RENOVATIONS
July 15, 1999
Copyright 1999 Mediaventures
Renovations at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, are on schedule for completion this fall. The $57 million project includes 76 new dugout suites, lower bowl sideline seats, seat warmers for club seat holders and cup holders, along with other general improvements
The county is the landlord for the Buffalo Bills and Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium). County Executive Gorski and team owner Ralph Wilson have agreed to a two year, $23 million renovation of the stadium. Improvements for the 1994 season include the largest video replay scoreboard in the NFL, more restrooms, luxury suites, club suites and resurfacing of the stadium parking lots. Funding will come from the Bills and parking and ticket surcharges on those going to games.
As part of the renovation agreement, the Bills and the county are beginning talks designed to extend the team's lease well into the next century.
FAST FACT: Ralph Wilson Stadium is considered to have some of the best sightlines of any stadium in the NFL.
June 9, 1997 - Associated Press - The Buffalo Bills are not interested in signing a long-term agreement to remain at Rich Stadium unless it includes financial guarantees or an escape clause, the Buffalo News reported.
The paper, quoting unidentified sources, said Bills owner Ralph Wilson is becoming increasingly pessimistic about the local economy. "My sense is that the longest lease that would be possible is 10 years," one source was quoted as saying.
The Bills' 25-year lease for Rich Stadium expired July 1998.
Opened: 8/7/73
Construction Started: 4/4/72
Surface: AstroTurf 8, installed 1991
Crown of Turf: 9 inches
Drainage: Subsurface pipes
Area: 113 acres
Field level: 50 feet below ground level
Upper deck: 60 feet above ground level
Concession stands: 42 locations
Restrooms: 46 locations
Stadium Lighting: sideline, 180 ft. candles; mid-field, 300 ft. candles
Cost: $1.3 million
First game: Redskins 37, Bills 21 (8/17/73)
First regular-season game: Bills 9, NY Jets 7 (9/30/73)
The Sony Jumbotron scoreboard: Largest Color Videoboard in the United States
Construction Started: 6/15/94
Cost: $5.7 Million
First Game Utilized: 8/8/94 vs. Washington
Size: 31.5 feet by 41.5 feet
Light Emitting Elements: 278,784
Number of Operators: 11 video technicians
Capabilities: full-color instant replay, live action shots, crowd shots, out-of-town highlights, and various in-stadium shots from cameras exclusive to videoboard usage.
DAKTRONICS SCOREBOARD
The black and white Daktronic Scoreboard is a matrix system designed to compliment the SONY JumboTron Videoboard. It is a digit scoreboard system, operated by a series of computers, that enables you to place numbers or letters anywhere within the board. It requires a minimum of 3 computer operators. It is also capable of displaying such information as down and distance, game score, statistics, out-of-town scores and animations. Six independent boards make up the Daktronics system. The Game-in-Progress board meaasures 8' x 39' with 17,024 lamps. The Out-of-Town board measures 8' x 22' with 9,856 lamps. Two of the sideline boards measure 4' x 40' with 2,560 lamps per unit. The two additional sideline boards measure 4' x 52' with 3,328 lamps per unit.
NEW SEATS IN BUFFALO MAY VIOLATE BUILDING CODE
September 30, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVentures
New sideline seats in Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium may be more narrow than building codes allow. A fan and former building inspector says the distance between his seat and the one in front is 8 inches. The code calls for a 10 inch gap. The fan also believes the seat width is an inch below code.
It will be up to local officials to investigate the complaint he filed, but it could affect up to 30,000 of the new seats that come with cup holders and arm rests.
The fan making the complaint stands 6-foot, 6-inches tall and has been a Bills season ticket holder for 15 years. He said the cramped space made him so uncomfortable he had to leave a recent game in the second quarter. While the Bills tried to relocate him, it could not be done without displacing fans with more seniority.
BILLS BOOSTING LEG ROOM IN NEW PREMIUM SEATS
November 11, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVentures
Buyers of new premium sideline seats at Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium can have the cup holders removed upon request to gain more leg room. The Bills mailed
noticed to the seat holders this week making the offer.
The action comes after complaints from the season ticket holders that the space was too cramped. A former building inspector also says the space allowed falls below that required by local building codes. That issue will be debated before a state board Nov. 18 when the team argues that the venue is correct because it qualifies as a theater rather than an outdoor assembly facility.
Ticket holders interested in the offer return a postage-paid card to the team and the work will be done immediately.
The team is also considering work before next season to increase the room available. It is working with the seating manufacturer on a plan to change the angle of the
seat back so more space is available between chairs.
