Sabres sale rumor

[LGR4GM]

11 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

PS:  The recent Pegula New Stadium Proposal has the whole thing slated to be finished no later than 2027.

I haven't been following stadium talk very closely b/c I have zero control over any of it, and the story is going to take a couple dozen twists and turns before its over.  The whole thing is built around a complex set of political concerns in any event.  I don't think ANYONE knows how it will play out at this point.

But at least that date of 2027 is something to base some thought around, assuming there is a nexus between stadium construction and Pegula sale of the Sabres.  

We've made it this far; I can do another 5 years easy.

😜

 

64 months once ground is broken to finish the new stadium

[PromoTheRobot]

3 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

I haven't listened yet, but will do so.

I had heard maybe a week ago (just through sports fan discussion) that Kim wanted desperately to sell the team, but Terry did not, and so they were not selling the Sabres at this time.

I hadn't heard ANYTHING about that, and wondered if it wasn't purely manufactured by fans or what.

I can totally see that, however.  Kim doesn't have the heart-strings tying her to the team that Terry has, and from Kim's perspective, the whole experience has been terrible, hard, work, and not bringing pleasure to the life of a billionaire...which was the idea behind buying the team.

I'd be willing to bet the person who needs convincing to sell is Terry, not Kim.

I have been calling for this for a couple of years now--focus on the Bills, Terry!  It's going so much better over there--and that's the real gemstone in your asset ownership crown anyway!  Not the Sabres you dimwit!

Come on Terry, dump the team!  You can do it!  

 

 

 

 

...or keep owning the Sabres and just let Kevyn Adams and Don Granato do their thing.

1 hour ago, Kruppstahl said:

I finally just watched the video.  It's pretty short and to the point, so everyone should watch it if they haven't already.

Here is what's interesting to me: Elliotte Friedman is one of the 3 or 4 guys who breaks ALL the NHL news, always.

And the first thing he says here is "I have been hearing rumors of the Pegulas wanting to sell the Sabres for a long time."

He follows that up by suggesting now is not the right timing because of the politics behind getting governmental financial support for a new Bills stadium.

That may or may not be relevant.  What if Pegula sells the team in such a manner that he guarantees commitment to the WNY area from the new owner?  That's just as much a service to WNY as if he continued to own the team personally, and it would impact the new stadium project about the same, I would think.

But there is some source of hope here.  Keep an eye on that stadium project.  When it's finally here, perhaps Pegula will be finally gone from the Sabres.

That is the day we have to all hold out hope for at this point.

The circus won't change much until Pegula is gone.

 

 

 

 

Is this a circus now? I had no idea.

[kas23]

People should be careful what they wish for. Hockey owners are not exactly choir boys. Since Knox, we’ve had a fraud. Then an owner who had Darcy break out the “suffering” word. Terry may meddle at times, as is his right, but I do think he values winning. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

There are a couple of additional issues with the Sabres that the Pegulas may want to avoid by selling now, but which a new owner committed to WNY might need resolved before they purchase the team.  They are the $250 mill needed to renovate and upgrade Key Bank Center and the lease which expires in 2025.  

I can also see the argument that a new owner would want a say in both how the renovations are done and the term & $ of the new lease. 

 

 

[Kruppstahl]

14 hours ago, kas23 said:

People should be careful what they wish for. Hockey owners are not exactly choir boys. Since Knox, we’ve had a fraud. Then an owner who had Darcy break out the “suffering” word. Terry may meddle at times, as is his right, but I do think he values winning. 

What sort of data do you point to suggest Terry values winning? 

His ownership tenure has been a historic celebration of losing.

There are men who are married to, and have been married to, the wrong woman for 30 years.  And yet they stay in the marriage because of fear of the unknown.  Will it be worse with a new woman?  Can I land a new woman?  Will I end up alone and sad and worse off than I am now?

Don't be one of those guys.  Push forward and work to make things better in your life.

Let's all hope Pegula sells the team, and fast.

Have some faith he isn't the only rich guy who likes the Buffalo Sabres, or sees the value in retaining an NHL team where the Sabres are located.

There are tons of potential buyers out there.  And whoever knew about some guy named Terry Pegula before he came along on the radar screen anyway?   

 

 

 

 

 

 

19 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

...or keep owning the Sabres and just let Kevyn Adams and Don Granato do their thing.

Is this a circus now? I had no idea.

What did you think it was?  A well run sports organization? 

Or you trying to be facetious and imply it's been a circus for a long time already.

