The Bills are "on pace to complete the dramatic" $130M makeover of Ralph Wilson Stadium and "sell the most season-ticket packages in five years," according to James Fink of BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST. Bills CMO Marc Honan said that the stadium upgrades are "one of the factors why season ticket sales have surpassed the 44,000 mark." The Bills last season "sold 42,540 season tickets." The 44,000 "season ticket mark -- and counting -- is the team’s most since 2009 when it sold 55,194 season tickets." Honan said that the "construction project, coupled with the feeling the team is on the rise, is helping to propel season ticket sales." Through May 29, the team "sold 6,845 new season tickets" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 5/30). In Buffalo, Jay Skurski in a front-page piece noted the Bills' venue improvements were "on display for the Western New York media during a guided tour Thursday." Honan said that only "a couple of days were lost because of heavy snowfall, and with construction season having arrived, visible changes are beginning to take place." Black paint is "being applied to the exterior of the building, providing a visual aesthetic that will be dramatically different when it’s complete." Honan said, "We wanted a color that was really unifying to all the architecture, and really the blues and the reds didn’t do that. This color does that." Skurski notes on "two of the towers facing out, charging buffalos will be backlit." Honan said they will “pop” off the new color. Meanwhile, the "bones of what will become an 8,000-square-foot team store are in place." Honan said that the structure will "serve as the 'new front door' of The Ralph and replace the current 2,000-square-foot team store that is adjacent to the field house." Once inside, the team will have "two sets of 'monumental stairs' to reach the 100 level." The new staircases are designed to "alleviate some of the traffic in the concourse, another major goal of the construction." There also will "no longer be portable concession stands, which created logjams in the concourse when lines went in both directions" (BUFFALO NEWS, 5/30).