THE ULTIMATE SPORTS ROAD TRIP
By: Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell
| Ralph Wilson Stadium Ranking by USRT |
| Architecture |  | 5 |
| Concessions | | 4 |
| Scoreboard | | 2.5 |
| Ushers | | 6 |
| Fan Support | | 6 |
| Location | | 6 |
| Banners/History | | 7 |
| Entertainment | | 3 |
| Concourses/Fan Comfort | | 4 |
| Bonus: Tailgate Scene | | 3 |
| Bonus: Bills Experience | | 2 |
| Total Score |  | 48.5 |
September 20, 1998 - Our home stadium here in Western New York has been visited by both of us many a time, but this was the first time we got to attend a game together, so for "official" purposes this day and this event counts towards the Ultimate Sports Road Trip.This being the annual Farrell tailgate pary, Andrew's birthday and a crisp summery sun drenched day made for a perfect backdrop.
Getting to the Venue
Ralph Wilson Stadium was opened in 1973 and has been the home of the Buffalo Bills for almost 30 years. The venue is located in Orchard Park, south of the city, and is easily accessible by car, thanks to an elaborate expressway network, including the NYS Thruway, the Rte 219 expressway and the Rte 5 highway which runs along the lakeshore. Getting to the stadium is a snap, and with 16,000 parking spaces in the stadium lots, parking is abundant. Parking costs $10, and there are many adjacent private properties near the stadium which offer parking as well. Cost is generally $5-$10, although we could find lots as cheap as $3 along Southwestern Blvd. Public transportation is available via Metro Bus from downtown Buffalo.
Outside the Venue
Bills tailgate parties are what makes this stadium experience so very special. Buffalo easily ranks as one of the top NFL tailgate venues. Come to the Ralph on any given Sunday and the parking lots are an ocean of Bills red and blue, the grills fired up and footballs a plenty being tossed through the air. Partiers in campers and RV's show up here as early as Thursday, and by 4 hours before kickoff the parking lots are packed. Radio stations are running their booths and promos, vendors are selling their wares, music blaring everywhere, and in short, it is just one big party and a great community experience.
The Stadium and Seating Bowl
That being said, the stadium itself emulates the design and construction of a different era. The stadium was built in the 70's, an open air, football only facility with outstanding sightlines for football. With the playing surface excavated well below the surface, one enters the venue from any one of multiple entrances and walks DOWN to the 100 level concourse, which rings the top of the 100 level seats. The sidelines along the 200 level are designated club seats, with indoor private concourses. From the entry gate it is a short ramp up to the 300 level.
The stadium underwent a massive renovation in time for the 1999 season, which added armchair seats in most of the 100 level, suites ringing the top of the 100 level and the scoreboard end zone in the 200 level, and two indoor clubs in each corner of the tunnel end zone.
There is a single Sony jumbotron scoreboard at one end zone. Game information and out of town scores are provided on small dot matrix boards accompanying the main board, as well as dot matrix boards hanging along each sideline in the upper deck. Also lining each of the four corners on the upper deck are synchronized changeable ad panels... very cool.
The Concourses
The lower and upper concourses again emulate the 70s era of design - narrow, congested, with pipes and ducts exposed in the ceiling. With the renovation, the Bills have spruced up the concourses somewhat with splashes of paint, new concession signage and brighter lighting. There are no escalators here, but again, since everyone enters the stadium at the 200 level, it is either a quick walk up or down one ramp to one's seats, so escalators aren't really needed here.
Concessions
For years and years all you could find at the Ralph was standard ballpark dreck. In recent years the menu has been upgraded but the Buffalo staples - beef on weck and chicken wings are nowhere to be found except in premiumseating areas. Satellite carts sell Subway sandwiches and fresh roasted nuts. The main team merchandise store can actually be found outside the stadium. The new team store is located in the Bills Fieldhouse just south of the stadium on the grounds, and is stocked with Bills souvenirs and apparel. Smaller merchandise kiosks are scattered throughout the stadium.
Premium/Club Seats
The 1999 renovation placed a great deal of emphasis on the addition of premium seating which is so vital for the financial health of a franchise. Suite seating can be found ringing the top of the 100 level, tucked underneath the club level overhang, ringing the 200 level at the scoreboard end, and atop the old adminstration building at the tunnel end. A pair of two level "indoor clubs" are located in the corners of the tunnel end zone. And along the sidelines are the "outdoor club" seats, most of which are under the upper deck overhang and have their own private indoor concourse, complete with premium food offerings, table seating and full bar service. An interesting and unique feature here is that each outdoor club seat is HEATED, with a thermostat under each seat controlling the heating element built into the chair.
