Sabres and Bills hire new COO

[K-9]

3 hours ago, Mango said:

He already has Terry convinced. 
 

The Hornets have been terrible for the entirety of Jordans ownership. I wonder if Terry thinks that nobody else has google except for him? 

I think he is largely being brought in to manage the PSL's for the new stadium and then occasionally poke the Sabres to see if he can get it to do stuff. 

 

Legends is managing the PSLs for the Bills. 

[GoPuckYourself]

Do we need to hide his employees like we had to with the last guy? I'm sure they want to know.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 hours ago, Mango said:

He already has Terry convinced. 
 

The Hornets have been terrible for the entirety of Jordans ownership. I wonder if Terry thinks that nobody else has google except for him? 

I think he is largely being brought in to manage the PSL's for the new stadium and then occasionally poke the Sabres to see if he can get it to do stuff. 

 

Anyone here know "Kirby Jackson" over at Two Bills Drive? He is someone who works in sports marketing at the major league level. He also happens to know Pete Guelli. Here's his take.

"(Pete) oversaw sponsorships when Russ (Brandon) was in charge. He was probably the 2nd most powerful guy in the room. He left and took the (Chief Revenue Officer) job in Charlotte with the Bobcats. The NBA has ALWAYS had the best sports business minds. There’s a reason that so much innovation starts there. That’s where I last knew him.

From what I remember the Bills sponsorship numbers were like middle of the league. That is crazy impressive, considering the old stadium and crappy teams. He’s quiet, assertive and smart. I never worked directly with him but knew his reputation. His resume is strong."

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

15 hours ago, inkman said:

He turned the Bobcats around?

He did change the name back to Hornets.

[Sidc3000]

I know he’s not going to make decisions on operations but I hope he goes into his first meeting with Adams and tells him the best way for him to market the Sabres is for them to WIN! 

[Stoner]

23 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

I know he’s not going to make decisions on operations but I hope he goes into his first meeting with Adams and tells him the best way for him to market the Sabres is for them to WIN! 

I don't want him meeting with Adams.

[Stoner]

How is one guy going to do both jobs?

[inkman]

16 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

How is one guy going to do both jobs?

He can’t 

[Stoner]

9 minutes ago, inkman said:

He can’t 

So I'm guessing he focuses on the Bills and some underlings handle the Sabres.

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, inkman said:

He can’t 

Why can't he? Not that I don't think there will be a 50-50 split of his time but I highly doubt he's going to outright ignore the Sabres and give it to interns

[Sidc3000]

2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

I don't want him meeting with Adams.

The business COO and team GM would have to have some type of working relationship. He  won’t make decisions on the teams operations or player decisions. The team is still a business 

[That Aud Smell]

2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

So I'm guessing he focuses on the Bills and some underlings handle the Sabres.

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

Why can't he? Not that I don't think there will be a 50-50 split of his time but I highly doubt he's going to outright ignore the Sabres and give it to interns

There are people with both organizations who were serving as interim COOs before this guy was hired. He can rely on them and their staffs to do quite a bit.

[Sidc3000]

2 hours ago, inkman said:

He can’t 

Many cooperations have one COO but many businesses under them. 

[That Aud Smell]

8 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

Many cooperations have one COO but many businesses under them. 

Yeah - this new COO's role could be more strategic than operational.

That said, I remain curious: Who's actually employing him? Like, where's his W-2 (or where are his W-2s) coming from at tax time?

[Mango]

18 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

Have the Hornets been terrible on the business side?  This guy has nothing to do with on the court results or now on the field and on the ice results. He is strictly business side.

I understand there is the business side which is the man behind the curtain and then there is the product on the field. 

It is incredibly tone deaf for Terry to announce a new COO of the Bills and Sabres and verbalize that he "turned the Hornets around".

He may or may not be really good at what he does. But fans don't really give a shirt about corporate sponsorships or the profitability of their venders at the arena/stadium. So to release a statement on your letterhead that the guy you hired "turned team x around" when they were really bad his entire tenure is super dumb when you are in the middle of the absolute worst run of ownership that the NHL has ever seen. EVER!

[Stoner]

2 minutes ago, Mango said:

I understand there is the business side which is the man behind the curtain and then there is the product on the field. 

It is incredibly tone deaf for Terry to announce a new COO of the Bills and Sabres and verbalize that he "turned the Hornets around".

He may or may not be really good at what he does. But fans don't really give a shirt about corporate sponsorships or the profitability of their venders at the arena/stadium. So to release a statement on your letterhead that the guy you hired "turned team x around" when they were really bad his entire tenure is super dumb when you are in the middle of the absolute worst run of ownership that the NHL has ever seen. EVER!

