Hey Terry, Do Us A Favor and SELL

[1point21Gigawatts]

My coworker just came up to me and gave me $1 saying that he heard on the radio that the Pegulas are bailing out of WNY sports (except for the bills) and he wants a percentage when i buy the Sabres (hence the dollar bill). Is something going on that i don't know about? This whole thing makes me nervous and anxious as hell. i do NOT want to see the team moved or anything and even with Tpegs meddling, knowing they were safe in buffalo was comforting.

 

[truthbluth]

My coworker just came up to me and gave me $1 saying that he heard on the radio that the Pegulas are bailing out of WNY sports (except for the bills) and he wants a percentage when i buy the Sabres (hence the dollar bill). Is something going on that i don't know about? This whole thing makes me nervous and anxious as hell. i do NOT want to see the team moved or anything and even with Tpegs meddling, knowing they were safe in buffalo was comforting.

Some dude with 900 followers posted an article. Nothingburger.

 

[Jim Bob]

My coworker just came up to me and gave me $1 saying that he heard on the radio that the Pegulas are bailing out of WNY sports (except for the bills) and he wants a percentage when i buy the Sabres (hence the dollar bill). Is something going on that i don't know about? This whole thing makes me nervous and anxious as hell. i do NOT want to see the team moved or anything and even with Tpegs meddling, knowing they were safe in buffalo was comforting.

The biggest rumors are around reports of PSE pulling out of their management agreement for Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester War Memorial and rumors that the Rochester Knighthawks (NLL) will be leaving Rochester for Grand Rapids, Michigan after this season.

There have been quiet rumors about the Pegulas potentially shopping the Sabres. But, given Kevyn Adams's passionate response to questions about how much Terry cares about the Sabres, I would be surprised if they were looking to divest themselves of the Sabres.

 

[Gabrielor]

I seriously doubt Terry is selling the Sabres.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

Yeah, my coworker isn't exactly in the know, so the idea that he knew something before i did seemed ludicrous to me

 

[May Day 10]

The biggest rumors are around reports of PSE pulling out of their management agreement for Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester War Memorial and rumors that the Rochester Knighthawks (NLL) will be leaving Rochester for Grand Rapids, Michigan after this season.

There have been quiet rumors about the Pegulas potentially shopping the Sabres. But, given Kevyn Adams's passionate response to questions about how much Terry cares about the Sabres, I would be surprised if they were looking to divest themselves of the Sabres.

I honestly wouldn't be shocked if Pegula wants to sell the Sabres. It has been 13 years of misery and I am sure he is sick of failing. They seem to be run with only the essentials, low staff, low payroll. The arena situation is a headache (and an expensive one), and the lease is up soon. He has (rightly so) received nothing but criticism, and cant even show his face at team public functions anymore. From what we publicly know, Pegula's plate is pretty full with the Bills and stadium, along with Kim's fight and care. You also have the alterations and the scope shrinking in terms of PS&E, One Buffalo, and the Rochester stuff. They also cant be bothered to hire a Sabres-dedicated COO/president.

However, I have not heard anything from anybody indicating he is selling/shopping them.

There was noise a few years ago that he was trying to sell a portion of the team to one of those firms that collect assets (cant think of the proper name). It was speculated that it would have been to collect $ to possibly pay for arena stuff. That never came to fruition for whatever reason. Maybe the failure of that has made him consider a full-on sale.

It would be an awkward thing for him to sell the Sabres to an outside interest at the time of a lapse in the lease and steward the Sabres' relocation. He would be hated. Maybe he thinks that the Bills long-term status would off-set the hate? I honestly do not think he was as big a fan as he presented himself to be. He went to some games at one point of his life when he lived in Olean.

 

[Gabrielor]

Finally found the 'article'.

It's the thinnest information piece ever. This looks like a paper you write on 15 minutes of sleep in college and don't care if you pass the class. I'd skip this one.

Edit: I'll post one clip. Just to show the level we're on.

Uh huh. Cites Wikipedia for something, and doesn't really use that information to infer anything. It's just there, probably to pad it out.

 

[joshjull]

My coworker just came up to me and gave me $1 saying that he heard on the radio that the Pegulas are bailing out of WNY sports (except for the bills) and he wants a percentage when i buy the Sabres (hence the dollar bill). Is something going on that i don't know about? This whole thing makes me nervous and anxious as hell. i do NOT want to see the team moved or anything and even with Tpegs meddling, knowing they were safe in buffalo was comforting.

I think the bigger revelation here is you’re a big money guy who could buy the team.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

I've likened Terry's buying a team to a regular person buying a boat.

