The Sabres' Fan Mutiny Has Begun

[Mango]

6 minutes ago, dudacek said:

 

its not that I don’t see these things happening, it’s that I have seen them happen before and I think we tend to feel the more sharply when it is happening to us and those around us.

And it’s certainly true that every wave of mutiny further erodes members of the fan base beyond the point of no return. And the failures of each rebound reduce the likelihood of the next one igniting (or re-igniting) new fans.

But I think that following that process through to its nth degree does not end with pressuring Pegula to fix the Sabres, it ends with the Sabres ceasing to exist.

It’s open question how resilient the fan base is, but the evidence suggests it is stunningly resilient. It’s still averaging 16,000 fans a night after the most stunning run of ineptitude imaginable. 14 years? And this team is actually better than about half of the other teams they’ve iced over that period?

This ain’t Phoenix.

The business may have bruised K-9 and many other hardcore fans beyond repair, but how many of the 1 million or so potential fans they are selling to are actually so embittered that they won’t buy a ticket if next year somehow turns into another Drury/Briere type run?

People forget that the average attendance 20 years ago was a shade over 15,000 and the Sabres put more butts in the seats during the awful 62-point 2018 season than they did during the glorious 2006 season.

 

This is a little disingenuous. This was post lockout. Buffalo was still 14th/average in terms of butts in seats. They beat out the Bruins. Devils, Blackhawks, and Penguins. All pretty decent and important fanbases for the NHL. 

https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2006

[Pimlach]

3 hours ago, K-9 said:

Lindy knows what’s needed to construct a competitive hockey team. Kick him upstairs to president in charge of hockey ops and let him hire a gm who also knows what it takes. But I wonder if Lindy would even want to do that at this point. 

Lots of former players and former coaches follow this path, even if not in the lofty POHO position, many are advisors and consultants.   

[Cranky old man]

2 hours ago, pi2000 said:

Sabrespacers, I stand before you today with a simple message: never lose hope. We all know that this franchise has its ups and downs, mostly downs. There are moments that test our patience, our resilience, and our very spirit. But through all the trials, there is one thing that can never be taken away from us—hope.

Hope is not just a feeling. It’s a force. A quiet, steady light that flickers in the darkest of times. Hope is the belief that even when we don’t see the way forward, there is one. It’s the whisper in your heart telling you to keep moving forward, even when the road ahead seems uncertain. It’s the courage to take that first step, even when you can’t see the whole staircase.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed when the season doesn’t go as planned. The challenges we face can feel insurmountable, and there may be moments when you feel like giving up. But I want to remind you of something: every obstacle you face is not a roadblock, it’s a stepping stone. Every time you get knocked down, you have the choice to rise again. Every challenge is an opportunity to grow stronger, to become more resilient, and to become the fan you are meant to be.

In times of hardship, remember that hope doesn’t always shout loudly—it often whispers. It’s in the small, quiet moments when we choose to believe that things can get better. It’s in the times when you choose to smile, even when it’s hard, when you continue to tune in and cheer on the Sabres. Those moments, though they may seem small, are the building blocks of resilience.

And the beauty of hope is that it’s contagious. When you hold on to it, you inspire other Sabrespacers to do the same. By staying hopeful, by choosing to keep moving forward with faith, you ignite a spark that can light the way for others who are struggling in the dark.

So when the franchise feels like it's lost it's way, when you’re unsure of where the journey is taking you as a fan, hold tight to hope. Trust that there is a purpose in every twist and turn. The storm will pass, the clouds will clear, and the franchise will emerge from it stronger, wiser, and more capable than ever before.

In closing, I want you to remember this: Hope is not the absence of fear, but the courage to face it. It’s not about having all the answers, but about trusting that the path will unfold, one step at a time. And with every step, the franchise is moving toward something greater than you could ever imagine.

So, no matter where you are in your fandom, no matter what you faced yesterday, today or tomorrow, keep your heart open to the possibility of better days. Hold on to hope, and let it guide you.

Ah, Mr. Pegula now I see how you lifted the team in Montreal with your inspirational prose. Thank you. I feel better. You can continue your prideful mismanagement and calculated bugery of this once great franchise. 

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, pi2000 said:

Sabrespacers, I stand before you today with a simple message: never lose hope. We all know that this franchise has its ups and downs, mostly downs. There are moments that test our patience, our resilience, and our very spirit. But through all the trials, there is one thing that can never be taken away from us—hope.

