We try to acquiesce to what the fans want, and the fans have communicated to us, for all intents and purposes, that they want to tailgate on their own,” Major said. “They have a good time with their family and friends in their little area of a parking lot or in a neighborhood parking lot and they don’t want us to mess with that, and we agree.”

It’s not that the team is opposed to more tailgating options, especially ones hosted by corporate partners – more common in cities like Los Angeles, but Major said the fan base in Buffalo is different than most others. The Bills play in more of a rural setting, surrounded by parking and residential lots catering to tailgaters.

New offerings like VIP chalets in Cleveland that provide climate-controlled indoor entertainment and lounging space and luxury tailgating spots inside garages and a paddock club in Miami are just not in the cards for Buffalo.

“We’ve tried to implement what other stadiums in bigger markets have done, but in Buffalo, our fans are different,” Major said. It’s about their tailgate. They don’t care what the team is offering for a tailgate. They’re doing their own thing. So, we’ve flipped the switch to support that.”

Many Bills fans have stories of tailgating in one spot for decades. Therese Forton-Barnes, who founded the Water Buffalo Club, is one of those fans. She’s partied before Bills home games for three decades in the parking lot of the Big Tree Inn at Big Tree Road and 20A, and she has no plans to go anywhere else anytime soon.

It’s a tailgate that has grown in recent years as she brought the club more into the mix. Club members wear Flintstone-inspired blue, white and red Bills-themed hats.

“We welcome people over there all the time since we created a bigger tailgate in the past couple of years,” she said. “It is also the home of a few other long-standing tailgaters who we’ve been tailgating with for years. In the cold, rain, snow and losing seasons, we were always there.”

Still, there is a market for turnkey tailgating, like what Gameday Hospitality offers in Orchard Park.

John Mikulec, co-founder of the all-inclusive tailgate company that began operating in Buffalo in 2017 and is now in seven NFL cities, said thousands of Bills fans take advantage of its services at home games but more often the tailgates attract traveling fans and Canadian fans coming to Bills games.

Since 2018, Gameday Hospitality has been in the same spot hosting tailgates – a private lot on Abbott Road across from the stadium, next to O’Neill’s Stadium Inn and close to the corner with Southwestern. The company has taken over a good chunk of that lot as its tailgates increase in popularity. It offers a few different packages, including food, drinks, games, entertainment and tent setups.

“We want everyone to tailgate however they want, and every market is different,” Mikulec said. “Tailgating doesn’t have to have that hassle, but if fans want to continue to do their own thing, we love all forms of tailgating. We just want everyone to have a great time and want to be an option for fans. We’re not trying to impede on anyone’s tailgate experience.”

The Bills feel the same way.

Fans do call at times to inquire about tailgate packages, and the Bills’ event services team handles those groups. Some of these tailgates, as well as alumni events, have been hosted in the youth football stadium to the north of Highmark Stadium.

Tailgate Village is an exclusive tailgating location for bus passengers parking within the Bus and Limo Parking Lot. It includes entertainment and a live DJ. It was also implemented to try to curb some bad behavior that had been going on around the buses.

The Bills are constantly researching and analyzing what other teams and stadiums are doing, Major said. They also meet every year with the NFL and fellow teams to discuss best practices – especially important as the Bills planned for their new stadium, he added.

In studies conducted by the team as they planned for the new stadium, the Bills found that fans more than anything were looking for places of refuge in the stadium after the tailgate when it is either very hot or extremely cold out. There are not many places for that in the current stadium.

The new stadium will offer, not only a canopy that should cover around 65% of fans from most elements, but there will also be radiant heating around the stadium.

“That was an item that fans shared with us that we already kind of knew about after years of doing this,” Major said. “The new stadium will have lots of those types of things to help fans.”

At the new stadium, the Bills will also provide fans in parking lots with more space to do their own tailgating, Major said. It will help them put up tents by their car without affecting emergency vehicles trying to get from one place to another.

And the team will continue to rely on neighborhood lots to get fans parked, especially over the next three years as the new stadium is built across the street from the current Highmark Stadium in what used to be an area used for parking.

“That’s what the fans have asked for and that’s what they want,” he said. “We are excited to keep their traditions going.”