Pegula Sports Entertainment, behind the scenes

[LGR4GM]

Sad thing is I am basically begging the team to make improvements so I can buy their product but am being told to basically shut my pie hole and just give them the money anyways. 

[SDS]

12 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Sad thing is I am basically begging the team to make improvements so I can buy their product but am being told to basically shut my pie hole and just give them the money anyways. 

By an anonymous person on a message board. Let's not get melodramatic.

[inkman]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

We are not part of the organization. If we were, Brock Boeser would be a Sabre. ROR would be a Sabre. Nick Roberston would be a Sabre. Sergachev would be a Sabre. Drury and Briere would have remained Sabres. Pomminstein would have been given a contract this year. Frolic would never have been acquired. Risto would still be here but that's cuz we disagree. Bottom line is I am not part of PSE. I am also not part of my favorite bar. If that bar starts serving crappy food and the drink prices go up, I will go to other places. 

PSE isn't on the same page and that is on them. It isn't on me. I am on this ***** forum hours every week discussing ways to improve this team. Maybe if PSE put a product out that was some vanilla arena experience only geared towards 8-12 year olds while simultaneously putting out one of the most boring teams with the exception of Eichel, I would want to spend money and be more supportive in that way. Right now, I refuse because the only thing that seems to wake these massive companies up to change is either scandal or a sudden drop in profits. 

Who knew your incessant badgering of fellow sabrespacers with this stuff would actually find an appropriate home.  ??

[freester]

3 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

I am new to this story and can only read what others post in this thread and the one over at TBD.  

I have been saying for a LONG time that when an organization is as bad as the Sabres, for this long, the ONLY place to look is at the top.  And this emerging story proves that.

I love how Kim Pegula is running the ship, with basically no expertise or education to support that....online.....from her 10,000 sq.ft. house in Boca.   Yeah, that's going to work out really well.

I come away thinking that, as a Sabres fan, the best we can hope for is the Pegulas to realize they much consolidation in order to survive and operate on a higher level, and that means selling the Sabres.

Yes, sell the Sabres.  No way will a guy like Pegula sell the Bills instead; it's a much better money maker and owning an NFL team is the feather in his cap that he is looking for, not the Sabres.  Even if he is probably a bigger hockey fan than a football fan.

When the Pegula ownership started, we had the famous "I'll drill a well if I want money" quote and the "sole purpose for our existence is to win the Stanley Cup."

Yeah, well that franchise doesn't exist currently.  It's poorly run by amateurs making amateurish mistakes, and they are penny pinching just as past ownership has always done.

It's really quite bad and I don't see it improving any time soon.

I'm really curious to see how this plays out over, say, a 3 to 5 year period.

I can see them selling the team.  I really can.

 

 

 

 

There are no buyers out there, and they are not penny pinching.   Penny pinching owners don't spend over the cap.  Be thankful that Buffalo has a franchise.  I live in Atlanta, a much bigger and wealthier city.  We lost an NHL team twice.  While the Pegulas are not perfect and have made many mistakes, I'm confident they will eventually get the right GM in place to make the Sabres winners.

[Theana745]

3 hours ago, LTS said:

Yes, but you stated a quite specific instance about neurosurgeons.  I happen to have one who lives on my street and I spent 11 years in health care consistently meeting with administrations and researchers.  I refuted it. Not opinion, reality.

Players don't come to Buffalo because the team has been bad, the ownership is clearly not winning people over, and frankly has demonstrated an actual lack of competence in running an organization. Why would any player or executive want to come here and work for this family?  It's not about the city, it's about the owners. Should we not expect that all the people who were let go don't speak about the inability of this family to lead an organization?

I know I've asked about jobs in other companies only to be told about the culture there and then reconsidered my interest immediately.  It wasn't based on the city. 

You know how many kids grow up to play hockey that have never had an NHL team in their city?  They weren't crushed.  People will be upset if the team leaves, but that will quickly be replaced.  Quebec City is still standing and last I checked, the kids there still play hockey.

If you want some blind fan loyalty to a franchise then don't tell me its a business.  Instead, tell me its a social club, where we can $2 brews and some wings and watch a crappy hockey team get their arses kicked year in and year out.  It's amazing how little I'd care about the product on the ice if it didn't cost so much money just to get in the building.

But that's the not case, fans get to pay an large sum of money to go through metal detectors, have the option to buy seriously overpriced beverages and crappy food and then sit in seats so uncomfortable and jammed in that the Delta CEO uses them as a reference of how far the airlines can cut back.  What's left?  Oh yeah, a terrible arena experience, and to top it off... the whole reason people showed up?  See some really crappy hockey.

Sounds like a I've got it all wrong though.  I should be happy to have that.  Hell it's an HONOR to have all that.