Hope is not just a feeling. It’s a force. A quiet, steady light that flickers in the darkest of times. Hope is the belief that even when we don’t see the way forward, there is one. It’s the whisper in your heart telling you to keep moving forward, even when the road ahead seems uncertain. It’s the courage to take that first step, even when you can’t see the whole staircase.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed when the season doesn’t go as planned. The challenges we face can feel insurmountable, and there may be moments when you feel like giving up. But I want to remind you of something: every obstacle you face is not a roadblock, it’s a stepping stone. Every time you get knocked down, you have the choice to rise again. Every challenge is an opportunity to grow stronger, to become more resilient, and to become the fan you are meant to be.

In times of hardship, remember that hope doesn’t always shout loudly—it often whispers. It’s in the small, quiet moments when we choose to believe that things can get better. It’s in the times when you choose to smile, even when it’s hard, when you continue to tune in and cheer on the Sabres. Those moments, though they may seem small, are the building blocks of resilience.

And the beauty of hope is that it’s contagious. When you hold on to it, you inspire other Sabrespacers to do the same. By staying hopeful, by choosing to keep moving forward with faith, you ignite a spark that can light the way for others who are struggling in the dark.

So when the franchise feels like it's lost it's way, when you’re unsure of where the journey is taking you as a fan, hold tight to hope. Trust that there is a purpose in every twist and turn. The storm will pass, the clouds will clear, and the franchise will emerge from it stronger, wiser, and more capable than ever before.

In closing, I want you to remember this: Hope is not the absence of fear, but the courage to face it. It’s not about having all the answers, but about trusting that the path will unfold, one step at a time. And with every step, the franchise is moving toward something greater than you could ever imagine.

So, no matter where you are in your fandom, no matter what you faced yesterday, today or tomorrow, keep your heart open to the possibility of better days. Hold on to hope, and let it guide you.

Hope is not a plan.  

Edited Wednesday at 07:28 PM by Pimlach

[K-9]

7 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Hope is not a plan.  

Lol. I posted the exact same response a half hour ago. Great minds, Punch, great minds indeed.

[DarthEbriate]

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Hope is not a plan.  

The original Star Wars is just called Star Wars... because a) hope is not a plan, and b) A New Hope is a terrible name for a movie.

[CallawaySabres]

This whole hope thing is not working for fans who have seen the same crap year in and year out. Hope will only come when they blow it up from top to bottom and replace it with competent hockey minds. 

[SwampD]

 

4 hours ago, Weave said:

Y’all are so behind.  I was mutiny-ing before it was cool.

Leading edge, baby.

Yep. I have not spent a penny on this team since they decided to tank

[dudacek]

46 minutes ago, Mango said:

This is a little disingenuous. This was post lockout. Buffalo was still 14th/average in terms of butts in seats. They beat out the Bruins. Devils, Blackhawks, and Penguins. All pretty decent and important fanbases for the NHL. 

https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2006

How is it disingenuous?

The 15,000 was pre-lockout. The season post lockout was 16,000 and something.

The 2018 was after 6 straight years of no playoffs.

The point was not about Buffalo’s attendance not growing as fast as the rest of the league, or about how it compares to Boston, we are discussing a fan mutiny and I was giving relevant context.

[PerreaultForever]

I honestly don't know why people haven't stopped going years ago. It's usually barely watchable on tv. I don't live in the area but if I did I certainly wouldn't pay money to go see it. Seattle and Vancouver are short drives but I won't pay to see them there either. It's just not worth it.  You likely will also have to factor in few (if any) Canadians coming over the border if things continue as they have been. There's already a huge drop in cross border traffic and the tariff thing has created an anti American thing in Canada that will no doubt have an impact on their ticket sales. Crazy rabid Leaf and Habs fans might still come  but I suspect a lot less. 

The fact that next year feels like they are going to stay the course and give it another go is more than depressing. Delusional, and depressing. 

[matter2003]

6 hours ago, Mustache of God said:

At this point Pegula is using the Sabres operating losses as a giant tax write-off to offset the new stadium overages. He's not making any changes because this is what he wants.

No, that's why he sold a small percentage of the Bills to private equity firms.

