Pittsford, N.Y. (WBEN/WGR 550) - For the 22nd time since 2000, the Buffalo Bills will call St. John Fisher University home for the opening three weeks of training camp in preparation for the upcoming 2023 season.
While the rookies have been in attendance at training camp for a week now, the rest of the team is set to report on Tuesday, with the opening practice of camp set to commence at 9:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
Training camp is always an exciting time of year for not just the Bills or football fans of Western New York, but it's also an exciting time for the folks at St. John Fisher, who get the opportunity to host the team for a few weeks in summer.
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"It is great for the university, the staff and the faculty that are here. The alumni, they get a chance to come by and see their university on a national level like this. And just for the area of Rochester and Monroe County to welcome the team back," said Todd Harrison, Director of Camp Operations for St. John Fisher University. "We're just putting the final touches on things, and we're pretty excited to welcome the team [Tuesday] and then the fans on Wednesday."
The preparation for training camp in Pittsford typically begins every January or February, right around the conclusion of the season. Harrison and other officials from the university start to meet with the Bills then and regularly check in to work on a number of things that went well the year prior, things that need changing, or other factors that will affect daily operations of camp in a given summer. Harrison says if the move-in process is around two-and-a-half weeks for the Bills, the move-out process is even faster at two-and-a-half days.
Given the fact Harrison and his group have been helping run training camp at St. John Fisher for more than two decades, he says the experience and consistency of his group has helped make this annual process easier every year.
"We are, ultimately, a hotel for 350 people. We are a conference room, or a multi-purpose event space for 3,000 people a day, there's practices that go on, there's meeting rooms, there are a number of hospitality events that we would have at the practices themselves. Because it's a hotel, people are here all the time," Harrison said. "There's support services, the dining hall is in use, sort of the entire institution has to be catered towards meeting the needs of the Bills, the fans and the different business units they have that support all of the things that the football team has."
While there are plenty of challenges when it comes to hosting more than 350 people consisting of professional athletes and personnel over the course of three weeks, Harrison, again, points to the consistency of his group in place at St. John Fisher. He says that consistency has strengthened the lines of communication when it comes to the logistical needs of each of the groups in attendance.
"Part of the allure, I think, for coach [Sean] McDermott, [general manager] Brandon Beane and some of the group is the players are in dorms, so we have the facilities to handle that," Harrison said. "Logistically, our Executive Chef will work with the Bills' nutritionists on what it is that the team wants. Our physical facilities and student housing groups will make sure that things that need to be done in the dorms are ready. There are some renovations or other things that may go on, there's academic programs. It really is just having an understanding of what the ultimate goals are of each of the units, and what things are coming on and then communicating."
Harrison adds that level of communication is geared towards meeting the needs of each of the groups, and in most of the cases, those are synergistic.
"We manage opening up different spaces so that the Bills' Business Development Team and Community Relations Team can move in some things for the fans to use. Our athletic facilities and our maintenance and grounds team helps to make sure that different programs or products that different groups, fans, special interest groups may come in and have are ready to go," Harrison said. "If there are some things that one group is trying to do something that is in opposition of another group, it's just communicating and then compromising, and finding something that works for everyone."
When it comes to challenges of hosting Bills training camp every season at St. John Fisher, Harrison says it's finding ways to prepare for and handle instances of extremes.
"If we have extreme heat, or if we have extreme weather and rain and there's an evacuation, it's being prepared for major things that may not be foreseen that could just sort of pop up. Those are bigger challenges," he said. "We've been doing this, and a lot of the infrastructural changes - IT in the institution or some of those components - has been so consistent and incremental in the change that we can just adapt into whatever we may have on campus. But a lot of the challenges would come on major unforeseen changes or issues that come about that you really have to make big pivots. Other than that, it's just making sure that logistically, Part A is ready before Part B, and then Part B leads into Part C. That there is some continuity in those things to be as efficient as you can be."
As for the weather, the late summer conditions are always a concern for athletes and campgoers, especially when it comes to the heat and humidity. According to the National Weather Service, the opening of training camp in Pittsford could see temperatures climb into the 90s with high humidity also being a concern.
The summer weather is among the top-of-mind issues Harrison and his team look into on a regular basis through training camp.
"If there's a heat issue that may come up, in the past, we've had the Monroe County Water Authority bring in water and just have cooling stations, or things that would be meeting the needs," he explained. "We have evacuation routes, and if it looks like there could be threatening weather, we will station additional buses. First Student and the Bills would have that piece ready to go in the event of even the chance.
"Coach McDermott, he has a lot of his practices in the morning now in an effort to avoid some of the afternoon inclement weather that would come up. So knock on wood - I'll probably jinx it and it will rain every day - but we've had a pretty good run in 2018 and '19, and then last year where the mornings were a bit cooler, and there wasn't a lot of rain. We've been able to get through practices and some of those things without having to implement any special evacuation procedure or heat issues."
Just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the training camp agreement between the Bills and St. John Fisher University was set to expire, raising concerns about the future of the annual camp in the Rochester area. However, in the two years since, both parties have agreed to training camp on a year-by-year basis.
Harrison feels the relationship between the team and university is just as strong as it was before the pandemic, and feels comfortable continuing with their current year-over-year iterations if necessary.
"Coach McDermott loves coming here, and getting the team away and having a chance to develop some bonding. I think that has borne out in a lot of the strength in the camaraderie between the players, and building a team culture that is super strong," Harrison said. "Whether the deal is one year or three years or in perpetuity, I think there is a strong relationship between the two groups. If if our leadership at the institution and the Bills' leadership in their front office wanted to work out a longer term deal, that can happen. But I don't know any of that long-term versus short-term agreements influence anything, and speaks to the weakness or anything in the relationship between our two groups."
As for training camp this summer, Harrison believes there is just as much interest as last year's camp, the first in Rochester since the COVID-19 pandemic. While there have been a few tweaks this time around, nothing is considered major to the point that fans will notice it when they show up for a practice.
"If they were here last year, the shuttles are still at Pittsford Sutherland and Pittsford Mendon [High Schools], and they drop you off right here. It's probably still the most efficient way to get here," Harrison detailed. "We have bleachers and everything set up, and we think we can handle the couple-thousand people that will be here each day. So I think the experience from last year and then even the couple years before the pandemic, not much significant has changed that would be a surprise to fans when they come out."
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