Sabres Announce a 10 year extension for the naming rights of Key Bank Center

[LabattBlue]

52 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I have been to enough NHL rinks to say that Buffalo's arena was poorly executed from the very start and it poor maintenance just makes it worse. 

Agree with dark, dingy, dusty, really bad sound, no comfort unless you are in the 200's. 

I'm older and I want to be comfortable.  I won't sit in the 300s, unless you are in the first few rows, you are too far away and everything sucks up there.  The irony is I was an Orange seat season ticket holder and loved it up there - chalk that up to youthful exuberance and a good team making the difference.   The Oranges overhung the lower bowl and most seats had great sightlines.  

Put a good team in there and the place is tolerable.  They seem to lose almost every time I go to a home game.   I end up paying for me, the wife, and often a bunch of our kids, and I get little enjoyment in that place.  I went to that Kings game last year, right after the disappointing Euro series with the Devils.  They basically gave the game away in the third period.  I haven't been back.  Not sure I will go back this year either.   

One big positive change from my younger days of going to The Aud, at least now I have more fun being downtown before or after the game than I did in the  Aud days.  

A problem I see down the road is were would you put a new hockey arena?  The arena belongs next to the Harbor Center.  How do you build new in that space?  

 I would take the 300’s over the 100’s every day.  I am only 6’1” and my knees are jammed into the seat in front of me in the lower bowl.   
 

[spndnchz]

2 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

 I would take the 300’s over the 100’s every day.  I am only 6’1” and my knees are jammed into the seat in front of me in the lower bowl.   
 

Yeah the sides bad. Front center is nice. Sides   Bad

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

I have been to enough NHL rinks to say that Buffalo's arena was poorly executed from the very start and it poor maintenance just makes it worse. 

Agree with dark, dingy, dusty, really bad sound, no comfort unless you are in the 200's. 

I'm older and I want to be comfortable.  I won't sit in the 300s, unless you are in the first few rows, you are too far away and everything sucks up there.  The irony is I was an Orange seat season ticket holder and loved it up there - chalk that up to youthful exuberance and a good team making the difference.   The Oranges overhung the lower bowl and most seats had great sightlines.  

Put a good team in there and the place is tolerable.  They seem to lose almost every time I go to a home game.   I end up paying for me, the wife, and often a bunch of our kids, and I get little enjoyment in that place.  I went to that Kings game last year, right after the disappointing Euro series with the Devils.  They basically gave the game away in the third period.  I haven't been back.  Not sure I will go back this year either.   

One big positive change from my younger days of going to The Aud, at least now I have more fun being downtown before or after the game than I did in the  Aud days.  

A problem I see down the road is were would you put a new hockey arena?  The arena belongs next to the Harbor Center.  How do you build new in that space?  

I agree with almost everything you said above.

As for the last point...if they ever built a new Arena, where would it go?

Let me say to start that I have always been a 'downtown guy'.  On the surface I think the football stadium should have been downtown, I want money spent to develop downtown.  HOWEVER, the reality is, a football stadium or a new arena isn't going to pull Downtown 'up' with it.  You want the best atmosphere for the fans, AND ammenities that the players and their families will want?  A suburban Arena i THINK is where things are going.  If you have a very vibrant downtown area, VERY vibrant (Boston, NY City), a downtown Arena works.  

I have doubts whether or not this team ever gets a new Arena (at least in the forseeable future), but if It did...for the first time in my life I would start to consider the idea of something in a nice area in the Suburbs.  Almost as the centerpiece of a 'lifestyle and sports' center.

[Pimlach]

14 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I agree with almost everything you said above.

As for the last point...if they ever built a new Arena, where would it go?

Let me say to start that I have always been a 'downtown guy'.  On the surface I think the football stadium should have been downtown, I want money spent to develop downtown.  HOWEVER, the reality is, a football stadium or a new arena isn't going to pull Downtown 'up' with it.  You want the best atmosphere for the fans, AND ammenities that the players and their families will want?  A suburban Arena i THINK is where things are going.  If you have a very vibrant downtown area, VERY vibrant (Boston, NY City), a downtown Arena works.  

