PerreaultForever

When has a new stadium in the U.S. ever not been over budget? Pretty sure these guys all know that going in (they should) and they just give lower numbers up front for politicians and other BS stuff like that. Unless he starts losing those fracking lawsuits he will be just fine.

We could use all 4 of them.

Quite a few people here are not in Buffalo and are not Bills fans. Never have been. I kind of liked them a little when I was young living in Hamilton cause back then they didn't have cable packages or streaming and Bills were the team on the tv more often than not. Used to enjoy those Buffalo Miami battles. I liked Bruce Smith a lot. Hated Dallas. But did I care about the Bills ever? No. Not really. Having said that, I would hope they stay in Buffalo. Buffalo as a city does not deserve the sort of kick in the teeth that either team moving delivers.

Sure. Very unlikely but it's still the floor. EVERYTHING can go wrong any year. I'm not in any way saying we will fall to the bottom, but the idea that there's a "floor" established for a team (or player for that matter) is meaningless imo. Just like with your stocks and mutual funds, past performance does not guarantee future gains.

Actually this "floor" thing is BS. Any team can crash and burn fast if things go badly. There are no guarantees in sports. What if Levi is nowhere near ready and falls apart, UPL sucks bad and Comrie gets hurt? No goaltending. Dahlin and Thompson get hurt long term early. In a heartbeat we could be bottom of the league and looking at the lottery. Anything can happen any year. The "floor" is always dead last.

Well sure, it was a kind of ridiculous example and Boston's not going anywhere obviously but I thought it makes the point. The league WOULD let Buffalo be moved if that's what Pegula wanted. I don't think he does.

Thank you. Exactly. I think what Adams did was good (I suggested Clifton ages ago as a good value possible) but I wish he'd done more. He is still, for example, rolling the dice on goaltending. Something I would have solidified first.

How long have you been here? obviously not back when I first talked about this stuff. You want to paint me as something I'm not. Please don't. IFF we make the playoffs this year then yes, Jersey is only a year or two ahead of us. IFF we miss the playoffs AGAIN, it's a different story. So as I said, it remains to be seen.

Ya, the cancer man in the X files rigged it. made Thurman forget his helmet too.

Oh I think it matters to the league. Original six matter. Small markets matter less. I don't think that's much of a controversial idea. Pretty much the same in every sport. If Jacobs announced he was moving the team to Quebec City, the league would go batshit crazy. If Pegula announced he was moving the team to Quebec it'd be "ya sure? well alright, good French rivalry, we can work with that". Not many people outside Buffalo area care what happens to Buffalo. Never have. (and neither of those things is happening obviously)

Was he? Not sure what the point he was making was then in terms of Pegula and the Sabres as the issue. Jacobs is powerful though sure. Original six and one of the most popular teams outside their geography.

option 4. AHL all star.

Well I don't see Pegula having any special power either, just wealth. He's not an original six owner, not a legacy owner, not an owner of a big market high profile team. Not a shiny new owner or a flashy Vegas type market owner. Just some rich guy snowed under near a lake. League could not care less if Buffalo had a team or not.

Since you asked.

nah, see I can't agree with that. If he's a fan of the sport (hockey) he's not going to just switch to a different sport (football) because that team did better. You don't switch sports when your team loses do you? I don't. I watch other teams, but I still watch hockey first above all else.

If you stop questioning it, I can stop talking about it. Nobody said "guarantee" but increase the probability? Definitely. When we deconstructed, I said I was going to compare our rebuild to other teams and see who had the best plan. So far Seattle is ahead of us (yes, I know there's nuance and difference in their case), New Jersey is way ahead of us, Detroit is behind us, and Ottawa is slightly behind us. Vancouver failed miserably if you want to add them (I wouldn't). I'm interested now in a couple things besides obviously seeing if Adams did enough. Will what Detroit did work? Some strange choices. Will be interesting to see. Will Ottawa equal or pass us? Similar to us with a few differences. Definitely in the mix. Will Nashville pull off a miracle and stay competitive despite deconstructing? and how fast (or slow) will the Montreal plan go? Lots of interesting varying pathways and it'll make for great discussion down the road if someone else succeeds and we fail. Obviously if we succeed, it's all good, and then (and only then) hats off to Adams for being right. But I ain't getting on board until the the train actually gets rolling. As I've said many times, fool me once and all that. Prove it now.

about the same as the point of criticizing it.

That's not the issue. One could argue they are at peak value, and as an investment, in his mind, it might be a great time to sell at a massive profit. Depends how much he enjoys football and whether or not he really cares about owning a football team at this point in his life. Again, no reason to think it's in the works, but either or neither is entirely possible. The idea of minority owners was brought up earlier. Could be he plans to sell PART of the Bills but keep ALL of the Sabres. That would explain it too.

It's last year's news. There's no real point in going over who I would have liked to have added to get us into the playoffs. Ship sailed. They chose to be cap floor and took on dead contract money to do it. They did what they did this year, and we will see if it's enough. Personally I don't think it is, but you never know. More teams like Boston maybe or Tampa, might fall far enough for us to have a shot. Maybe.

Doesn't the information in this thread kind of negate all the negative speculation in this one:

I'm quite sure the league would have no problem with the Sabres moving to Houston (or Atlanta or some other U.S. market) but I also see no reason to think this is going to happen. I think if a team is to be sold (again, no reason to think that) it is more likely to be the Bills, as Terry's a hockey fan.

Can we not do this.

and his agent forwards the link to Adams and says "add another million".

Obviously everything said by everyone (me included) in this forum is pure speculation. We all know absolutely nothing. I don't know the details of New York tax laws but logically I would suspect separating the two organizations allows for greater tax write offs should one lose money while the other makes money. Losses can usually get more than 1 to 1 write offs for smart accountants. Might just be that simple. It does also, obviously, set up an easier option for a sale of either should he want to. Maybe he gives up on the losing Sabres if this rebuild doesn't work. But also maybe he wants to focus more on the Sabres and thus he's president. Maybe he thinks he might sell the Bills cause he really doesn't like football as much as he likes hockey and he's just treated that as a business opportunity. Increase the value and then sell it off. Maybe he plans to give one of them to his daughter one day. Maybe he plans to sell both and retire to Florida. Who knows?

Ya know, it's summer, I want hockey, but going down that old path AGAIN just ain't worth it.