BUFFALO – When Bills fan and Masters student Lance Sabo started seriously toying with his design for a new football stadium over Buffalo’s Central Terminal a few months ago, he had no idea how complex his plans would become, or that they would draw from so much outside professional expertise.
Sabo’s plan has been circulating lately in local Buffalo media like Buffalo Rising, and people are talking. What attracts folks to the idea is not only its business sense, but the amount of engineering insight that Sabo has managed to consult.
“It was cool to talk to professional engineers,” said Sabo, “like people who had worked on New York City’s subway trains for years, and get their ideas rolling.”
Sabo’s suggestion is to restore the Buffalo Terminal railway station to its former purpose. That is, install an active Amtrak train system in the East side of Buffalo, with a new Buffalo Bills stadium built over it.
There have been whispers for years that the Central Terminal is a prime business to revitalize, since its ability to handle train traffic would make it that much easier to touch up the structure, pop a few trains on the tracks and send them all around the state, to New York City, or even the Midwest and Canada.
Sabo anticipates that land acquisition would be a problem, and that it will take a considerable engineering force to accommodate active railroads in an area already crisscrossed with streets and buildings.
“People latch onto different parts of it,” added Sabo. “I want to educate people as we go along. I’m not trying to design the thing all by myself. Maybe people will pick up bits and pieces. The point is to get it out there and have people look at it. Whatever people take away from it, it’s up to them.”
Sabo will release the last of his articles on his proposal Tuesday night. After that, it will be up to others to carry it forward.
Don’t forget to check out Lance’s six-part proposal in his own words in Buffalo Rising.
PHOTO CAPTION: Image courtesy of Lance Sabo.