That Aud Smell

Please add this to your coffee table book of Sabres writings. I want an autographed first edition. I'm through you way all the time, what with regular trips to Cambria County.

My experience is that generals on these hybrid public/private projects often struggle to comply with those mandates and frequently seek waivers.

There's a lotta knowledge and perspective in the above. *Stick tap* Based on the immediate ballooning of the budget, there were clearly many "openers" for the general(s) on this deal (I appreciate that term of art). And, as has been reported many times, those openers and price escalations are a risk that the Pegulas absorbed. I imagine that there's a lot of haggling going on behind the scenes. The owner's not going to take $300M in increases lying down. OTOH, they want their project built on time. It is quite apparent that the project bid estimate was fairly notional. There's the MWBE mandates, for example, which seemed to be mostly unfulfilled and undetermined when the bids were awarded.

All of that is possible in theory. Sounds like the Pegulas could have used you during negotiations.

This is how the process works, though. Get your financing, then put the thing out to bid. Then the generals bid. Then a bid’s accepted. *Then* starts the process of getting the subs and suppliers. SOP. The question of how overruns get dealt with is more variable. Seems to me a certain former c-level Bills exec found this out the hard way.

This is the solution that I found as well. Twitter was so great. It’s a shame it’s being made worse in so many ways.

The dearth of corporate money is an issue. Regrettably, not even the Buffalo Billion has helped improve our prospects in that regard.

If private equity were to get its talons into the franchise, all bets would be off AFAIC. I’d personally prefer the Sabres if I had to choose. But for the overwhelming majority of people from/in/of Buffalo, it’s the Bills without a doubt. The NFL rules the sports entertainment world. People all over the country and around the world know to say “Bills” when you say you’re from/of Buffalo.

thanks. i don't follow. but that's on me. i think i found a workaround.

Looks like there’s an additional step involved now. I can’t properly link from the app to a website on my phone. I need to ask that the Tweet open in a browser and then copy that url address.

attempt: https://x.com/salsports/status/1697648930413064250?s=46&t=8AaprMag9hOIH1BLrzxS3Q second attempt

Wait - like on a page of a web browser? And, yes, I am an iPhone user.

Also, shoutout @LGR4GM on being precise with how he embeds Tweets. I'll have to wait and see if that protocol can resolve my mobile interface issue as well.

Did they move it out to the football stadium a couple years ago? Thankfully, the fire appears to have been limited to a freestanding ice cream (dip n dots?!) cart. I'm sure that there will be some smoke and water damage, though.

Is that equally true for when you're on a phone? I think that's where I've had issues. And not just here. On Twitter (X), if I copy a link to a Tweet on my phone and embed it as a reply Tweet, no graphic preview is generated. I'll make sure I'm doing this and not some other means of sharing the link. I'll also try waiting longer and see if that helps.

I only regret that the poster included a single hard return.

That doesn't look great. Hopefully, there's not too much damage. Also: How do you @LGR4GM get Tweets to embed now that the site is called X or whatever?

I'll also point out that not all "annual losses" are necessarily presently realized (cash) in nature. Amortization and depreciation may show up as liabilities on your annual income statement. I'm not an accountant, so I'm not sure whether the Pegulas would be obliged to put cash into the Sabres to make those non-cash loss pieces of the budget balance.

The Sabres have reportedly lost money on their P&L (Income) statement for most years that the Pegulas have owned them. At year's end, if the Sabres were in the red, how was the budget balanced such that all obligations were met? Pegula bucks, presumably. Now, from the standpoint of the Pegulas' balance sheet, there's been a great increase in wealth. But that positive balance sheet won't necessarily help them pay off year to year losses. Unless of course they're borrowing (financing) in order to pay off those annual losses and the company's increased value is allowing them to borrow in a way where they're not much out of pocket.

I follow you. You mean "paper profit" or an unrealized gain.

Darling's call on that Quebec Game 5 was probably normal by his standards -- and yet it sounds just superb.

Listening now from the start. Darling sounds fantastic. Just a sterling PBP guy. Plenty of juice and excitement. Not sure what you're hearing or not hearing.

Is his PBP included in that compilation?

Great find. I definitely forgot. What an unfulfilled era that was for the team. I blame Housley. Why not.

This is glorious. Did they film that round table at the old Aud Club? Between the light fixture, the balcony camera angle, and the apparent sound of cutlery and dishes clinking, I think so.