The condition of the playing field at the new Highmark Stadium was a talking point in the wake of last Saturday’s preseason game between the Bills and the Panthers.
It was the first time that the Bills played a game on their new home field and there were moments where chunks of the grass field were torn from the ground during play. That led to the replacement of divots and the surface looking torn up by the end of the game, but Bills president Pete Guelli said that those circumstances weren’t a surprise to the team.
Guelli told the Associated Press that “our grounds people were aware that was a possibility” with a field that was recently installed. He said the issues were “attended to quickly” and that the belief is the performance of the field will improve the longer that it is in place.
“From a playability and safety perspective, everybody’s very happy,” Guelli said. “It’s Year 1. So it’s a brand new field and it’s going to take time for the foundation to build up. So some of the things people saw in the game, those will dissipate over time.”
The Bills have one more preseason game at home this month and they will play their first regular season game in Week 2. The hope is that there will be more discussion about the quality of the play than the quality of the playing surface in those contests.