Bills notebook
Buffalo Bills deny interest in study for new stadium
Buffalo Bills officials said Friday they have made no inquiries or plans to study the building of a new stadium. The question of a new stadium for Buffalo was raised in an article in Thursday’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
An executive of the firm that designed the new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys was asked about his company’s prospects for future stadium construction.
Mark Williams, associate principal architect for HKS Inc., replied: “We’ve been working with the [Minnesota] Vikings for about nine months, and they are still trying to get their funding. The [San Francisco] 49ers and the Buffalo Bills are thinking about doing something and also the [San Diego] Chargers and maybe the Atlanta Falcons. Those are the potential new stadiums in the NFL.”
The Bills maintain no firm has been contacted and no initiative toward a new stadium has been planned.
Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. has steadfastly maintained that he is happy with the current stadium in Orchard Park and that he has no desire to ask taxpayers to contribute to the construction of a new stadium.
Furthermore, the Bills management has maintained that it would be very hard, under current conditions, to make a new stadium pay off financially for the team.
One of the financial strengths of the Bills’ franchise is it is carrying no debt load. None of the team’s revenues go toward paying off loans. Further, the advantage of building a new stadium to NFL teams is the ability to charge much higher prices for luxury suites and personal-seat licenses.
It’s hard to see which companies in Western New York would be willing to pay significantly higher prices for luxury boxes under the current economic climate or how the Bills would find many more companies in the region to buy more luxury suites.
The Bills’ stadium is the fifth oldest in the NFL. However it underwent an extensive refurbishing at taxpayer expense in 1998.
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The Bills finished their third week of organized team activity practices on Friday with a 90-minute session on the grass field behind the fieldhouse. The team has one more voluntary practice scheduled on Monday, followed by three days of mandatory practices.
A 50-yard completion from Trent Edwards to Lee Evans down the right sideline was the highlight of Friday’s workout. Reggie Corner had tight coverage, and Evans had to speed up to run under the well-thrown ball. Starting cornerbacks Terracne McGee (shoulder) and Leodis McKelvin (finger) did individual drills but were held out of team work. Coach Dick Jauron said they might be held out of portions of practices next week as a precaution. Jauron sounded a bit more optimistic about cornerback Ashton Youboty, recovering from plantar fasciitis. He has been doing more drills this week.
Receiver Terrell Owens was absent from the voluntary workouts for the first time this spring. Also not in attendance were Aaron Schobel, Roscoe Parrish, Josh Reed, Corey McIntyre and rookies Shawn Nelson, Jairus Byrd and Dan Urrego. Jauron said Nelson was dealing with personal issues this week and will be back next week.
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Jauron was asked about Parrish’s desire to get more playing time at receiver. His answer:
“I would say that everybody on our football team would like a bigger role that doesn’t have a big role already. They all compete for it, and he’s competing. He had a couple really nice days in our OTAs. He just needs to continue to do it and fit into the scheme and understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. He’s done a nice job so far. He’ll certainly be a challenger for more playing time and then we’ll see where it goes. We’re happy that he’s been here, and we’re really happy that he’s with us.”
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