BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo Bills fans like Meredeth Paddock knew the sticker price for a personal seat license (also known as a PSL) at the new stadium wouldn't be cheap.
But they're stunned by the rumored prices they're hearing — which could be well into the tens of thousands of dollars. It's not sitting well with them.
"Buffalo are blue collar fans... like hardworking middle-class people that cannot afford this," Paddock told 7 News. Paddock lives in Rochester and has been a Bills fan since she was a little girl.
She has club seats now and loves to take her two sons to the games, but she's not sure she'll be able to keep doing so.
"Everyone feels like they are pricing out the Bills Mafia and they want to fill those seats with corporations," she said.
PSLs are an upfront cost that more and more NFL teams are asking fans to pay to then buy season tickets.
"I have three kids I have to put through college and two of my boys are die-hard fans and they're not happy that mom's gonna walk away," she said.
The Bills didn't confirm any hard figures Monday but other teams around the country are known to charge close to $50,000 for a PSL for club seating.
In Atlanta, the Falcons opened Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2017, and PSLs for club seating range from $11,000 to $47,000 per seat. For general seating, the PSL starts at a more modest $500.
"It's a new concept in Buffalo," said Nellie Drew, a law professor at the University at Buffalo who is the director of the UB Center for the Advancement of Sport. "We haven't had it in the past and historically, we've had one of the lowest ticket prices in the league because we've had an old stadium."
David Shores, a longtime season ticket holder who flies to Buffalo several times a season to watch games, says he's waiting to find out how much he will be asked to pay. He wishes the Bills would be more transparent.
"Why keep all the PSL stadium pricing secret? Why let out just the club pricing which is astronomical. Why not let every season ticket holder see what they have in mind for their seats?" he told 7 News.
The Bills previously said in a statement that they are unveiling one at a time for season ticket holders so it will "take quite some time" to get through all of them.
Paddock hopes the Bills come up with a more affordable plan for fans like her and her family.
"I just wish the organization would listen to us and lower the cost or offer different payment options or do something to get that stadium filled with the fans that deserve to be there and should be there," she said.
So, what do these numbers mean and should all fans expect the same? 7 News spoke to local experts to get their input on the reaction to the rumored PSL prices.
This has been a hot topic recently and it has now caught the attention of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
WATCH: 'I'm just disappointed': Erie County Executive on rumored PSL prices at new Buffalo Bills stadium