At first, cost is no object. They use the boat every single weekend. They even take PTO days just to go out on the lake some more.

Over the years, the usage drops, but the expenses stay pretty consistent or growing. They have dedicate time to get it ready for the winter and ready for the spring. Gas and slip prices grow every year. So does the cost to store it. It doesn't get cheaper to own, it gets more expensive.

And the family circumstances change, kids aren't as excited to go out on the lake, etc. So they sell it.
When the Pegulas bought the team, it was their boat. Terry was excited about it, it was the the most important thing to him in retirement. He'd fly on his private jet to convince players to waive their NTC (Regehr).

The excitement (and buy in) for Terry faded over time and the COVID era hiring of Adams as someone who would shut up and keep the budget really was the end of the Pegula era as we knew it.

I hate to break it to you but the facilities the coach will be using will be good (in the arena) to great (harborcenter). I don’t see them caring much about other parts of the arena. Even though fans are rightfully pissed off about those things.

I’d also point out none of this has had any bearing on us losing for 13yrs or our previous coaching hires. Pegula’s bad management hires are responsible for that.

Oh but they did. IIRC our cap hit going into the 20-21 seasons was roughly 79.5mil, about 2mil shy of the 81.5mil upper limit. The lower limit was 60.2mil.

None of this disputes what I posted. You don’t need to be in the top half of the league in cap hits to be spending near the upper limit.

Every season the overwhelming majority of teams in the league have cap totals that are at, near or above the upper limit. This particular season the upper limit was 83.5mil. The breakdown relative to that……
-20 teams had 83+mil cap hits
-25 teams had 80+mil in cap hits

The Sabres payroll being 18th during the Covid season doesn’t dispute that they were spending near the upper limit. To prove they weren’t you’d have to show that they didn't spent what they did. Good luck with that.


Not only is that nonsense. But it shows an ignorance of this franchise’s history. The previous ownership group (Golisano/Quinn) gutted everything and left it that way the entirety of their ownership. It’s why we were hollowed out at all levels of the organization by the time they sold.

Pegula came in and brought funding up to normal levels. He even funded one of the bigger front offices in the NHL under Botts. Only one off-season did he neglect this. When he decided in 2020 to gut the front office and run it with a skeleton crew. By the end of 2021 we were back to a normal sized front office that was on the smaller side, similar to the Canes. He also built a fantastic practice facility in the Harborcenter thats also used by USA hockey and the NHL for major events.

Some of you have really latched onto to the 2020 offseason. You act like it represents his entire ownership tenure, as if Pegula has been Golisano/Quinn 2.0. Which is ridiculous.



The Sabres have accumulated and developed some of the best young talent in the NHL, AHL and have one of the best overall prospect pools. Something they did using analytics and player development. It’s a strength of their organization. You’re seriously going to attack that because they have less people assigned to it than the Penguins do ?


You desperately want to believe that the bigger the size of a front office (or department in it), the better it will be. But thats simply not the case and never has been. I would think any Sabres fan would realize that with how shitty we were under Botts.

We have a normal sized front office thats one of the smaller ones. Similar to the Canes front office which is one of the better run teams in the league. It’s not a sign of neglect on the owners part for the hockey team.

The facts are the roof has been leaking for years. The scoreboard was supposed to be replaced 7 years ago. For 6/9 years Terry has been out spent by his peers (current owners) and very significantly outspent the last 2 or 3.

You can talk about Golisano all you want. I lived through it, I am aware. And it is 100% irrelevant to the current state of the team in 2024. Any comparison at this point is dumb. The team is historically bad. Terry and Tom aren't peers because Tom doesn't own an NHL team. Terry's peers are Jeremy Jacobs and Ron Burke.

Those people spend more on their roster, more on their scouts, more on their analytics, and more on their player development personnel.

You keep saying they don't. But they do. This whole thing is weirdly contentious with a with a bunch of name calling. Relax, have a beer, go for a walk, read a book.

 

[jd1970]

The team is historically bad.

This is not true.

 

[oldgoalie]

there have been inquires on someone wanting to buy the team.

 

[HOOats]

For all the talk of Pegula being an overbearing and overinvolved owner, I'm curious - if you ran into him on the street in The Villages, FL or whatever swamp he lives in, do you think he could tell you who Brandon Hagel is and how he got away from us? Do you think he knows what we got in return for Brayden McNabb+? Does he know all the D that we're all upset having taken Leinonen over?

I'd bet a lot that he has no clue. I just don't buy the obsessive superfan narrative. He's not submitting scouting reports, I don't think he even knows the basic details of current players on our team.