Nope.. not how it works.

1) Arena experience is sound. You can't just yell about something without telling someone what's wrong with it. In regards to the food prices, you're paying for the atmosphere like anything else.

2) ROR decision was a good move. You can't have people who act recklessly and endanger lives in our organization. Simple as that. 

3) All teams have up and down periods. That's just the way of life sometimes. 

40 minutes ago, freester said:

There are no buyers out there, and they are not penny pinching.   Penny pinching owners don't spend over the cap.  Be thankful that Buffalo has a franchise.  I live in Atlanta, a much bigger and wealthier city.  We lost an NHL team twice.  While the Pegulas are not perfect and have made many mistakes, I'm confident they will eventually get the right GM in place to make the Sabres winners.

Thank you. Appreciate this

[Theana745]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Sad thing is I am basically begging the team to make improvements so I can buy their product but am being told to basically shut my pie hole and just give them the money anyways. 

Sometimes this is just how business goes. 

[darksabre]

49 minutes ago, Theana745 said:

Sometimes this is just how business goes. 

lol no it's not 

[Weave]

1 hour ago, Theana745 said:

You can't just yell about something without telling someone what's wrong with it.

 

PT Barnum had a saying about people like this.

You sure as hell can complain about something without knowing what the fix is.  You can complain about the quality of food in a restaurant without knowing a damned thing about cooking.  You can complain about issues you are having with your car without knowing how to design the fix.  You can complain about air flights being chronically late without knowing how to schedule flights.  And the way you get all these things fixed is by voting with your feet and wallet.  Loss of demand for a product is a wonderful motivator of businesses.

[Stoner]

2 hours ago, freester said:

There are no buyers out there, and they are not penny pinching.   Penny pinching owners don't spend over the cap.  Be thankful that Buffalo has a franchise.  I live in Atlanta, a much bigger and wealthier city.  We lost an NHL team twice.  While the Pegulas are not perfect and have made many mistakes, I'm confident they will eventually get the right GM in place to make the Sabres winners.

To challenge some of this:

How do you know there aren't buyers? People want to own pro sports teams.

I think the concern is whether the Sabres will continue to spend freely. Kim talked about the Sabres being viable and sustainable going forward. Those are some pretty strong code words. The idea of an unlimited front office budget also had been brought into question even before this pandemic.

Almost 10 years in, it's hard to have any confidence in their decision-making. You can hope, sure.

[Ogre]

24 minutes ago, Weave said:

Loss of demand for a product is a wonderful motivator of businesses.

Big business doesn’t need market forces with their decennial bailouts. 

[LGR4GM]

2 hours ago, Theana745 said:

1) Arena experience is sound. You can't just yell about something without telling someone what's wrong with it. In regards to the food prices, you're paying for the atmosphere like anything else.

2) ROR decision was a good move. You can't have people who act recklessly and endanger lives in our organization. Simple as that. 

3) All teams have up and down periods. That's just the way of life sometimes. 

Thank you. Appreciate this

2 thoughts. You work or are associated with pse, that is the only way anyone makes this statement. 

Second thought, ROR won a cup. That makes your first sentence all the worse. Defending that move at this stage is unconscionable. 

2 hours ago, Theana745 said:

Sometimes this is just how business goes. 

Good luck with that. 

[LGR4GM]

2 hours ago, Theana745 said:

2) ROR decision was a good move. You can't have people who act recklessly and endanger lives in our organization. Simple as that. 

Wait a second. You said yesterday "the end justify the means" but today you're claiming 1 of the best 2 way centers in the league who immediately went and won a cup had to be traded, that it "was a good move". So the end only justify the means according to what end you value. In this case giving money to the Sabres. 

[Neo]

[Pimlach]

4 hours ago, freester said:

There are no buyers out there, and they are not penny pinching.   Penny pinching owners don't spend over the cap.  Be thankful that Buffalo has a franchise.  I live in Atlanta, a much bigger and wealthier city.  We lost an NHL team twice.  While the Pegulas are not perfect and have made many mistakes, I'm confident they will eventually get the right GM in place to make the Sabres winners.

Man I hope your right.  I do think Kim needs to turn the hockey team over to whoever the right GM is.    Someone else, someone who came up in the world of hockey, has to run it.   

[Theana745]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

 thoughts. You work or are associated with pse, that is the only way anyone makes this statement. 

Second thought, ROR won a cup. That makes your first sentence all the worse. Defending that move at this stage is unconscionable

Correlation doesn't equal causation. 

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Wait a second. You said yesterday "the end justify the means" but today you're claiming 1 of the best 2 way centers in the league who immediately went and won a cup had to be traded, that it "was a good move". So the end only justify the means according to what end you value. In this case giving money to the Sabres. 

