Volunteers and stadium employees have been working around the clock to prepare Highmark Stadium for Monday’s wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills.
But heavy snow accumulation is still presenting some issues with just a few hours remaining before the 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
Many volunteers began shoveling out seats and walkways Sunday. The Bills offered $20 an hour to locals, some of whom spent more than 24 hours shoveling.
As of 1 p.m. ET on Monday, the field conditions were adequate and should not play a significant factor in how the game unfolds. Construction crews used dump trucks, plows and backhoe loaders to remove enormous piles of snow to clear the turf and sidelines.
However, many of the seats remained completely covered with waist-high snow just a few hours before kickoff. Shovelers said they were told to prioritize walkways and only clear seats if time permitted.
After the game was postponed from Sunday afternoon to Monday, a lake effect snow band sat over Orchard Park, N.Y., where Highmark Stadium is located.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a Sunday news conference that the forecasts “underestimated the ferocity of the storm.” Initial projections called for one to two inches of snow an hour over 36 hours. Hochul said Buffalo saw four to five inches of snow, and sometimes six inches, per hour along with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.
On Monday morning, the snow band began moving north, providing much-needed relief to the area surrounding the stadium but also creating some problems for fans commuting from that direction.
The temperature at kickoff at Orchard Park is expected to be 17 degrees with wind gusts between 12 and 20 miles per hour, according to AccuWeather. Some flurries are possible, but the skies should be significantly calmer than they were just a day earlier.