One of the most controversial things in recent memory for the Buffalo Bills came courtesy of a design choice for the Family Circle area on the way into the new Highmark Stadium. One of the more highly anticipated elements coming to the new home of the Bills were giant bison statues promised in early renderings.
Well, new looks at the statues have been revealed and fans are generally not pleased. I’m here to try and show them through a new lens that might help the sentiment around the behemoth bison.
One thing that’s been a major puzzler for me is that I keep seeing comments about the “renders” and how much people hate them. I’m not puzzled on the opinion, you’re welcome to yours, but it is a bit baffling that so many fans seem unaware that the team posted a [behind the scenes video](https://www.buffalobills.com/video/exclusive-reveal-the-buffalo-bills-bison-statues-behind-the-scenes) of the statues that shows glimpses of the actual bison. To have a more fully educated dialogue, here are a couple screen grabs I snagged that better show them off.
The evidence I have based on pose, height, etc. on these, you’re looking at the baby bison. The smallest of the three, this is supposed to…
Wait. Aren’t I the guy who creates short football videos for y’all? Here you go. My All-22-inspired video breakdown of the new statues.
Look, I’m a realist. I know the design isn’t for everyone. I’m not going to pick a fight in the comments defending them. Many of you wanted more realistic bison and to be perfectly clear I would have loved that too.
If you watched the video (and you should), you’ll see that bison family is the centerpiece of an area called “Family Circle.” The area around these will be wall/bench/interactive coolness. What appear to be decorative walls are bench height to sit and hang out as you enter the stadium. Surrounding that will be tributes to Bills greats. The entire scene will have dynamic lighting.
The bison themselves will have lights, breathe smoke out of the nostrils, and should be an imposing height. The bull is set to be 27’ high, the cow at 23’ height, and baby bison will come in at 12’. The baby is the one you see in the video I made.
How high is that? Here are some conversion charts ranging from baby to bull.
* 2-4.5 Skarekrows high
* 24 to 54 miniature dachshunds high
* 2-4.5 actual bison high (that’s right, the baby bison statue is actually about twice as tall as an adult male actual bison)
None of that is a good sales pitch on the steel or “robo” look over a more realistic bison. I don’t know if I’ll convince too many people, but here are a few reasons I think I like them a lot…
* Adding lights and smoke and extra awesomeness might make realistic bison look off;
* the steel look and the “charge” effect works pretty well and clearly makes these Bills bison;
* the angular silhouette looks cool;
* they match the aesthetic of the rest of the stadium;
* most importantly, the surface of the steel will work with the lights way better than a natural coloration and texture (the final renders in the video show what I mean).
It’s okay if you still hate ‘em. At the very least you’re now hating them with more complete information.
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