All businesses want to make money. Nothing wrong with that. That's a purpose of a business. You have to consider all options on all sides.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Theana745

[Brawndo]

24 minutes ago, Theana745 said:

Correlation doesn't equal causation. 

All businesses want to make money. Nothing wrong with that. That's a purpose of a business. You have to consider all options on all sides.

Blues Fans as well as the NHL in general seem to disagree with this statement 

[Brawndo]

Also regarding Your Comment about Top Neurosurgeons coming to Buffalo. Dr Nick Hopkins, who is a World Renowned Neurosurgeon and credited with being at the forefront of advancing cerebral angiograms to the where they are today and as the driving force behind the creation of the Gates Vascular Institute spent his entire career in Buffalo. He also recruited Dr Kenneth Snyder and Dr Elad Levy to continue the program. 

[Theana745]

4 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Also regarding Your Comment about Top Neurosurgeons coming to Buffalo. Dr Nick Hopkins, who is a World Renowned Neurosurgeon and credited with being at the forefront of advancing cerebral angiograms to the where they are today and as the driving force behind the creation of the Gates Vascular Institute spent his entire career in Buffalo. He also recruited Dr Kenneth Snyder and Dr Elad Levy to continue the program. 

Many reasons why this might happen. Some people have strong family ties and that superseeds all. But not the rule

[Theana745]

15 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Blues Fans as well as the NHL in general seem to disagree with this statement 

Just because you have A final piece to a puzzle, doesn't mean you have the specific piece to YOUR puzzle

[Brawndo]

14 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

Makes you think they might be a Pegula, fits the type!

 

14 hours ago, inkman said:

The thought had crossed my mind, or at least someone with very close ties. 

 

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

2 thoughts. You work or are associated with pse, that is the only way anyone makes this statement. 

There maybe truth behind this. Quite a few Sabre Fan Twitter Accounts who are critical of the team have been followed by random accounts lately who defend ownership and management at every turn. 

[Ogre]

3 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

 

There maybe truth behind this. Quite a few Sabre Fan Twitter Accounts who are critical of the team have been followed by random accounts lately who defend ownership and management at every turn. 

My father had a nose for BS and a precept:

”You may be able to snow the snowman, but you’re not going to BS the BSer.”

[Brawndo]

9 minutes ago, Theana745 said:

Just because you have A final piece to a puzzle, doesn't mean you have the specific piece to YOUR puzzle

One of the Top Second Line Centers in the league isn’t a specific piece to this teams puzzle?  
 

Maybe it’s time to find someone different to assemble it, because after three years of this regime the damn puzzle still looks like this 

[Tondas]

4 hours ago, Weave said:

PT Barnum had a saying about people like this.

You sure as hell can complain about something without knowing what the fix is.  You can complain about the quality of food in a restaurant without knowing a damned thing about cooking.  You can complain about issues you are having with your car without knowing how to design the fix.  You can complain about air flights being chronically late without knowing how to schedule flights.  And the way you get all these things fixed is by voting with your feet and wallet.  Loss of demand for a product is a wonderful motivator of businesses.

I agree Weave.  Voting with your feet and wallet will prompt change.  But the Pegula's have not proven that they know what to do next.  I would hire two VP's.  A VP of Hockey Operations (an obvious choice, I still want Rick Dudley) and a VP of Entertainment/Game Day Experience (think the Las Vegas Golden Knights game day experience).  After all, professional sports is in the entertainment business.  Then let the VP's get their teams hired (no family members or nepotism).  Then have my VP's submit short and long range plans as to how they will build a winning organization and how they will get a$$es into the seats again with enthusiasm.  Support them with resources and personal backing.  Hold the VP's accountable to enacting their plans but get the f^uck out of the way and enjoy life in Boca Raton.  A meeting once a quarter for an update is fine.

But as a Retired CEO, WTF do I know about running a business.

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by Tondas

[dudacek]

The burner account is now even getting under Brawndo's skin?

Edited April 23, 2020 by dudacek

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

5 hours ago, Theana745 said:

1) Arena experience is sound. You can't just yell about something without telling someone what's wrong with it. In regards to the food prices, you're paying for the atmosphere like anything else.

2) ROR decision was a good move. You can't have people who act recklessly and endanger lives in our organization. Simple as that. 

3) All teams have up and down periods. That's just the way of life sometimes. 

Thank you. Appreciate this

1) If you think that the fans are the problem then you haven't watched any of the games they've been re-playing on MSG lately. That's the atmosphere Buffalo fans are capable of if you give them a good product.

2) Are you referring to the Tim Horton's incident? If so, then why was he allowed to remain on the team for 3yrs after that?

3) We've seen the down period so when do we get the up period?