Today was the first day that the media could access Ralph Wilson Stadium to observe the progress on transforming a football stadium into a hockey venue.

The last scenes we saw were on television Sunday night, dramatic images of workers struggling to lay a tarp on the field in the teeth of horrific winds and precipitation which followed the Bills/Giants game that afternoon. But considering the crummy conditions that night and through Christmas, things are actually moving along quite well.

The National Hockey League has set up its operations in a trailer adjacent to the Bills Fieldhouse, and they are conducting daily briefings at 2PM in the press box, open to the media. This afternoon Dan Craig, NHL Facilities Operations Manager, and Don Renzulli, Senior VP for Events and Entertainment, made a presentation to outline the work that has been performed so far.

“We’ve compressed about 72 hours work into 48 hours” said Craig, who admitted that the weather was an impediment on Sunday night but the work that needed to get done got done. Craig bears a great deal of experience in managing and orchestrating an event of this magnitude, with the experience of running the outdoor games at Michigan State and at Edmonton.

On Monday they leveled off the field’s 9 inch crown with styrofoam, then a 3/4″ layer of plywood, and finally a layer of plastic, all to make the playing surface flat. This work took roughly 10 hours to complete. The next task involved laying the piping from the refrigeration units down the stadium tunnel to the playing surface, and then connecting them to ice mats which cover the plastic tarp.

As the two men were speaking, workers were pouring a warm sand mixture onto the surface, and this will form the base on which an ice sheet will be laid. In addition, work on erecting the dasher boards at the west end of the stadium had also begun.

I asked Craig what the ideal weather conditions are to do such work. “Yesterday and today have been absolutely perfect” Craig replied, referring to the sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 30s. “In fact, this would be the perfect condition to play the game in. Let’s drop the puck now. Let’s go.”

Craig, Renzulli and their crew are aided by the presence of a “weather station” located at the 50 yard line, a device which measures temperature, wind speed, dew points and can also give hour by hour weather predictions so that work can be adjusted accordingly. “Having this at our disposal is absolutely invaluable” said Renzulli.

As I walked around the stadium to take photos, I could see that there was plenty of work to be done in the public areas and the seating bowl as well. Three days after Sunday’s game, crews were just today beginning to clear debris from the stands and haul garbage from the concourses. (Memo to The Ralph operations staff from me, a professional exterminator - leaving giant bags of garbage and disposed excess food and popcorn is rodent heaven. You people must be idiots allowing to leave this sitting for days on end and I don’t care that it was a holiday.) Much of the stadium seats and aisles are not only covered with snow, but tamped down ice frozen over from Sunday’s storm, making the walk around the building treacherous and scary. They will need a massive amount of work and salt and chisels and some above freezing temps to make the building game ready.

The NHL will be holding daily briefings at 2PM, leading up to credential distribution on Sunday. Both teams will practice outdoors on Monday and by then the entire ice set up and press set up should be in full swing.

The center ice view from the pressbox

Managing Partner Larry Quinn checks out the progress along with Sabres PR Director Mike Gilbert and Jamie Horan from the NHL media department

The “weather station” positioned at the 50 yard line gives up to the minute climate information

Another view of the playing surface from just above the end zone tunnel

Some of the piping and refrigeration equipment