The
Bills are a professional American football team based in the
Buffalo, New York metropolitan area, and play their home games in the
suburb of Orchard Park. They are currently members of the Eastern
Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National
Football League (NFL). The Bills began play in 1960 as a charter member
of the American Football League and joined the NFL as part of the
AFL-NFL Merger.
The Bills won two consecutive AFL titles in 1964 and 1965, but the
club has not won a championship since the merger. Buffalo is also the
first and only team to win four consecutive American Football Conference
Championships, though they failed to win any of the subsequent Super
Bowls. The franchise name comes from the legendary western hunter and
performer Buffalo Bill.
Ralph Wilson Stadium is
located in Orchard Park, a suburb of
Buffalo, New York. It is the home stadium for the Buffalo Bills. The construction of the stadium and its
location were the source of years of litigation, which ended with a huge
financial settlement for a developer who had planned to erect an
all-weather stadium in Amherst, New York. The current stadium is
open-air, with a capacity of 73,967, with an artificial surface; the
current surface is AstroPlay, one of several newer types of artificial
turf that offers more grass-like playing conditions. The stadium
originally had a capacity of 80,020, however it was refurbished in 1998
with superior quality seating, reducing overall capacity. The Sheldon
Family Cemetery is located just outside of Gate 7 of the Stadium.