Banners/Retired Numbers
At one end zone are the Bills two AFL and 4 AFC championship banners. At the other end is a "Wall of Fame" with 15 names, and yes, one of the honorees is none other than Orenthal, #32 O.J. Simpson. Bills fans are honored as "The 12th Man" for their contributions during the team's amazing four year run to Super Bowl in the early 90s.
Touchdowns, Extra points, Fumbles
Extra Point - The Buffalo Bills Experience is a pregame event taking place in the adjacent Bills Fieldhouse prior to each game. For $5 you can listen to music, take part in interactive events, buy trading cards and look at exhibits.
Touchdown - to the Bills for making their tickets available at very reasonable prices, compared to some the NFL venues which we have visited. Non club seats are priced from $41-$48. Parking $10...no PSL's, no contracts or big dollar commitments. That brings us to...
Fumble - Bills fans like to proclaim themselves as the BEST in the country, yet even at bargain prices, this team struggles to hit 40,000 season tickets each year. Granted, the building usually sells out, but it is the same tired ritual each home game to see if the last few seats will be sold in time to lift the blackout. Buffalofan - you have no idea how good you got it here. If you don't believe us, talk to the Green Bay fan who sits mired on a season ticket waiting list approaching 50,000 names. Talk to the St. Louis fan who plunks down thousands of dollars for his personal seat license. Talk to the New England fan who pays $25- $35... to PARK!
Touchdown - The Bills Wall of Fame. For honoring OL Bob Kalsu, though he only played a single season during the 60's. Bob will forever be remembered as the only US pro athlete to perish in combat during the Vietnam War.
Fumble - No constant scrolling out of town scoreboard and only one jumbotron. This venue should have a second jumbotron directly across from the one that exists now.
Summary
Bills fans are great and very passionate about their team - this is our home field and we love the Bills and own season tickets so we come here often. But after seeing the places we have seen, our conclusion is that Ralph Wilson Stadium falls in the lower echelon of NFL venues in terms of bricks and mortar, and as cities build dazzling new facilities this stadium's ranking will not improve without further upgrades and capital improvements.
But do not let our rating fool you or dissuade you - this is still a very pretty and a very functional stadium that simply lacks the architecture, amenities and bells and whistles of the newer stadiums. And a day at the Ralph is still an awesome football experience - plan to tailgate and plan to experience the electricity of the crazy Bills fans who eat, breathe and sleep football with the best of them!
COUNTY TAXPAYERS TO INCREASE AID TO BILLS
January 22, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
Buffalo, N.Y. - Erie County taxpayers will set a record for the Buffalo Bills in the 2009 season.
Local taxpayer support for the team will average more than $900,000 for each game played in
Western New York.
It's largely because the Bills now play a preseason and a regular season home game in Toronto
rather than in Orchard Park's Ralph Wilson Stadium. That reduces the number of games in Buffalo
to eight while the taxpayer allowance for game-day expenses and operating expenses to run Ralph
Wilson Stadium continues.
This merging of events - more money for the Bills with fewer home games played here - will
trigger the first $900,000-a-game season. The 2008 season just missed.
In 2009, Erie County will set aside $4.2 million for operating and game-day expenses. It was
$3.9 million last year. It will also continue funds for stadium upgrades: $2.9 million for this year.
For the eight games to be played in Orchard Park, that equates to about $920,000 a game from
Erie County taxpayers - for a team that last reached the playoffs in 1999, the second season under the team's current lease. The lease expires after the 2012 season.
Jeffrey C. Littmann, the Bills chief financial officer, says the Bills incur more stadium-related
expenses than the government reimburses.
The Bills paid $5.5 million in stadium expenses for the most recently concluded lease year,
which ended July 31, before the 2008 season. The largest single cost was the $1.7 million for
utilities - gas, electricity and water.
More than $1 million was spent on stadium salaries and more than $1 million on general
maintenance - plumbing repairs, trash disposal, window cleaning, pest control, but also for
miscellaneous needs such as bottled water, soft drinks and office supplies.
But the lease allowed government reimbursement for $2.45 million of the Bills total stadium
operating expenses, or less than half of the organization's costs.
For game-day expenses, which includes security, the cost of ticket takers, ushers, cleaning and
snow removal, the team laid out $2.3 million. The government reimbursed $1.38 million.
Again, that was for the 2007 season, when the Bills played 10 home games at Ralph Wilson
Stadium, two in the preseason and eight in the regular season.
