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Season Ticket Prices Increasing


Eleven

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If the team doesn't play any better than it did this season, I think you'll see the attendance numbers drop next year. I'd love to go to games (and I even work downtown, so I could take the train), but seats are getting pricey. I long for the old days at the Aud - orange seats were $5. These days, lunch costs more than that..... :(

Yea, we straddled center ice in 2nd row blues at aud when we moved to crossroads arena (original name for FNC for you kids on the board) Aud tix were high twenties, arena seats would have been in the $60's. We were looking at over 100% increase in price, as those seats were 200 level. They offered an option to move to shoot twice end zone at price close to our aud costs. We couldn't afford the 200's and took the end zones. Have sinced moved as they were cramped and couldn't get used to looking thru black netting when Rigas was too cheap to change to clear. I was told they already had black for bandits and didn't want to spend the money and I moved to a section which put me back on the side and above the netting. My seats moved up 11+% this year to over that $60. I guess I should be happy that it took about 17 years to get to that $60 level. Still it's frustrating. I have trouble not looking at Black as an outsider who doesn't know hockey or Buffalo. He's an attorney and was not a part of player evaluation in Pitt. Yea, Pegula was great and I was happy, but he kept Regier and Ruff. At least the Knox's brought us a team, and in three instances hired the best person available in hockey as their GM: Imlach, Bowman and Muckler. All won cups as coaches. It didn't work out, but you can't fault their choice!!!!! Terry did his homework, as per his pressers, and we have Ruff and Regier who have won nothing in 15 years. I have little confidence in either.

 

Still, as per my earlier posts, I'll bite the bullet and renew. It is my favorite sport. Although, my patience is wearing thin..( At least if I bought Shea's season tickets, I would see a top effort every night.)

 

 

 

Sorry, My chance to vent LPF!!

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Yea, we straddled center ice in 2nd row blues at aud when we moved to crossroads arena (original name for FNC for you kids on the board) Aud tix were high twenties, arena seats would have been in the $60's. We were looking at over 100% increase in price, as those seats were 200 level. They offered an option to move to shoot twice end zone at price close to our aud costs. We couldn't afford the 200's and took the end zones. Have sinced moved as they were cramped and couldn't get used to looking thru black netting when Rigas was too cheap to change to clear. I was told they already had black for bandits and didn't want to spend the money and I moved to a section which put me back on the side and above the netting. My seats moved up 11+% this year to over that $60. I guess I should be happy that it took about 17 years to get to that $60 level. Still it's frustrating. I have trouble not looking at Black as an outsider who doesn't know hockey or Buffalo. He's an attorney and was not a part of player evaluation in Pitt. Yea, Pegula was great and I was happy, but he kept Regier and Ruff. At least the Knox's brought us a team, and in three instances hired the best person available in hockey as their GM: Imlach, Bowman and Muckler. All won cups as coaches. It didn't work out, but you can't fault their choice!!!!! Terry did his homework, as per his pressers, and we have Ruff and Regier who have won nothing in 15 years. I have little confidence in either.

 

Still, as per my earlier posts, I'll bite the bullet and renew. It is my favorite sport. Although, my patience is wearing thin..( At least if I bought Shea's season tickets, I would see a top effort every night.)

 

 

 

Sorry, My chance to vent LPF!!

Imlach was an excellent choice.

 

Bowman would have been an excellent choice as coach. Unfortunately he was also made GM and that was the job he wanted. He also wanted to show the world that he was smarter than everyone else while in that job - Jiri friggin' Dudacek with his 1st pick for the Sabres?!?! I can see wasting a pick and hoping he'd eventually show up if it's a 10th rounder (heck, if you're worried someone will grab him ahead of you use your 8th rounder), but wasting a #1?!? Are you friggin' kidding me?!?

 

Muckler was a reasonable choice but wasn't as good as he was expected to be. He was awful with an unlimited budget, put together a solid team when forced to stay within a budget (and not bring in old Euler retreads) and was lucky enough to not lose Hasek when he exposed him in expansion but never would have realized what he had if Fuhr didn't get hurt. Yes, that same Grant Fuhr that was brought in (at high cost) AFTER Dom was already on the team.

 

They also hired Gerry Meehan. I'd say 2 of their 4 decisions couldn't have been faulted at the time of the decision. (I don't include Anderson, he was just filling time until they could find somebody they wanted.)

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Okay, I'll respect your opinion. How about DR? I knew about Meehan which was a fiasco, and Anderson was interim. That is why I said three. I would argue that Bowman was a sound choice based on credentials and organization. He had many more credentials than DR when he was hired. Who did DR work under in Long Island? I know when Darcy was there, the the cup days were long gone. Was it that shame Milbury? I think so. So, I still have to ask, what were Darcy's and Lindy's cup credentials when we chose to retain them? Not trying to be argumentative, just objective

 

I think the Knox's were more in touch with the league when they made their choices. Terry is a fan, like they were. He has more $. He needs to make sound decisions. Who was the better choice at the time than Bowman. Believe me , I have said more than once that this was the only place that he didn't win. And am not a big fan of his. Still. you have to look at the other choices at that time. Who would have been better? The premier franchise and four consecutive cups.

 

As I said, none of the Knoxes choices turned out, but the three I cited came with cup credentials, not 13 years of no cups

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Okay, I'll respect your opinion. How about DR? I knew about Meehan which was a fiasco, and Anderson was interim. That is why I said three. I would argue that Bowman was a sound choice based on credentials and organization. He had many more credentials than DR when he was hired. Who did DR work under in Long Island? I know when Darcy was there, the the cup days were long gone. Was it that shame Milbury? I think so. So, I still have to ask, what were Darcy's and Lindy's cup credentials when we chose to retain them? Not trying to be argumentative, just objective

I would have preferred they hire somebody other than Regier back in '97.

