Porous Five Hole

Last playoff game was April 26. My son was born 5/3.

Completely unacceptable that GMKA is back. However, I am not questioning my loyalty to the team. I didn’t buy any tix or merch in 24-25. That will continue. I will continue to watch on tv. And all aboard the Amerks playoff train this spring.

While I won’t put it as the likeliest or even a likely decision, but it could come down to NYS stepping in on the improvements with Terry buying the building and signing a long-term lease renewal. I don’t know the actual level of flack Albany took for the Bills stadium deal (recency bias could play a huge role), but the state has done this for most of their major teams (Mets, Yanks, NY Red Bulls, the Bills, etc).

Nothing to do with that. I’m just trying to isolate the specific subject matter of the thread. And you went sideways, again.

Ok but that isn’t what this thread is about. This is an issue with the timing of the building lease and the local municipalities. It is conversation worth having. Please try to keep up. Especially you of all people who dislike conversation about GMing and other off-ice items. If you want to spin a web into this being Pegula’s fault, feel free. Or because of Pegula, the county doesn’t care about the team. Also, feel free. But don’t expect actual conversation to take place. Just drive-by plop-o.

lol Jonas sucks

I’m in Madrid!! 🇪🇸

And there is the rub. If the county is walking away, it’s probably because they’re not making money. While we expect the billionaire owner to just spend whatever it takes to buy & improve the building, he’s still a business man. New expenses without new revenue streams. And everyone in Sabrehood seems to hate the guy for his failure in results. Totally valid! But we cannot just yell sell more tickets/be good because that won’t offset the purchase price and new recurring expenses. The Sabres were losing money each year before this. Larry Quinn stated on After The Whistle this past week that the team wasn’t profitable even when there was a waiting list for season tickets. I’m still not panicking because TP cannot walk away from this because he owns the Bills. He cannot alienate Buffalo. But it’s still unsettling.

What’s interesting to me is while the county provides all of the services to support the arena (police, snow removal, utilities, etc), they collect county sales tax on all things Key Bank Center to offset. I don’t know the numbers, but tax on every penny spent in that building *probably* covers these expenses. That 4.75% adds up on every transaction. By walking away, Erie County is going to keep all of that tax revenue generated without any arena expenses. The city will now have to budget for these ‘new to them’ costs without any sales tax benefit. I think the County is doing the City dirty.

This all comes down to if Terry wants the building or not. I don’t know the specifics of the lease and maintenance, but I did perk up last year when Terry footed the bill for a new roof and scoreboard when he didn’t own the building. This could be the first step toward Terry acquiring the arena for peanuts. And he might as well if he’s obligated to maintain the place. The reason why I’m not sure if Pegula wants the building is because deals like this are usually ironed out long before six months prior to the expiration of a 25 year lease. The article said the acting mayor was unaware this was coming…wtf? How it could play out: 1) Erie County walks away. 2) The city, surprised & who did not budget for this while facing a 50 million dollar budget deficit, also walk away or put the building up for sale. 3) Pegula, who I believe already runs all events for the building, assumes ownership or purchases the building. Any alternative to this would be unsettling to say the least.

That’s fair, I’ll take the search out of it. I didn’t hate the Ruff hire when it happened. I didn’t really know what to think. But it hasn’t worked and KA has to own it.

Agree that you can hopefully learn from mistakes, but KA has made too many of them. He preached a culture of wanting to be here and it didn’t translate into winning. He iced the youngest team in the league after saying “win mode now.” He did not address the crease properly two years ago by rolling with Levi like he was ready, and then extended UPL for too long based on 40 games. He did not do a competent head coaching search and the guy he brought in was screaming he needs a culture change in the last Sabres embedded. There was some good in there as well as more bad, but for me…Palm trees and taxes was the final straw. I would have fired him that night.

This book is a ride so far. A man who has nothing left to live for among a line of bad decisions turns his life over to standup comedy.

Tage 🤪