Ever since 2000, the Buffalo Bills have called St. John Fisher University in the Rochester, NY suburb of Pittsford their home for training camp. In October, the Bills and St. John Fisher agreed to terms on a three-year extension to keep training camp at Fisher through 2028.
At the time, current president of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane called the process of going away for training camp “important to our team” and that it “provides such an important element of team chemistry, bonding,
a real focus for everyone for how to prepare our team for a long season.”
Buffalo’s commitment to being one of the few NFL teams to conduct training camp away from home was on display during the team’s introductory press conference announcing Joe Brady as the 21st head coach in franchise history. Beane praised Brady’s attention to detail as someone who “values strong culture, collaboration and alignment.” He also revealed that during the interview process, he wanted to learn about Brady’s coaching philosophy, his day-to-day approach to running a team, how he would get the team ready for a game, and how leaving home and spending two weeks each summer at Fisher would be incorporated into his coaching plans.
“We spent probably 25-30 minutes with each candidate just going through every single detail of what this operation is going to be from right now through [offseason] Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, to training camp [and] how we’re opening camp,” Beane said. “We’re going to be away. I told every candidate we go away [for training camp]. That’s what we do, so I want to hear how that works for you.”
Buffalo’s exact arrival date, practice dates and information on how fans can score free tickets to training camp have not yet been announced. This will be the 25th time the Bills have conducted training camp in Rochester.
The Bills will release information on how fans can secure their training camp tickets, as well as the exact practice dates, sometime this summer. Based on previous training camps held at Fisher, expect the Bills to arrive around the last week of July and to stay in town for about two weeks for training camp.
For those Bills fans who want to watch their favorite team run through training drills and engage in intra-squad scrimmages, training camp is a great (and free) way to see the Bills up close and personal. Tickets for every training camp session are free, but they must be secured in advance, and they typically are gone pretty quickly.