 

[zenthusiast]

I don’t care for them as owners but I have a hard time believing that they’d sell to anyone who isn’t committed to keeping the team here. And if that’s the case, I don’t really care who signs the checks.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

This is not true.

I should have said “This franchise under Terry Pegula is historically bad.”

The 23-24 Sabres aren’t historically bad.

The 2012-2024 Buffalo Sabres are a historically bad run in the history of the league and the worst cumulative P% of any team during that time.

 

[joshjull]

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

I am unsure if Terry is selling the Sabres or not. I waffle on it. (My preference is for him to sell and the Sabres stay in Buffalo)

But I am not sure we should take the "commitment to the region" jargon from the Pegula camp seriously either. This is the last 10-ish months or so

August 28, 2023 in regards to dissolving PSE and the BCA lease.

Warren Kosel, Senior Director of Public and Media Relations for the Rochester Americans (the Sabres' AHL minor league franchise) and Rochester Knighthawks lacrosse team at the Blue Cross Arena, released a statement from the organization, saying that, “Today’s announcement regarding the shift in PSE’s corporate culture will not affect the day-to-day operations here in Rochester. We will continue to oversee operations of the arena and all the teams under the Pegula ownership will continue to operate as their own entities similarly to how they have been.”

April 2, 2024: Pulls out of the lease/operating BCA

“We have made the decision to opt out of our license agreement with the City of Rochester for the operation and management of Blue Cross Arena. This opt out is specific to the operation and management of the arena and the Rochester Americans and Knighthawks remain committed to the city of Rochester. We look forward to continued conversations with the City of Rochester in the spirit of our great partnership through our teams as both parties do their due diligence throughout the RFP process for management of the arena.”

April 19, 2024: Psych, we might sell the Knighthawks

This is meaningful.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Does this guy hold any water as a reputable reporter to you guys?



Not seeing anyone I recognize corroborating this yet.

 

[RefsIdeas]

Does this guy hold any water as a reputable reporter to you guys?



Not seeing anyone I recognize corroborating this yet.

No, he’s not reputable at all.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Does this guy hold any water as a reputable reporter to you guys?



Not seeing anyone I recognize corroborating this yet.

no

 

[buffalowing88]

Pegula isn't selling the team at this point. They're finally close to turning the corner and will likely make the playoffs next year with competent coaching. He's going to want to be there for that at the least. This isn't like 2014-2019, when the team was the absolute basement, they are finally competitive.

With that said, I think it would be darkly funny if after everyone calling for him to sell that he does so and the team is moved promptly after. Fan interest is at historic lows right now, the arena is a dump, and there are plenty of cities chomping at the bit for a team who have to be attractive to Bettman. Outside of location, Buffalo isn't exactly an attractive franchise.

 

[sabremike]

Pegula isn't selling the team at this point. They're finally close to turning the corner and will likely make the playoffs next year with competent coaching. He's going to want to be there for that at the least. This isn't like 2014-2019, when the team was the absolute basement, they are finally competitive.

With that said, I think it would be darkly funny if after everyone calling for him to sell that he does so and the team is moved promptly after. Fan interest is at historic lows right now, the arena is a dump, and there are plenty of cities chomping at the bit for a team who have to be attractive to Bettman. Outside of location, Buffalo isn't exactly an attractive franchise.

Why can't people understand that the likelihood of the league allowing the Sabres (or any team that has a feasible NHL arena to play in) to relocate any time soon is roughly the same as a UFO landing on the roof of KeyBank Center this afternoon?

 

[CrazyWayne]

How is an NHL franchise worth $1 billion? Is that actually a wise investment anywhere besides NYC/Boston/Chicago/Toronto?

 

[buffalowing88]

Why can't people understand that the likelihood of the league allowing the Sabres (or any team that has a feasible NHL arena to play in) to relocate any time soon is roughly the same as a UFO landing on the roof of KeyBank Center this afternoon?

If a UFO landed on the roof of KeyBank Center it would absolutely collapse. I'm not sure that a sizable pigeon wouldn't do the same at this point.

I get what you're saying that it's rare but I also know professional sports teams are going up in value in general in recent years and I don't see a line of suitors who would bid the highest that happen to love Buffalo.

If Pegula wants to maximize his product, he'd have to listen to prospective owners with deep pockets from markets like Atlanta or OKC, and some of these other markets that may not have the same ties to hockey as Buffalo/WNY but have booming populations that can compensate for that. If 10 percent of Atlanta residents are fans of professional hockey, that's still more than 30 percent of Buffalo residents being fans.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

What if he sells the Bills instead?