ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Before a Buffalo Bills fan could ever park their car, private parking lots around Highmark Stadium spent Monday morning clearing several inches of snow off their lots.
Over the course of the weekend, Orchard Park got over a foot and a half of snow, and all of that sitting over countless parking spots.
“I’m going to clear as much [snow] as I can to accommodate as many [fans] as I can,” Gary Hartloff said.
Gary owns a private lot on Big Tree Road, about a mile West of the stadium.
He spent hours Monday morning inside the cab of his tractor he fitted to plow snow.
“If you don’t have the heavy-duty equipment today, you are in trouble.”
For other private lot owners, like Gary’s neighbor Bob Haberly, this snowstorm was just too much to clear in time for the game.
“It gets to a point at the end of the season where it’s a lot,” Bob said.
Bob shared that it’s not just about the amount of time it takes to clear, but also the increased risks of hosting people in this winter weather.
“For us, it’s not worth it to take the risk of somebody freezing in the parking lot or getting stuck,” Bob said. “I’d rather not have it on my mind that ‘I did it for the money’ and then something happens.”
Even with the plow, Gary could only open a small part of his lot.
He decided to close the much larger grass lot on his property in favor of solely running the smaller paved area.
“I’m not going to plow my lawn to park people, but I can put about 25-30 [people] in here,” Gary said.
Joe Bellomo was the first guest to park at Gary’s lot around noon, and even he brought a shovel to help Gary clear out the lot and the area in front of the bathroom.
“We knew it would be like this, so we got here early to help clean up,” Joe said. “That’s what we do, we are from Buffalo that’s how we roll around here.”
Plenty of other fans followed Joe shorty after and had the lot filled up in no time.