I can't tell.

 

 

[Kruppstahl]

20 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

64 months once ground is broken to finish the new stadium

Assuming that everything goes exactly as planned?  That won't happen.

But the clock keeps ticking and I am guessing Pegula's ownership tenure is drawing to a close.

That's the positive to take away from this.

 

[Dreams Burn Down]

I remember when the Rigas family bought the team.  It felt like a breath of fresh air. Similarly, I felt this way when the Pegulas came along. All that I want, is an owner who doesn't end up in leg shackles and knows how to get out of the way of the management he or she brings on board.

[PromoTheRobot]

25 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

 

What did you think it was?  A well run sports organization? 

Or you trying to be facetious and imply it's been a circus for a long time already.

I can't tell.

 

 

I mean it's not very circusy now. In fact the team seems to be heading to a good place. The downside is it's going to take time.

24 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

Assuming that everything goes exactly as planned?  That won't happen.

But the clock keeps ticking and I am guessing Pegula's ownership tenure is drawing to a close.

That's the positive to take away from this.

 

Don't hold your breath. 

[Two or less]

21 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

PS:  The recent Pegula New Stadium Proposal has the whole thing slated to be finished no later than 2027.

I haven't been following stadium talk very closely b/c I have zero control over any of it, and the story is going to take a couple dozen twists and turns before its over.  The whole thing is built around a complex set of political concerns in any event.  I don't think ANYONE knows how it will play out at this point.

But at least that date of 2027 is something to base some thought around, assuming there is a nexus between stadium construction and Pegula sale of the Sabres.  

We've made it this far; I can do another 5 years easy.

😜

 

I don't think they need to wait til the stadium opens up for them to sell the Sabres. I think what Elliott was referring to is them getting funds for the stadium. Once they get the funds agreed on, i think the time begins to click on their sale of the Sabres if they are serious about it.

[mjd1001]

I don't think Kim and Terry are good owners, lots of mistakes, other issues I'm not a fan of.  However, I hope they don't sell and have long term plans for the team and Arena.  

If they DO sell however, all that matters is that it is to someone with long term plans in Buffalo.  Sabres get sold and move = Bad.  ANYTHING else that doesn't involve moving = Good and I honestly don't care about many details beyond that (of course, other than being the new owner just wants to play fantasy hockey himself with a real life team and wants to do it on the lowest payroll in the league.)

[kas23]

There’s so many bad NHL owners. Terry is tolerable. At least he has pockets deep enough to get FA help when needed. There’s few out there with the ability to spend as Terry can. Do we really want to go back to the small market mentality where we know we won’t be able to make any FA splashes? Do we want another caretaker owner like Galisano (“suffering”) where we know we won’t be able to compete?

Edited December 26, 2021 by kas23

[Sabres Fan in NS]

12 minutes ago, kas23 said:

There’s so many bad NHL owners. Terry is tolerable. At least he has pockets deep enough to get FA help when needed. There’s few out there with the ability to spend as Terry can. Do we really want to go back to the small market mentality where we know we won’t be able to make any FA splashes? Do we want another caretaker owner like Galisano (“suffering”) where we know we won’t be able to compete?

Not to pick a nit, but the Sabres were very competative during about half of the reign of OSP.

[kas23]

58 minutes ago, The Ghost of Doohickie said:

Not to pick a nit, but the Sabres were very competative during about half of the reign of OSP.

I understand. But, there has been layers of failure between Terry and the final scores of hockey games. Besides agreeing to sign free agents (or not) and selecting the people to run your hockey department, I’m just not sure how responsible Terry is for our losing streak. He doesn’t construct rosters nor coach players how to play (at least not that we’re aware of!). 
 

That said, Terry is directly responsible for hiring both TM and JB. And both of them were failures at the time of their firing. But can we honestly say we would’ve done things differently? Both TM and JB came highly regarded around the league. Is he responsible not hiring a team President to oversee hockey operations? Absolutely. However, TM was fairly insulated with experienced AGMs, so was likely acting as a de facto President. And hiring a president of hockey operations certainly wouldn’t have guaranteed success, as they would likely have been retreads. 
 

As for Golisano, if Terry was the owner at the time, I doubt both Briere and Drury would’ve left. 

Edited December 26, 2021 by kas23

[PASabreFan]

1 hour ago, kas23 said:

There’s so many bad NHL owners. Terry is tolerable. At least he has pockets deep enough to get FA help when needed. There’s few out there with the ability to spend as Terry can. Do we really want to go back to the small market mentality where we know we won’t be able to make any FA splashes? Do we want another caretaker owner like Galisano (“suffering”) where we know we won’t be able to compete?