I have doubts whether or not this team ever gets a new Arena (at least in the forseeable future), but if It did...for the first time in my life I would start to consider the idea of something in a nice area in the Suburbs.  Almost as the centerpiece of a 'lifestyle and sports' center.

I would normally be opposed to putting it in the suburbs but until I hear the where, the how, and the why, I will reserve judgement. 

I like it were it is, it brings revenue to downtown, and downtown Buffalo needs attractions to get people down there, especially in the long winter months.  

 

[Drag0nDan]

2 hours ago, shrader said:

This one got me thinking.  The last game I went to in Boston was the Lucic game (2011) and they haven't won here in Raleigh since I've been here.  At this point, I have absolutely no clue how long it has been since I actually saw them win in person.I've just set a 14 year minimum right there.  Crazy.

I've been to like 15 games over 3 seasons and they have lost all but 1 i think.  I was late to a sabres lightning game and i think they were down 4-0 before i sat down.  

The one win was cool because i brought my swedish exchange student and her 2 friends from sweden, and dahlin had a good game.  I think that was skinners 1000th game too because we got some free swag.  

[LGR4GM]

I was at the infamous Colorado game they were up by 4 in and then lost. We were in the car and exiting the deck when Colorado won... you could tell what was coming. I spent most of the last few years getting 200 level tickets, anytime I went to the 300 level it was awful. Cramped, no food options, dark and dingy. The 100 concourse was fine other than the terrible signs and paint but Keybank looks like a guy who would rather focus on his NFL team owns it. 

[Mango]

3 hours ago, Pimlach said:

I have been to enough NHL rinks to say that Buffalo's arena was poorly executed from the very start and it poor maintenance just makes it worse. 

Agree with dark, dingy, dusty, really bad sound, no comfort unless you are in the 200's. 

I'm older and I want to be comfortable.  I won't sit in the 300s, unless you are in the first few rows, you are too far away and everything sucks up there.  The irony is I was an Orange seat season ticket holder and loved it up there - chalk that up to youthful exuberance and a good team making the difference.   The Oranges overhung the lower bowl and most seats had great sightlines.  

Put a good team in there and the place is tolerable.  They seem to lose almost every time I go to a home game.   I end up paying for me, the wife, and often a bunch of our kids, and I get little enjoyment in that place.  I went to that Kings game last year, right after the disappointing Euro series with the Devils.  They basically gave the game away in the third period.  I haven't been back.  Not sure I will go back this year either.   

One big positive change from my younger days of going to The Aud, at least now I have more fun being downtown before or after the game than I did in the  Aud days.  

A problem I see down the road is were would you put a new hockey arena?  The arena belongs next to the Harbor Center.  How do you build new in that space?  

The team sucks, nobody goes. I don't believe the attendance reports. The place looks 25% full for any game not against a Canadian team.

Just move the games to the Harbor Center until the thing is knocked down and rebuilt.

But seriously, maybe play at BCA in Rochester temporarily?

Edited yesterday at 06:58 PM by Mango

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Mango said:

The team sucks, nobody goes. I don't believe the attendance reports. The place looks 25% full for any game not against a Canadian team.

Just move the games to the Harbor Center until the thing is knocked down and rebuilt.

But seriously, maybe play at BCA in Rochester temporarily?

If you want to rebuild on the same spot is that a 3 year job? 

[Mango]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

If you want to rebuild on the same spot is that a 3 year job? 

Honestly, maybe I'll hate them less if they leave and come back. Unsure if three years is enough time for that.

[JohnC]

3 hours ago, Pimlach said:

If you want to rebuild on the same spot is that a 3 year job? 

In your opinion, has the arena reached the stage in its lifespan where putting more money into it is not worth it? Just as the Orchard Park stadium reached a diminishing return on rehabilitation investment, it seems that the Key Bank arena has gotten to that same point where it would be better to invest money in a new arena rather than re-patching the patches that already exist. 

[Pimlach]

15 hours ago, JohnC said:

In your opinion, has the arena reached the stage in its lifespan where putting more money into it is not worth it? Just as the Orchard Park stadium reached a diminishing return on rehabilitation investment, it seems that the Key Bank arena has gotten to that same point where it would be better to invest money in a new arena rather than re-patching the patches that already exist. 

I don't have good insight into the arena.     