 

Regier had worked under Maloney and according to Wikipedia was the interim GM prior to Milbury's hire. He was still working for the Isles that 1st year Milbury was there, but he'd spent a lot of time in the Isles organization since the late '70's. He even played a handful of games for them in the early '80's at the end of the SC run. So he'd had a chance to see Arbour and Torrey in action 1st hand. I'd expect they were far more influential to him than Milbury was. (Of course, being around Milbury might have made his decision to leave the Isles for good this time a whole lot easier. ;))

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Okay, thanks for proper info. As I said, I didn't like Bowman after the fact, but at the time he was a very sound choice with the credentials to support it. DR was a huge question when we chose to retain him under this regime, and I don't think anything has changed.

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Okay, I'll respect your opinion. How about DR? I knew about Meehan which was a fiasco, and Anderson was interim. That is why I said three. I would argue that Bowman was a sound choice based on credentials and organization. He had many more credentials than DR when he was hired. Who did DR work under in Long Island? I know when Darcy was there, the the cup days were long gone. Was it that shame Milbury? I think so. So, I still have to ask, what were Darcy's and Lindy's cup credentials when we chose to retain them? Not trying to be argumentative, just objective

 

I think the Knox's were more in touch with the league when they made their choices. Terry is a fan, like they were. He has more $. He needs to make sound decisions. Who was the better choice at the time than Bowman. Believe me , I have said more than once that this was the only place that he didn't win. And am not a big fan of his. Still. you have to look at the other choices at that time. Who would have been better? The premier franchise and four consecutive cups.

 

As I said, none of the Knoxes choices turned out, but the three I cited came with cup credentials, not 13 years of no cups

 

The Knoxes were already part of the league and that fraternity was only 14 owners strong so of course they were mor connected. On top of that, they had Bob Swados and he was as connected and respected as anyone. That would be my biggest complaint against Pegula. For all the staff and infrastructure they added, I'm surprised they haven;t brought in a senior advisor with the same kind of cache that Swados brought but with an extensive hockey bacground.

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The Knoxes were already part of the league and that fraternity was only 14 owners strong so of course they were mor connected. On top of that, they had Bob Swados and he was as connected and respected as anyone. That would be my biggest complaint against Pegula. For all the staff and infrastructure they added, I'm surprised they haven;t brought in a senior advisor with the same kind of cache that Swados brought but with an extensive hockey bacground.

Good point on Swados.

This is off topic, but did anyone notice Darcy's quote in Jonh Vogl's article in the Buffalo News Wednesday?

 

"There's more emphasis on five-on-five play," Regier said. "There's more emphasis on competing for pucks, competing for body position on the ice. That blends into the team and in some ways the direction that you have to go."

 

Darcy is just getting this? Has he been watching the last few years? Competing for pucks and body position is something new? You didn't have to compete prior to this year for pucks or body position? We haven't been factoring this in to how we drafted and built this team before this year? OMG, we are in deep sh**! He actually confirmed what I have accused him of since I first posted on this board . He's been out of touch with what it takes to win in this league.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The price of Sabres tickets is ridiculous. All this talk of economics, supply and demand had me thinking about the price of NFL Sunday ticket... Last year I reached my breaking point and refused to pay that $334 rate. I know a lot of folks called DTV and bluffed their way into a cheaper rate. That's not my style to fake leaving. I called them and told them I wanted a reduced price or I would leave. When they would only drop it to 250 for me (others did much better), I told them they could keep it and walked away. That was the first time I did not have Sunday ticket since 1995. So now I see they are offering NFL Sunday ticket for 199 this year, I wonder if enough folks like me walked away that we actually did effect the price. It was not worth 334 nor 250. I'll pay 199 this year.

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The price of Sabres tickets is ridiculous. All this talk of economics, supply and demand had me thinking about the price of NFL Sunday ticket... Last year I reached my breaking point and refused to pay that $334 rate. I know a lot of folks called DTV and bluffed their way into a cheaper rate. That's not my style to fake leaving. I called them and told them I wanted a reduced price or I would leave. When they would only drop it to 250 for me (others did much better), I told them they could keep it and walked away. That was the first time I did not have Sunday ticket since 1995. So now I see they are offering NFL Sunday ticket for 199 this year, I wonder if enough folks like me walked away that we actually did effect the price. It was not worth 334 nor 250. I'll pay 199 this year.

 

We've had this debate the past few years with the Sabres. With 16K+ "season ticket holders", I find it interesting that so many promotions are needed to get rid of those last 2k or so tickets for each game. You would think that with 1,000,000 plus in the Buffalo metro area with the help of So. Ontario and Rochester, and 90% of the arena sold out to 16,000.......that those relative few seats would be gobbled up in a second.

 

I've contended the season ticket holders are artificially holding up the price for the Sabres. They have taken away all the risk for the team because of pent up demand and fear of missing another run like '06-'07. Others have made good points about the ease of selling on the secondary market, but I feel that if the fearful few who buy the season tickets at all costs just stepped back and responded to actual performance, there is no way the team woul dget away with the prices they charge, especially in the prime sections.

 

If someone was always going to buy tickets no matter what, that is cool....but traditionally that is 6-8 thousand. With the performance of the team the past 2 years, you would be lucky to get 13-14k on an average night. I used to not be able to give away tickets back in the day. It's an interesting dynamic that has taken hold. I don't know how much is Buffalo specific, but to me it's the old Yogi Berra saying, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." Yogi was chiming in about Chet and Muffy.

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