Highmark Stadium

Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park is the open-air home of the Buffalo Bills, where the famously devoted "Bills Mafia" brave brutal lake-effect snow to tailgate for hours before kickoff. Its exposed bowl and lack of a roof mean western New York's winter fully shapes the games played there, from whiteout blizzards to bone-deep cold. The stadium's rowdy, weather-hardened crowd is widely regarded as one of the NFL's genuine home-field advantages. Tailgate traditions, including folding-table jumps, have become as much a part of game day as the football itself.

The stadium opened on August 17, 1973, with the Bills beating the Jets 9-7 behind O.J. Simpson's 120-plus rushing yards. It carries the legacy of the Bills' four consecutive Super Bowl appearances in the early 1990s under Jim Kelly and Marv Levy. Its most famous game may be "The Comeback" of January 3, 1993, when Buffalo erased a 32-point third-quarter deficit to beat Houston in overtime, still the largest comeback in NFL playoff history. The stadium also hosted the 2008 NHL Winter Classic, drawing a then-record outdoor crowd of over 71,000 for Penguins-Sabres.