Brush up on Suffering.

[Marvin]

I am rooting for the Sabres to vastly improve quickly with the youth so that the team makes money and the Pegulas decide to keep them.

[JohnC]

9 minutes ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

I am rooting for the Sabres to vastly improve quickly with the youth so that the team makes money and the Pegulas decide to keep them.

The irony is that the current owners are now running the franchise in a manner that those calling for new ownership would hope a new ownership group would run it. KA has put together a quality front office staff, and also a good coaching staff under Granato. Why risk having a new ownership group who might make changes in the hockey staff simply because it is his prerogative to do so? Why would anyone advocate for such a change after what this organization has already gone through?

It took the Pegulas a few years to finally figure out how to put the right staff in place for the Buffalo Bills. After a number of hiring mistakes they got it right with McDermott/Beane. In my opinion I believe that the owners have finally figured it out on the hockey side of their sports empire, as they have done with the football side of the business. The best approach to take is to stay the course. 

[mjd1001]

21 hours ago, kas23 said:

 Do we really want to go back to the small market mentality where we know we won’t be able to make any FA splashes? 

To be honest, I do not like making any Free Agent splashes at all. No big name FAs sign with buffalo for the next 15 years and I actually prefer it that way.  Sign your own, get your 'big name' guys through the draft or trade when they are young. I really don't ever want a July 1 free agent to sign with buffalo unless it is a complimentary piece.

[Marvin]

19 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

To be honest, I do not like making any Free Agent splashes at all. No big name FAs sign with buffalo for the next 15 years and I actually prefer it that way.  Sign your own, get your 'big name' guys through the draft or trade when they are young. I really don't ever want a July 1 free agent to sign with buffalo unless it is a complimentary piece.

Overall, this is the model for the league.  Everyone saw Buffalo get decimated after 2006-7 and said, "yeah, let's not do that."  The only flaw in this strategy is that you sign guys to big contracts when they haven't earnt them yet and have, basically, dead money for years.

The one change I would made to those years is that the Sabres should not be penny wise and pound foolish like they were back then.

[nfreeman]

45 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

To be honest, I do not like making any Free Agent splashes at all. No big name FAs sign with buffalo for the next 15 years and I actually prefer it that way.  Sign your own, get your 'big name' guys through the draft or trade when they are young. I really don't ever want a July 1 free agent to sign with buffalo unless it is a complimentary piece.

I agree with most of this, but would point out that (i) every now and then a big name FA can indeed have a huge impact -- but it's a very tricky business to find the right one and (ii) under OSP, the Sabres failed miserably at signing their own, which was why either the best or 2nd-best team they ever had fell apart, and which is the critical part of franchise-building where I am pretty confident TP will not let us down, if we ever get there.

[Marvin]

36 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

I agree with most of this, but would point out that (i) every now and then a big name FA can indeed have a huge impact -- but it's a very tricky business to find the right one and (ii) under OSP, the Sabres failed miserably at signing their own, which was why either the best or 2nd-best team they ever had fell apart, and which is the critical part of franchise-building where I am pretty confident TP will not let us down, if we ever get there.

But I thought we were supposed to root for TP selling the team, so surely that hope is immaterial.  Or am I missing something?

[PASabreFan]

1 hour ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

But I thought we were supposed to root for TP selling the team, so surely that hope is immaterial.  Or am I missing something?

You can root for whatever you want. You seem to be rooting for the bottom line to improve enough to convince Kim and Terry that the new yacht can have direct service to Mars after all, once the flaming shithole they created here on earth gets too bad.

[inkman]

On 12/26/2021 at 12:01 PM, The Ghost of Doohickie said:

Not to pick a nit, but the Sabres were very competative during about half of the reign of OSP.

Did you say OSP?

 

[Marvin]

8 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

You can root for whatever you want. You seem to be rooting for the bottom line to improve enough to convince Kim and Terry that the new yacht can have direct service to Mars after all, once the flaming shithole they created here on earth gets too bad.

The Sabres are bad, but "flaming $#!+#0|3" seems a bit extreme.

[GASabresIUFAN]

37 minutes ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

The Sabres are bad, but "flaming $#!+#0|3" seems a bit extreme.

Does that make the unofficial name of the yacht “The Blue Dart”?