BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Whether it’s a 14-hour drive to Missouri or a $450 round-trip flight, there’s not much that will stop some of the most dedicated fans of the Buffalo Bills from traveling to Kansas City for Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the Chiefs.
Not even a pandemic that has limited stadium capacities across the country is slowing down fans.
Several fans traveling to Kansas City this weekend told WBEN they bought tickets even before the matchup was made official. That’s because the Chiefs sold a “pay as you play” program, which gave a limited number of fans the opportunity to purchase tickets to the game.
“There was a hope,” Dan Frederick, a Bills season-ticket holder from Lancaster, said. “I knew that if they went to the AFC Championship it would most likely be at Arrowhead. I called right away to see if there was any way I could get tickets and I got lucky.”
“We figured (Kansas City) would be the highest percent change of where the game might be and they had conditional tickets on sale,” Williamsville native Tyler Utz said. “We just pulled the trigger. I don’t know what seat we would be at or if the game was even going to be there. We bought conditional tickets and it played out in our favor.”
Any Bills fan looking to purchase a ticket for the AFC Championship game will likely need to do so off the secondary market. However, prices range from $600 each for nosebleed seats to $5,000 each to sit 20 rows back from the 50-yard line.
Longtime Bills fan Kristen Kimmick said her group paid about $1,000 each for tickets.
“The Bills have been the biggest bright spot of this community and at a time that’s so trying for everybody, whether it’s emotional or financially, it’s like we finally have a rock to hold onto,” Kimmick said. “The Bills just decided to stroll in here in this terrible time and hit us with a red-and-blue defibrillator.”
The Kansas City Chiefs are allowing 17,000 fans into Arrowhead Stadium. Unlike the mandates for the 6,700 fans that were allowed to attend Bills Stadium games, there is no testing requirement to attend the game at Arrowhead Stadium, though there is still a mask mandate.
Fans are allowed to tailgate in Kansas City. Read more of their rules here
What else should fans know ahead of the game? AAA’s Elizabeth Carey told WBEN there are still some flights to and from Kansas City that will cost you more than $400 for a round trip.
It’s also a nearly 1,000-mile drive and 14.5 hours.
“It’s a long drive but definitely doable, especially if you have a few fans together and can take turns driving,” she said.
Some hotels in Kansas City also cost about $100 per night.
“Talk to the hotel in advance,” Carey said. “See what their COVID restrictions are. Most hotels will list it right on their website and let you know what to expect when you get to the hotels because there’s going to definitely be COVID restrictions at the hotels.”
When fans come back to New York State, it sets up a new challenge.
New York State requires out-of-state travelers to quarantine for ten days. If after four days you receive a negative coronavirus test result, you no longer have to follow quarantine.
“If you’re flying, there will be people in the airport and they have been asking people to fill out forms and they do follow up and check with you,” Carey said. “If you’re driving, it’s really your own personal responsibility to make sure you follow the quarantine rules for New York State.”
A win on Sunday propels Buffalo to its first Super Bowl berth since 1994.
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