Miami, Fla. (WBEN) - If there's one thing the Buffalo Bills are very well-known for across the football world is the rabid fanbase and following the team has. It doesn't matter if it's a game in Orchard Park or a game across the country, "Bills Mafia" will flock in droves to support their favorite team.
Perhaps the biggest party environment outside of Western New York for Bills fans every season takes place in South Florida when the team embarks on its yearly matchup with the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium. Several thousand Bills fans will gather every year to not only celebrate their favorite team, but also meet with other dedicated Bills fans from around the world.
It was 11 years ago when Jonathan Holler put together a Bills Backers chapter in Miami after moving to South Florida from North Tonawanda. The president of the group admits that this year's game snuck up on him fast.
"If you think about it, we actually hosted the last regular season game of last season, and this year we're hosting the first away game for the regular season. So I feel like I packed up everything just yesterday to unpack it for this week," said Holler in an interview with WBEN.
Two seasons ago when the Bills were in Miami, the game took place on a Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET in the sweltering sun and heat of South Florida. Last year, the Bills and Dolphins capped off the 2023 season in style in prime-time on "Sunday Night Football". Like many Bills fans, Holler is pleased this game will take place under the cover of night.
"It gives us all day to prepare. It'll still be low 90s at night time, probably mid-to-high 80s. It'll still be humid, but at least we won't be cooking in the sun," Holler said.
The last time the Bills played a Thursday night game in Miami was back in 2014 in the early infancy of the Bills Backers Miami chapter. Since then, the nature of gatherings for Bills fans in Miami has changed drastically.
With the game set to take place Thursday night, it was a chance for Holler to try something new with a fan event on Wednesday, and then another fan event on Friday, with the game sandwiched in the middle on Thursday.
"We're used to these Sunday 1 o'clock or 4 o'clock [games], and last year an 8 p.m. game. That gives us a Saturday to kind of welcome everybody to town. I don't know if the NFL was trying to not make 'Bills Mafia' come down to South Florida, but there's a lot of us that live here. And the ones that are coming down, they basically have a five or six-day vacation, because nothing's stopping them," Holler said.
Despite this season's Bills-Dolphins showdown falling on a Thursday night, Holler is still expecting the same large "Bills Mafia" crowd to show up over the next few days in Miami.
"This is the Florida game, so everybody from Florida comes over for it. Everybody always comes down for Miami," Holler said. "I know people always complain about the heat and the weather, they're here anyways. So it doesn't change anything for us. We're excited. We plan like we're going to have thousands of fans that show up every year, so we look forward to it."
While there is plenty of work that goes into planning these massive "Bills Mafia" takeover parties every year in Miami, Holler loves organizing them and seeing the larger community come together.
"I've been to tailgates in the past in different cities, where there's kind of events all over the place. The biggest thing I've done down here is bring the Bills fans together," he said. "It's pointless to have 100 fans here, 200 over there. Let's bring everyone together, let's have thousands."
And it's not just the Bills fans that get into the fan takeover events in Miami.
"We throw a block party, and now when the schedule comes out, the owners of these bars actually call me and say, 'Hey, are we in this year? What are we doing? What time are we doing?' The staff loves us, they love when the Bills fans come to town," Holler noted. "I was already at the beach this morning, and there were restaurants that have nothing to do with 'Bills Mafia', and they're flying Bills flags on Fort Lauderdale Beach. So it's pretty cool to see."
Holler says these "Bills Mafia" takeovers have been going so well for so many years now, a lot of what the Bills Backers Miami chapter does is repetitive, which allows fans to already know what to expect.
"I just have to give them what day and what time it'll be. If we're going to do a VIP open bar-type party, or if we're going to do a wristband for a bar crawl, which is what we're doing for this week, fans love it," he said. "We try to make things as easy as possible. If they're looking for hotel rooms, we have hotel discounts to give them in room blocks. If they need transportation to the game, we usually sell that as well with tailgate packages and everything for the fans. So if they get in early enough, then we have full packages to make things very easy for them."
So what remains in store for Bills fans over the next couple of days in South Florida?
"On game day, we have a large tailgate that takes place in the Bus Lot at the stadium. If you follow our social media for Bills Backers Miami, we will give a link to a map that you can actually click, and it will walk you right to our tailgate," Holler emphasized. "We'll have a DJ there, we're doing a large group photo that everybody loves to be a part of at 6 p.m. Our all inclusive tailgate is sold out, but you can still grab your own drinks, grab some snacks, come over and hang out. It's a large open parking lot, so we just want to be able to bring as many Bills fans together as we can."
Holler adds these events usually attract some of the players' families and even some Bills alumni to attend.
The party doesn't stop there, though.
"We have a follow up party at the beach between Elbo Room, Señor Frog's, Blondies [Sports Bar], Rock Bar. You buy a wristband for $20, and then you get $3 beers, $5 mixed drinks, which is unheard of in South Florida," Holler noted.
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