Wow, Terry said that?

[inkman]

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

Why can't he? Not that I don't think there will be a 50-50 split of his time but I highly doubt he's going to outright ignore the Sabres and give it to interns

I worked at a company a few years ago.  They always tried to consolidate management and have one set of managers run both the sauce operation and the booze operation.  It never worked.  One person can’t be that involved.  You either focus 90% of your efforts toward the money operation (Bills/sauce) and leave the other 10% to neglect the lesser profitable business or you try to split your time evenly and end up managing nothing because you can’t do it with 50% involvement.  It doesn’t work.  
 

 

Edited March 20 by inkman

[Stoner]

27 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

The business COO and team GM would have to have some type of working relationship. He  won’t make decisions on the teams operations or player decisions. The team is still a business 

I'm trying to think what the overlap would be. Access to players for promotional purposes? Uniforms?

Coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

[Mango]

18 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

People keep bringing this up. I don't think he was involved directly with the basketball operations. He's in charge of the business end of the teams.

I think it is more the optics of the worst owner in NHL history (literally) releasing a statement that he hired somebody who "turned team x around" when they were in fact really bad. 

It is also worth noting that Michael Jordan certainly understands marketing and branding. There are likely zero comps in the history of American Sports to somebody like Michael Jordan owning a professional sports team in the backyard he grew up in. In the big 4 sports in the states Michael Jordan likely knows more about the the sports, marketing, and partnerships side of basketball than half the owners in the league.


 

 

[thewookie1]

They could hire Jesus and some of you guys would still have complaints

[Mango]

15 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Wow, Terry said that?

 

The full quote. 
 

Quote

“His work in helping turn around the Charlotte Hornets franchise in the NBA was remarkable. He is a proven leader with tremendous skills and experience in the sports business landscape. With the upcoming changes on the way in both team’s venues, we are happy to have Pete to help lead our teams,” said Pegula.

He may be really good at what he does. But also "turning around" a brand that Michael Jordan is in charge of isn't exactly a heavy lift. It gets even lighter when that brands major revenue base is in the backyard of where Jordan grew up and played college basketball. 

I don't mean to discredit a local guy. He may very well be really good at what he does. But you can't discount the Jordan effect. MJ also invested a ton of his own money into poor black communities around Charlotte. Worth noting he also owns a NASCAR team there as well. Jordan was and still is heavily entrenched in the community in NC. 

[Mango]

6 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

They could hire Jesus and some of you guys would still have complaints

It isn't exactly a complaint on Pete Guelli. A good portion of it is a complaint about Pegula. The Pegula lead Sabres are literally the worst team run franchise the league has seen. No other team has come from so close to the top and fell so close to the bottom and stayed there for that long. No one. Pegula is a historically bad owner. 

And released a statement that he hired somebody to help run parts of the franchise who "turned around" a franchise that was also pretty bad at sports. 

[PromoTheRobot]

25 minutes ago, Mango said:

I think it is more the optics of the worst owner in NHL history (literally) releasing a statement that he hired somebody who "turned team x around" when they were in fact really bad. 

It is also worth noting that Michael Jordan certainly understands marketing and branding. There are likely zero comps in the history of American Sports to somebody like Michael Jordan owning a professional sports team in the backyard he grew up in. In the big 4 sports in the states Michael Jordan likely knows more about the the sports, marketing, and partnerships side of basketball than half the owners in the league.


 

 

I think you're giving Jordan too much credit. The GOAT on the court for sure. I'm not sure that translates into business and team ops smarts. Refer to Wayne Gretzky's coaching and team ownership tenure for comparison.

[Mango]

4 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I think you're giving Jordan too much credit. The GOAT on the court for sure. I'm not sure that translates into business and team ops smarts. Refer to Wayne Gretzky's coaching and team ownership tenure for comparison.

Gretzky was minority owner. Jordan outright bought the team. Jordan is worth 10x Gretzky with prior NBA ownership, a NASCAR team, and responsible for 10%+ of all Nike sales. They are not the same. 

I don't think I am conflating on the court vs. off the court at all. Jordan was a bad drafting owner. I am not arguing that.

What I am talking about is Black Jesus as a brand and a printer of money. There isn't another athlete in the American big 4 leagues that has ever been as big or bigger than the league they played in than Michael Jordan. When it comes to everything that happens on the field, ice, court, course etc. Jordan, Brady, Gretzky, Tiger, Serena etc. are all fairly close comparables. When it comes to everything else outside of that Michael Jordan doesn't have any peers.

[Stoner]

37 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

They could hire Jesus and some of you guys would still have complaints

Who's complaining?

We got it... Terry should be beyond reproach.

One strawman deserves another.