With training camp practices at St. John Fisher wrapped up the Bills are back at One Bills Drive for their final two weeks of preparation for the 2011 season. On Monday they resumed their work on their newly expanded outdoor practice field.
Adjacent to the Buffalo Bills Healthy Zone Training Facility, the team's outdoor natural grass practice field was installed earlier this summer and is being used for the first time by the team today.
The field was expanded to dimensions of 150 yards by 73 yards, which is 30 yards longer and almost 20 yards wider than a regulation NFL field.
The original outdoor field was a hybrid of turf and grass, which led to two different types of subsystem under the surface. It was later change to all grass, but the different subsystems created issues when it came to sustaining the field.
One of those issues was proper drainage preventing the team from practicing on it many times in recent years when they would have preferred to do so. The field now has a new sand-based drainage system that has rectified the situation.
Behind each end zone of the field, additional A-Turf surfaces (approx. 13 x 70 yards) have also been added for practice purposes that match the new turf surface that was installed inside Ralph Wilson Stadium this past offseason.
The practice field project was funded entirely by Bills owner Ralph Wilson and the Bills organization.