The Bills will present their breakdown for the 2008 season, when the team played two games in
Toronto, later this year. Littmann says the list will show game-day expenses receding. But he said the team's expenses will still exceed what the county is willing to reimburse.
It was Littmann who, in October 2007, called on then- County Executive Joel A. Giambra to ask
that he let the Bills play two of their home games in Toronto, where some business leaders were
offering to host the team. The Bills could then expand their fan base and "mitigate the
small-market handicap we face in today's NFL," Littmann wrote in a follow-up letter.
The Bills' stadium lease had been signed in 1998 by Giambra's predecessor, Dennis T. Gorski.
The agreement assumed the Bills would play all of their home games in the county-owned stadium
but let the team play home games elsewhere with county permission. Giambra in late 2007 quickly
let them do so for the 2008 season, without trying to change any other terms.
Gorski had negotiated the contract as he headed into an election year. When completed, it was
considered both an extravagance and a triumph for Erie County. While the deal committed a
fortune in taxpayer money, some $125 million through its life, the county didn't have to build a new stadium, as some other cities were doing for their NFL franchises.
The full Legislature ratified the pact in 1998. In doing so, lawmakers committed millions of
public dollars to keep a 1970s-era stadium up to date. (Buffalo News)
BILLS FRUSTRATED OVER STADIUM FUNDING
April 2, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
Buffalo, N.Y. - The Buffalo Bills are frustrated, and it has nothing to do with recent
headline-grabbing events involving the Bills-in-Toronto series or the controversial Terrell Owens
signing.
The Bills are fed up with the ongoing Erie County financial flap that has stalled more than a
year and a half's worth of county-funded stadium improvements at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
At issue are about $2.9 million in improvements the county is obligated to fund each year under
its lease with the Bills.
It's early spring, the traditional launch of the construction season, but no huge repair crews are poised to descend on the stadium, less than five months before the Bills host two preseason games in August.
None of this year's $2.9 million in improvements has gone past the wish-list stage. And the Bills
still are waiting for almost $2 million worth of capital improvements - that were supposed to be
done last year.
The Bills insist they're frustrated, not angry. They've talked with all the parties involved, and
they're not mad at any one person. They're just fed up with the situation.
An ongoing dispute between the county and its state-appointed control board has stalled the
selling of about $89 million worth of bonds for capital-improvement projects across the county.
"We've talked with the control board," Bills Treasurer Jeffrey C. Littmann said. "We've talked
with the comptroller. We've talked with the county executive. They're all supportive. They all
understand. This is not a Bills issue. This is a county issue, and we're caught up in it."
As Littmann pointed out, the Bills are hardly alone waiting for capital improvement projects.
Also being held hostage on this list, county officials say, are road and bridge work throughout
the county, replacing the Erie County Holding Center roof, roof repairs at the county correctional facility in Alden and capital improvements at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, the Botanical Gardens and all three Erie Community College campuses.
"There have been a lot of independent third parties that have been impacted by this," County
Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz said.
No stairway is about to crumble, but the Bills consider the annual $2.9 million in capital
improvements a key element in keeping the 36-year-old Ralph Wilson Stadium a viable NFL
playpen, while some other teams have grandiose, spanking- new structures with all the amenities.
A couple of years ago, Littmann asked Joe Frandina, the Bills' vice president of stadium
operations, how long Ralph Wilson Stadium could last.
"Is the assumption that we control the maintenance, and she's taken care of the way she should
be taken care of?" Littmann remembers Frandina asking him.
Yes, Littmann answered.
"Then she'll outlast you and me," Frandina replied. Poloncarz noted that the county has
advanced cash for about one-third of the 2007 and 2008 capital improvements throughout the
county, $28 million out of $89 million worth. The Bills say that includes more than $750,000 of their stadium work.
The almost 30 capital improvements never done from last year's list at the stadium include
reconstructing parking Lot 1, repairing the Section 104 seating area, remodeling some restrooms
and repairing the fieldhouse roof from storm damage.
"The goal now is we hope to get last year's work done now," Littmann said.
Poloncarz still holds out hope that the issue could be resolved soon, either through an
agreement with the control board or through legislation in Albany.
The Bills can't compete with 2-million-square-foot "Taj Mahal" stadiums - Ralph Wilson
Stadium is about 890,000 square feet Ð or with NFL franchises that sell personal seat licenses or
$500 club seats.
"We just don't have the marketplace to do that," he said. "We have to find another answer.
That's why we went the regionalization route. We're taking our brand to a bigger audience."
(Buffalo News)
