As far back as 1964, before the Buffalo Bills won their first American Football League championship and after just four years of playing in decrepit War Memorial Stadium, team owner Ralph Wilson began clamoring for Erie County and New York State to build his team a new playground.
And you could not blame Wilson for the ask because the place affectionately known as The Rockpile was essentially exactly that.
It served its purpose in getting Wilson to locate his fledgling AFL franchise in Buffalo in 1959, but even even though the venue was only 22 years old at that time – having been built under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration and opened in 1937 – it was in shocking decay. Plus, it was located on the deteriorating and crime-ridden East side of the city.
There was an old saying among fans who ventured there in the late 1960s – you didn’t park your car as much as you abandoned it.
All along, Wilson knew the only way the Bills could be sustained for the long haul was if they had a home that wasn’t crumbling before the eyes of every fan who walked through the turnstiles in the 1960s.
Few players played more games in that place than Al Bemiller, who joined the Bills in 1961 after being drafted out of Syracuse University and went on to play nine seasons.
“The fans were super. The facilities were, well, the showers, maybe one shower worked in the whole thing,” Bemiller told me many years ago. “It was just terrible, terrible. But that’s the way it was.”
It didn’t have to be that way, though, and if Buffalo wasn’t going to make something happen, there were plenty of places that would have welcomed Wilson’s team with open arms.
He saw how the sport of professional football was growing and cities – some much bigger than Buffalo – were showing great interest in procuring franchises in both the AFL and the established NFL. Wilson had plenty of leverage in the protracted fight for a new stadium and by the time the two leagues merged in 1970, weary of the non-action, he was fully prepared to leave western New York if the political leaders didn’t come through.
Some legislators wanted a downtown stadium, figuring that drawing people to the city’s core would revitalize a place that had been sagging since World War II, but Wilson wondered aloud, “How is playing eight, nine or 10 games a year going to help downtown?”
As for the type of stadium, some wanted a domed facility because their hope was that it would be a way to lure a Major League Baseball expansion franchise to Buffalo, while others wanted it open air which was always Wilson’s preference. Regarding size, some wanted it to seat 50,000, others preferred 60,000 seats, and others, like Wilson, wanted more.
Then there was the forever fight regarding location. A 1967 study proposed four alternatives: Building it right where The Rockpile stood on the East side; another downtown site at the foot of Main Street which is where Key Bank Arena now stands as the home of the Buffalo Sabres; a parcel at McKinley and Milestrip in Hamburg where the McKinley Mall was later built; and in Amherst near the new UB North Campus.
Also, there were factions who lobbied for the Buffalo suburbs of Lancaster and Lackawanna, and some thought the best idea would be Batavia, halfway between Buffalo and Rochester which would broaden the Bills’ season-ticket base.
Wilson’s battles with the city’s Urban Development Committee went on for years and he became so frustrated that by the end of the 1970 football season, he began touring cities in search of a new home.
Before choosing Buffalo in 1959, among the places Wilson had considered were Miami, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Atlanta, but by the late 1960s all four had already been awarded AFL or NFL franchises.
Still, there were other viable locales and in a statement released by the team in mid-January 1971, Wilson made his intentions perfectly clear: “The Bills management is fond of Buffalo and its fans, but has reached the point where it can no longer live with the stadium existing here. The climate for a suitable new stadium in the immediate future does not exist in Buffalo. This leaves the Bills no alternative but to move.”
In December 1968, Wilson had been courted heavily by Seattle when it became known that he was considering moving the Bills. He met with civic leaders there and toured the University of Washington Stadium, and was also informed of that city’s plan to pursue expansion franchises in both MLB and the NFL and build them a domed stadium to share.
He had tabled a decision on Seattle for two years, but now, the day after his statement, he was back in the Pacific Northwest and was close to making a deal, but in the coming days he was also courted by officials in Memphis and Tampa. “I would consider moving the franchise for the 1971 season,” he said, but now he had to make a decision.
