Hey Terry, Do Us A Favor and SELL

[Paxon]

I really believe the Bills had a "vibe" to them coming into the playoffs. A couple of dropped passes from Sherfield and Diggs, a missed FG, and missed block from Dawkins. If even one of those things go differently we might be playing this weekend.

That said, I think if the Bills managed to win a SB this year he would have sold the team, maybe even to a buyer that would move them. He could have ducked and covered behind the Lombardi and most would have forgiven him.

I don't think it is a coincidence that McDermott and Beane go out of their way to talk about how awesome Terry and Kim are. I think it is clear one side of the street is cleaner than the other and they are trying to extend their good credit to the Sabres.

You think most would have forgiven Pegula for selling the Bills to an owner that moves the team just because he won one Super Bowl? Not a chance.

 

[DJN21]

I know it sounds simple but roster construct would be the first and easiest step....find some guys who know what a body check is or will fight and the crowd will engage. Buffalo has always been a blue collar meat and potatoes town. The fans will care less about losing if there's something to at least cheer for while we lose. This entire organization is soft, uninteresting, scared, and boring. Ill keep coming back because I'm an idiot but at least show effort in anything from the press box to the ice. Everyone is complacent but the fans.

 

[Tatanka]

Completely inaccurate. PSE was paying a retainer for over a year with a highly regarded merger and acquisition attorney with the sole intention of working with investment bankers to secure a buyer for 100% of the franchise. When that didn't work, they looked for a minority owner, with the intention of full control in the future. There wasn't a serious buyer and pretty much the only interest was from foreign investors. Since that point, PSE has dismantled and the Sabres are completely separate from it.

Since the Pegula's have taken on the Bills, the Sabres are an after thought. It is a constant money drain and none of the family wants to take on the responsbility. The daughter you speak of, is so heavily involved with the Bills and Stadium building, that she was never around the Sabres offices for years now.

I work in the space, i.e. pe, and the option has been out there for 3-4 years pre covid. The initial plan was a sovereign wealth sale to a party who only wanted to have assets in the US. If a sale was being brokered, it is difficult to keep that quiet as you have to generate interest to drive up asset value. As fir the daughter not being involved operationally, well she doesn't own it or likely qualified to be in operations. So I think the team in its entirety was not on the block.

I will say and I posted this in other threads, their actions, reducing operating overhead stockpiling assets, and keeping things as lean as possible are all things a party would do to make an asset like that more marketable. But the NHL would have a lot of say in any potential sale, and it is unlikely though not impossible that the team was for sale without it leaking.

 

[KeydGV21]

That logic applies to the intermediary though. No matter what, Pegula is hiring someone to be a decision maker.

Yeah, I was agreeing with you…

 

[BloFan4Life]

I work in the space, i.e. pe, and the option has been out there for 3-4 years pre covid. The initial plan was a sovereign wealth sale to a party who only wanted to have assets in the US. If a sale was being brokered, it is difficult to keep that quiet as you have to generate interest to drive up asset value. As fir the daughter not being involved operationally, well she doesn't own it or likely qualified to be in operations. So I think the team in its entirety was not on the block.

I will say and I posted this in other threads, their actions, reducing operating overhead stockpiling assets, and keeping things as lean as possible are all things a party would do to make an asset like that more marketable. But the NHL would have a lot of say in any potential sale, and it is unlikely though not impossible that the team was for sale without it leaking.

If a team isn't in financial trouble or legal trouble, it really isn't hard to keep things under wraps. When the team was sold to Pegula, it was a good year or more before it hit anything publicly.

Pegula wasn't looking for a firesale. I don't think he even cared about getting top dollar. He didn't need to drive up interest.

 

[Kublakhan]

go away absentee slum-lord !

edit bad typo lol...

 

[5 Minute Major]

Respect your opinion, Chain, but I disagree on this one. I don't see clear evidence that the reason the Sabres haven't had success is because of ownership, or that different ownership would immediately solve the problem. I don't want to argue about it though.

I haven't been around here as much since it became clear the season was another lost one, mostly for my own mental health. When I'm upset, I tend to get into unproductive arguments about things I see differently than others, and this is an example of that. I don't see the point of defending the Pegulas at this point, even though I don't think they are the problem personally. People are going to feel how they feel and that is fine.

I just hope everyone here is doing ok despite continued disappointment from seemingly all angles as Buffalo sports fans. I know the toll it takes on me every year. I just try to remind myself that all hope is not lost, even though it might feel like it.

I’ll respect your opinion and not argue with you but I just want to say this in response….

13 full years of ownership.

13 years of awful hockey.

One constant during those years.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

You think most would have forgiven Pegula for selling the Bills to an owner that moves the team just because he won one Super Bowl? Not a chance.

My bad. I thought he would sell the Sabres if the Bills won/win a SB.

 

[Ace]

Not one other owner would hire Adams for his job. Not one. A totally unqualified person only given the job because Pegula can not stand having someone disagree with him. 13 years. THIRTEEN YEARS. Breaking his own record for missing the playoffs. A f***ing bobblehead in the key position of a lost franchise whose only job is to shake his head yes, sir.

Any attempts to absolve Pegula die right there. An unqualified yes man nearly a decade into the drought. Now he heads into year 5 farther away than the team he inherited.

Pegula is happy with the results. Happy enough that nothing changes.

As a result, Adams, his puppet, is happy with the results. Happy enough that nothing changes.

This franchise has been abandoned.

 

[MOGlLNY]

It’s hard to deny that this franchise hasn’t been left for dead after last offseason and the lack of action on the implosion of this season. Olofsson is still on this team. f***ing Olofsson.

