Bills fire local cleaner, hire Michigan firm
The Buffalo Bills have contracted with a Michigan-based company to handle cleaning, maintenance and grounds improvement at the Ralph Wilson Stadium complex, dropping the local firm that was doing the work.
Knight Facilities Management will service all facilities at the Orchard Park complex, providing daily and overnight cleaning, supporting grounds improvement and handling general maintenance projects, the Bills said. KnightFM, as the company is also known, will be responsible for keeping the stadium clean for all events, the Bills said.
KnightFM has several other pro stadiums on its resume, including Raymond James Stadium and Tropicana Field in Florida, FedEx Field in Maryland, Ford Field in Detroit, and Camden Yards in Baltimore.
“KnightFM is an experienced, innovative and valuable partner that will help provide a safe, clean and fan-friendly environment for Bills fans and visitors,” said Joe Frandina, the Bills’ vice president of stadium operations, in a statement.
Andy Major, the Bills’ executive director of marketing, said the deal with KnightFM is year to year. He declined to release the dollar value of the agreement.
“KnightFM came back with a really good bid,” Major said. “They’re got a real good track record in the industry.”
The Bills’ switch to KnightFM displaced two companies with local ties that have provided cleaning and related services for years at the stadium complex.
First Choice, a staffing company with offices in Orchard Park, worked with the Bills for 14 years, said Thomas Kerr, First Choice’s president. Libra Temps LLC has provided services to the organization for about 10 years, said Peter Covey, Libra’s owner, who recently moved to Georgia.
First Choice was on a two-year contract with the Bills. The deal’s terms gave the Bills the right to cancel the deal after first year and put the work out to bid, which the Bills opted to do.
Kerr said his company entered a bid, but he felt that his company did not have a realistic chance of winning based on the contract’s structure.
First Choice provided a range of services at the stadium, including cleaning, maintaining the property and tarping the field. Following games, his company would arrange transportation for about 300 workers to clean up the stadium, a process that took parts of three days, he said.
When the stadium’s seats needed to be cleared of snow before a game, First Choice worked with Labor Ready to bring in people for that task, he said.
Kerr said he was sorry to see his company’s work for the Bills come to an end.
“We were always on top of it,” he said. “We were always bringing people to work.”
A group of five of cleaners provided by Libra worked year-round at the stadium facilities, Covey said. Another group of eight to 10 workers provided by Libra started before the football season. They prepared the stadium suites and cleaned them after games, working at least 40 hours per week during that period, he said.
“We have the same people come back year after year,“ Covey said. His company did not have a formal contract with the Bills, he said.
While Erie County owns the stadium, it does not cover the cost of cleaning it and has no input on who is chosen for that work, said Gerard Sentz, the county’s commissioner of public works. “That’s all the responsibility of the Bills and the Bills’ charges.”
Both Kerr and Covey said KnightFM offered to hire their cleaning staffers but for much less money. KnightFM’s sales manager referred questions about pay to the company’s vice president of human resources, who did not return a call to comment.
Major said he couldn’t comment on the pay offered by KnightFM, but said its work force will still be local.
“The bottom line is, all the people working for them are going to be local folks,” he said.