Only then did the politicians in western New York begin to realize that losing the Bills was a definite possibility and given a reprieve because Wilson was still trying to finalize his plan, they went back to him and promised progress. In April 1971, a new site came into play, a barren 113-acre plot in Orchard Park on the East side of Abbott Road.
I interviewed Wilson about this more than 30 years ago, and he told me, “The team was committed to Buffalo. I never had any idea of not getting the best for Buffalo. The league said, ‘Hey, (War Memorial Stadium) is too small, you need at least 50,000 seats,’ so in order to stay in the league, we had to get a new stadium.
“I spent a lot of personal time, mostly in dealing with the Urban Development Committee. I wanted a large open air stadium in the suburbs with easy access, like Kansas City had. I wanted it in a nice area, like where we are in Orchard Park. They wanted to build 60,000 seats and I wanted 80,000. Well, they thought it was ridiculous and they said I’d never sell 80,000 seats. But my philosophy has always been, ‘If you’re gonna take a trip, stay in the best places, don’t go on the cheap.’”
Focusing all its efforts on making the Abbott Road site a reality, the ball began moving toward the proverbial goal line and finally, on the night of Sept. 23, 1971, the Erie County Legislature passed a $23.5 million bond resolution that at long last paved the way for construction, with a deadline for completion set for Aug. 1, 1973. Further, a 25-year lease agreement was agreed upon, insuring the team’s future at its new address.
As reported in The Buffalo News, the vote was conducted not in legislative chambers, but at the Veterans Administration Hospital because Kenmore Republican Albert Abgott was admitted and awaiting surgery there. And the 14th and deciding vote was cast by Democrat Bobby Bowles, who earlier in the day had opposed parts of the plan unless there was a stipulation that bids from minority contractors were included, and minorities were hired to work on the project.
Naturally in the aftermath both sides of the aisle lobbed shots at one another regarding the often vitriolic debates on the stadium issue, blaming the other for how long it took for an agreement, delays that nearly cost the region its beloved football team.
Buffalo Mayor Frank Sedita, a democrat, said that Erie County Executive Edward Regan, a Republican, “showed absolutely no leadership” in the effort to break the impasse.
Regan, who would later go on to serve 14 years as New York State Comptroller, responded by saying, “For the past few days, Frank Sedita has searched for headlines, while I and the legislature have searched for results. This is the difference between politics and government. Politics is headline hunting; government is doing something. This is the clear difference between Frank Sedita and myself.”
Wilson was perfectly willing to let the egos gnash because he got what he wanted: A new stadium where his team could flourish.
“It was a hard fight to get the stadium, but it was the right thing to do,” he said. “I don’t know anything about politics, but I knew something about sports. I knew this would be a great thing, having the biggest (pro) stadium in the country.”
Even with the tight deadline of August 1973, ground was not broken until April 4, 1972, meaning workers had barely 16 months to finish the project, but they made it happen, and on the night of Aug. 17, 1973, Wilson was in his glory as Rich Stadium – so named because Buffalo-based Rich Products signed a 25-year naming rights deal – opened its turnstiles and 80,000 people including yours truly poured through.
On that balmy summer evening, the NFC champion Washington Redskins helped the Bills christen their new home. Wilson hosted a gala party for his family, friends and politicians, and even though traffic congestion created a nightmare both before and after the game, and Washington’s Herb Mul-Key spoiled the fun by returning the opening kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown to start the Redskins on their way to a 37-21 victory, years later Wilson looked back on that night fondly because that was the moment his team had truly hit the big time.
“I knew this was the right thing for Buffalo,” he said. “I didn’t think we’d sell out as much as we have, because I didn’t realize back in those days that this is a regional franchise. This is not just a Buffalo franchise. I didn’t realize we were drawing 20-25 percent of our crowds from Rochester. I thought we’d occasionally get 80,000, but not consistently.”
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Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills stadium saga: The vote that saved the team from moving
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