Adams said he heard and understood how the drought was affecting the fanbase then watched as another season crashed and burned. While he continued to do nothing. 13 years.

Vancouver seems to be doing just fine making moves in season with not nearly the cap space we have.

 

[sabremike]

The single best thing that could happen is for the league to find a Tom Dundon type who wants to own a team and is allowed to buy the Sabers with the condition he will be allowed to move the team on the 10th of Never.

 

[Old Navy Goat]

A couple more zeroes in my bank account and I'd buy the team. Then I'd name KA team president, and Larry Quinn special consultant just to induce aneurysms around here

 

[Paxon]

My bad. I thought he would sell the Sabres if the Bills won/win a SB.

Gotcha. That makes more sense given the total apathy around the Sabres at this point.

 

[Chainshot]

A couple more zeroes in my bank account and I'd buy the team. Then I'd name KA team president, and Larry Quinn special consultant just to induce aneurysms around here

I would kick out your walker.

 

[Reddawg]

A couple more zeroes in my bank account and I'd buy the team. Then I'd name KA team president, and Larry Quinn special consultant just to induce aneurysms around here

 

[Mattilaus]

A couple more zeroes in my bank account and I'd buy the team. Then I'd name KA team president, and Larry Quinn special consultant just to induce aneurysms around here

I am also only 8 or 9 zeros away from being able to afford the team.

 

[dortt]

And I'd gladly buy some tickets off you, for nights where I could do a 3+ hour drive for the game. (i.e., not weeknights )

The move here, I may very well be attending every single game that I am in town

 

[MOGlLNY]

Only a matter of time before we sign Cody Hodgson so Terry can squeeze a bit more value out of the contract

 

[DolanPlsGoSabres]

Only a matter of time before we sign Cody Hodgson so Terry can squeeze a bit more value out of the contract

Hey we're still paying Ehrhoff

 

[sabres4ever]

Even though they beat the kings last night, I just can't be happy for this team. We're simply delaying the inevitable. If we continue with win a couple, lose a few, I don't see Donnie gone this year, and would likely be the coach at the beginning of next season.

Adams will play around in the margins, make no serious moves at the trade deadline, or in the offseason. I can't see us ending this season with more points than last year. Despite regressing, he'll come up with every excuse as to why, and say he's going to stay the course. We'll learn from those mistakes, and become better because of it.

We've shown that we can be an offensive powerhouse, but we need a dedicated system that everyone buys into, with coaches/assistants who are competent and can make adjustments in-game. This crew just isn't getting it.

When Darcy Regier said that there'd be suffering, who knew it was going to go on for decades?

As long as people continue to buy season tickets and go to the games, the status quo will remain in place.

I'm getting ready to retire, and was looking forward to finally having a winning team that I could go and see, but that's looking like it's in jeopardy.

FFS, how many more years?

 

[Ehran]

FFS, how many more years?

Just a few more years, until Dahlin and a few others have had enough and demand to leave.

Then, the process will begin again all over. ROR > Eichel > Dahlin (eventually).

We're officially naming it "The Pegula Cycle"

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

Here is a bonkers stat.

Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012.

I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th.

If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years. Just cherry picked his best 10, his point percentage would be .693.

If the Sabres linked the best years from the best hockey coach of all time; Bowman run starting next October would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era.

It is more or less impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to brake it. The Sabres should have to have the greatest run with the greatest coach the league has ever seen.

 

[Asymmetric Solution]

Hey Terry.

You probably won't ever see this, but it's been a long time coming. You bought a team that you claimed to love and you've ruined it not just for yourself but for everyone associated with it, everyone who also loved this team.

Sell. Do whatever you have to but your ownership has killed this team more than any scandal or bankruptcy or internal budget ever could. Every decision you have made has been the wrong decision. It might be time to make sure that you don't make decisions about the team any more and the only real way to make sure that happens is to sell the team so you can not do any more damage. This team once had a season-ticket waiting list. It's gone. So is your season ticket base.

Think about this - you've never hired a qualified president. Find one. Hire them when you are on your way to the league to find a new owner so that whoever is coming in has a solid front office. They might say harsh things. They might swear. But how about instead of installing more money managers or football people or Pittsburgh TV execs, you find someone to be team president who isn't you? Go away.

And for the love of hockey, you have killed this team and should sell now and forever more. You have your profitable toy in the Bills where you can pretend to be important and make money. But get out of hockey. It isn't for you. If you can't see what you've done to the team, to the fans, then you need a private come-to-Jesus with some of your season ticket holders who have canceled because of the shit show of an operation you are running.

Get out. Now. Get out. Or fold the team. This has been like a long, bungled hospice stay. We can't take it any more and it's clear you don't care enough to make the right decisions to not be involved with the hockey operations part of things. You're like a first-time mite dad who has decided he can coach, and let me tell you Terry, you can not. Go drill another well, go finish your yacht, go grandstand at NFL meetings but get the f*** away from my hockey team.

I've watched friends spend a lifetime waiting for this team, seemingly spending a lifetime in the time you've owned it, who aren't here any longer. For them, for the fanbase you've destroyed, the people who don't know the joy of this beautiful game because of your constant irresponsibility and ego... SELL.

If Adams isn’t fired this offseason. Terry has mailed it in.

 

[TageGod]

If Adams isn’t fired this offseason. Terry has mailed it in.

I think this is more coach than GM. Sabres worst periods on the road are the second, when they have the matchup advantage. Most players regressed. Granted, we are a snakebitten Tage away from likely an extra 2 wins in January which would have us feeling a bit better.

 

[Jim Bob]

I would kick out your walker.

I would hire Chain, Doak, and Jame as my senior advisors.