September 17, 2005
UB Stadium (Capacity: 29,013)
Amherst, NY
Buffalo Bulls vs Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Final Score: 3 – 17
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This trip completed my visits to all Buffalo-area stadiums as the tour finished at the University of Buffalo. UB is the largest school in the SUNY (State University of New York) system and has increasingly become known for its pharmaceutical program and the school’s high amount of overall academic research. The core portion of the university is in North Campus, which is located in Amherst, a large suburb of 120,000 on the northeast side of Buffalo. UB’s athletic program has gone through a painful transition to Division I. The Bulls football team moved to Division I-AA in 1993 and then on to I-A in 1999. While playing in the MAC, UB football has yet to win more than 3 games in a season. UB Stadium was finished the same year the school made the move to Division I and unfortunately it is a bland facility, with a disjointed feel in the seating bowl.
Prestige Ranking: 1 out of 5
Location
The campus is designed rather dull as all the brick academic buildings are clustered in the middle, with parking lots on the outskirts. The football stadium sits on the eastern edge of campus, near some open fields and a golf course. Amherst is a perfectly fine town to live in, it just won’t have anything that you’ll desire to visit before the game since this is a suburb. About 20 minutes away is downtown Buffalo and 30 minutes away is the more interesting Niagara Falls.
Location Ranking: 4 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Getting to the area is fairly easy as I-290 circles the outer Buffalo suburbs and also connects with the New York State Thruway (I-90). Exit 5 onto the Millersburg Highway goes around UB with various entrances to campus. Traffic bottled up when we were trying to get into the area and upon entering campus there were no signs or information on where to park. Looking back, it should have been a straight forward drive like it was for the basketball game at Alumni Arena which is next door. However, closed off roads made things confusing and it really didn’t seem like there was good orchestration on where to send cars to park. We eventually found our way to one of several parking lots in front of the academic section. It was then a short walk to the stadium.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 5 out of 8
Exterior
After taking the walkway to the stadium, an uninspiring view of the concrete back portion of the west stands comes into focus. Near one of the entrances, is lettering on a building attached to the stands that says “UB Stadium: Home of the Bulls”. I didn’t get a chance to go inside the building, but this area likely holds the athletic offices. This is the extent of the exterior as the rest of the stadium has open corners and the skeletons of separate seating sections.
Exterior Ranking: 4 out of 10
Concourse and Food
Because of how disjointed the stadium is, there is a lot of open air walking. Concourses can be found behind three sides of the stadium and they were generally dark and blah. Sidelines did feature two levels. Not much to really see in this area and it serves its purpose for traffic. Food options were limited with mostly snack items offered (nachos, popcorn, etc).
Concourse Ranking: 2 out of 5
Food Ranking: 1.5 out of 8
Interior
The layout at UB Stadium is unattractive with way too much open space and a track that leads to seating that is quite far from the field. Sidelines feature bleachers that have two decks, with the lower one being split by a walkway. The upper deck set of seats begin at a right angle upwards from the lower seating with a row of press boxes and enclosed seating in between levels. This part is actually decent and a seat up top isn’t bad as it provides a decent vantage point. Meanwhile, the end zone bleachers are each arranged differently. One is somewhat rounded with three sections and the other is divided into two different seating areas with the scoreboard in between. It makes for a quirky design, especially with the end zone bleachers being so far from the field because of the larger than normal track section. Wide open space is left between each of the four stadium sections. Bleachers in the endzones were metal, while the sideline seats were set in concrete. The only nice thing about UB Stadium is the different design on the sidelines, instead of just seeing a set of bleachers. Otherwise, this is a place not high on my list.
Interior Ranking: 5 out of 14
Scoreboard
The scoreboard sits close to the ground in the north end zone and it features a center digital display of important game information. Ads surround most of the game info, though at the top it says University at Buffalo and there is also a Bulls logo in the upper right corner. Background color is blue and there is no video screen.
Scoreboard Ranking: 1.5 out of 4
Displays
UB has little in the way of football history, so I can’t fault them too much for their lack of displays. However, at least one thing would be nice.
Displays Ranking: 0 out of 6
Cost
Free parking was good and the ticket prices were within reason with an average around $20. My program cost $4 and the concessions were fairly priced too.
Cost Ranking: 8 out of 8
Fan Support and Atmosphere
I’m sure the poor play by the team has something to do with the blah atmosphere. Less than half the stadium was full for the home opener and though it was Rutgers, it was a Big East opponent making an appearance. Buffalo is all about the Bills, while Bulls football is an after-thought. The stadium was mostly quiet, except when UB appeared to score their first TD (it was called back). Students sitting behind the end-zone left at halftime of a seven point game. There was a marching band, but they hardly played. In terms of attendance, Buffalo usually ranks in the bottom ten out of the 110+ teams who play I-A Football. This whole review may read like a downer, but generally every aspect of this stadium experience was poor and it was topped off by the small, quiet crowd inside.
Fan Support Ranking: 1.5 out of 8
Atmosphere Ranking: 3 out of 14
Other Stuff
Surprised to see HOK Sport was the big name group that designed this horrible stadium…..Interesting halftime entertainment at this game as there was a sort of X-Games exhibition and a skateboard ramp was set up in the back of an endzone for a showcase…..Bulls Soccer is also played in UB Stadium.
Game
The game was extremely slow-paced and sloppy for two of the traditionally worst teams in college football. Buffalo scored their first points in three games with a field goal in the third quarter as they cut the lead to a touchdown. But, Rutgers put the game away with a long drive and touchdown later in the quarter to win 17-3. The Scarlet Knights’ Bryan Leonard rushed 24 times for 125 yards.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