No doubt that updates and clean up is needed on the inside. To be honest, it was never an impressive place.  The design has mostly poor sightlines, the seats seem far away from the ice.  The concessions and restrooms are below par.  To me, only the 200 level is decent.  

The place has always seemed dark and dingy, and because they have sucked for so long it is usually quiet in there relative to other NHL rinks.  

The scoreboard is much better now.  The roof was a must do and that repair was late.  The bad seats  - we are probably stuck with them.  Better paint, better lights, being cleaner, and better concessions does not seem that hard.  

I don't think you will see any funding for a new arena for a very long time.  There is still angst on building the new football stadium with 40% state and county tax funding.  

Edited 6 hours ago by Pimlach

[JohnC]

57 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I don't have good insight into the arena.     

No doubt that updates and clean up is needed on the inside. To be honest, it was never an impressive place.  The design has mostly poor sightlines, the seats seem far away from the ice.  The concessions and restrooms are below par.  To me, only the 200 level is decent.  

The place has always seemed dark and dingy, and because they have sucked for so long it is usually quiet in there relative to other NHL rinks.  

The scoreboard is much better now.  The roof was a must do and that repair was late.  The bad seats  - we are probably stuck with them.  Better paint, better lights, being cleaner, and better concessions does not seem that hard.  

I don't think you will see any funding for a new arena for a very long time.  There is still angst on building the new football stadium with 40% state and county tax funding.  

Thanks for the response. With respect to the football stadium in Orchard Park, from everything I read about  it outlived its life span and the cost of upkeep wasn’t worth it. It was better to apply the upkeep money to a new facility. 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

I don't have good insight into the arena.     

No doubt that updates and clean up is needed on the inside. To be honest, it was never an impressive place.  The design has mostly poor sightlines, the seats seem far away from the ice.  The concessions and restrooms are below par.  To me, only the 200 level is decent.  

The place has always seemed dark and dingy, and because they have sucked for so long it is usually quiet in there relative to other NHL rinks.  

The scoreboard is much better now.  The roof was a must do and that repair was late.  The bad seats  - we are probably stuck with them.  Better paint, better lights, being cleaner, and better concessions does not seem that hard.  

I don't think you will see any funding for a new arena for a very long time.  There is still angst on building the new football stadium with 40% state and county tax funding.  

Part of the reason the building has always been a bit on the quiet side, even when it was packed and the fans were into the games, is the ceiling is REALLY high up relative to where the seating bowls stop.  IMHO, a big part of the reason for this is the same company that designed the old Staples Center in LA with its 3 levels of luxury boxes also designed the MMArena.  It was a cookie cutter design and came cheap - a hallmark of Larry Quinn's direction.  And the original horrible color scheme in the building is courtesy of Dougie Moss's girlfriend.  The current color scheme is actually a significant upgrade over what they started with, sadly.

As for whether there will be upgrades or not to the building, know for a fact that they were looking at some very radical revisions to the building back prior to covid hitting.  How serious they were about the revisions, don't know.  But they did spend money on the studies.

Would agree that a new building likely isn't in the cards anytime soon.  Caveat to that belief, if the pipe burst is indicative of the overall state of the plumbing (and maybe even the electrical, HVAC, structure, etc.) in the building, they may have no choice but to do a new building sooner than later.  Thaaaaaaannnnnks, Larry.  But hey, you got the buidling constructed on time and under budget.  Who cares if the darn thing falls apart within 40 years?  Heckuva job there, Quinny.

[sabremike]

A very simple thing that would've been nice would be renaming it the KeyBank Aud. Also when they redo the seats do them up in the old colors/pattern of the ones in the Aud, I'd rather that than a clean but drab design that is done these days

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, sabremike said:

A very simple thing that would've been nice would be renaming it the KeyBank Aud. Also when they redo the seats do them up in the old colors/pattern of the ones in the Aud, I'd rather that than a clean but drab design that is done these days

How about instead of gold, red, blue, and orange they go with gold, red, blue, and black?

Not sure where you'd have the 100 level split between red and gold; but expect black works better than orange and it fit with the historical blue & gold and red & black.

[Indabuff]

They'll probably superimpose pictures of fans on the seats soon.