Buffalo Bills NFL team ask for fans’ help to clear stadium ahead of weekend game after freak snowstorm

WITH their home ground snowbound after a freak storm, the Buffalo Bills NFL team are offering fans $10 an hour to bring shovels and help them clear it.

Snow covers a sign at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. A ferocious lake-effect storm left the Buffalo area buried under 6 feet of snow Wednesday, trapping people on highways and in homes, and another storm expected to drop 2 to 3 feet more was on its way. (AP Photo/The Buffalo News, Harry Scull Jr.) TV OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; BATAVIA DAILY NEWS OUT; DUNKIRK OBSERVER OUT; JAMESTOWN POST-JOURNAL OUT; LOCKPORT UNION-SUN JOURNAL OUT; NIAGARA GAZETTE OUT; OLEAN TIMES-HERALD OUT; SALAMANCA PRESS OUT; TONAWANDA NEWS OUT

AFTER a huge storm hit New York state and turned their home ground into a snowglobe, the Buffalo Bills NFL team are offering fans $10 an hour and tickets to help them clear it in time for this weekend’s game.

Roughly six feet of snow hit the area, with pictures showing it sitting waist-deep on the playing surface of Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Field level and waist deep at a pristine Ralph Wilson Stadium. pic.twitter.com/9Gtq3o73le

— Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills) November 19, 2014

The franchise sent out a tweet asking for anyone willing to bring a shovel and help their team out to call a phone number and register.

Apart from some ready cash and game tickets, the incentive is to be able to host the NY Jets on Sunday if they can get the ground ready in time. To do so, they’ll have to clear almost 200,000kg of snow.

“We can’t have too many people helping,” Bills VP of Operations Andy Major. “We won’t be turning anyone away.”

The snowbound Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills.

The upside from the Jets’ perspective is that practising in six feet of snow isn’t exactly ideal so if the game goes ahead the Bills might be coming in a little undercooked.

Ultimately it’ll be up to the NFL to decide whether the game can take place, but the code prides itself on taking place in some brutal conditions through the US winter, in so-called “football weather”.

PHOTOS (updated): Ralph Wilson Stadium and One Bills Drive buried under a blanket of snow http://t.co/2RVr3yDfwq pic.twitter.com/qRRRkWRsWE

— Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills) November 19, 2014

However, these conditions might be close to unprecedented, with Bills public relations director Scott Berchtold telling Sports Illustrated: “I’ve been here 26 years. This is the toughest weather I’ve ever seen here.”

The Bills players, for their part, have been keen to show how tough they are with some shirtless-in-the-snow adventures, with Kiko Alonso probably the pick of the bunch.

VIDEO: A shirtless Kiko Alonso covers himself with snow, calls it "recovery" http://t.co/HNXVGrRNw7 pic.twitter.com/kzx47Ik04M

— Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills) November 19, 2014