Edited Wednesday at 08:40 PM by matter2003

[Dr. Who]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

I honestly don't know why people haven't stopped going years ago. It's usually barely watchable on tv. I don't live in the area but if I did I certainly wouldn't pay money to go see it. Seattle and Vancouver are short drives but I won't pay to see them there either. It's just not worth it.  You likely will also have to factor in few (if any) Canadians coming over the border if things continue as they have been. There's already a huge drop in cross border traffic and the tariff thing has created an anti American thing in Canada that will no doubt have an impact on their ticket sales. Crazy rabid Leaf and Habs fans might still come  but I suspect a lot less. 

The fact that next year feels like they are going to stay the course and give it another go is more than depressing. Delusional, and depressing. 

If the Sabres were good, plenty would come to the games. It's easy to make a political gesture when it costs you nothing.

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

I honestly don't know why people haven't stopped going years ago. It's usually barely watchable on tv. I don't live in the area but if I did I certainly wouldn't pay money to go see it. Seattle and Vancouver are short drives but I won't pay to see them there either. It's just not worth it.  You likely will also have to factor in few (if any) Canadians coming over the border if things continue as they have been. There's already a huge drop in cross border traffic and the tariff thing has created an anti American thing in Canada that will no doubt have an impact on their ticket sales. Crazy rabid Leaf and Habs fans might still come  but I suspect a lot less. 

The fact that next year feels like they are going to stay the course and give it another go is more than depressing. Delusional, and depressing. 

I will tip the Fedora to the people that go regularly,  they do their best to stay entertained.  On a positive note, young people, post college and 30’s, are well represented at the games.  So if they ever turn it around there will be a bigger demand quickly.  Many of them have never seen winning unless they remember the  Drury/Briere era, 17 years ago.  

[JohnC]

21 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I will tip the Fedora to the people that go regularly,  they do their best to stay entertained.  On a positive note, young people, post college and 30’s, are well represented at the games.  So if they ever turn it around there will be a bigger demand quickly.  Many of them have never seen winning unless they remember the  Drury/Briere era, 17 years ago.  

If the owner had a basic understanding of the market/fan base he would recognize that if he produced a competitive team the arena would be filled and the revenues would significantly increase. The Bills and Bandits are examples of the relationship between being competitive and rising revenue. I just don’t understand his lack of urgency in improving the product on the ice. It makes no sense to me. 

[Scottysabres]

7 hours ago, inkman said:

Except they aren’t tanking.  They are winning and probably will win their way out of a top 4 pick.  

What difference would a top 4 pick make? They have 2, I kid you not, 2 first over alls on the current roster and the team is still ass.

draft pick location isn’t going to help this, that’s already factually been proven.

Edited Wednesday at 11:08 PM by Scottysabres

[Pimlach]

14 minutes ago, JohnC said:

If the owner had a basic understanding of the market/fan base he would recognize that if he produced a competitive team the arena would be filled and the revenues would significantly increase. The Bills and Bandits are examples of the relationship between being competitive and rising revenue. I just don’t understand his lack of urgency in improving the product on the ice. It makes no sense to me. 

Your missing the point.  He wants to control hockey and fix it himself.  He is not hands off. 

[Dr. Who]

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Your missing the point.  He wants to control hockey and fix it himself.  He is not hands off. 

Stubborn and dumb is the formula for perpetual failure.

[PromoTheRobot]

12 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6216350/2025/03/26/buffalo-sabres-attendance-season-tickets/?source=emp_shared_article

The breaking point has been reached. I know ppl with seasons who have stopped going and won't be renewing. I also know of several ppl who got/kept seasons when Ruff was hired and most fully admitted it was partially nostalgia but also hope that Buffalo could turn it around with a "real" coach. I'd be shocked if the Sabres end up with 9k season ticket holders next season, especially if Adams and 95% of the team is back, which it looks like will be the case. There's no hope left and Pegula is an absentee owner in the fans eyes regardless of his shenanigans and bs behind the scenes. 

Congratulations Terry Pegula. You brought one of the best hockey markets to the brink of destruction and it only took you 14 years and countless stupid and inept decisions to do it. I am firmly convinced this board could have run the team better over the last decade. What a dumpster fire. 

A lot of right now's right now.

How many years were the final straw? See you next year.

Edited Thursday at 02:36 AM by PromoTheRobot

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, Dr. Who said:

If the Sabres were good, plenty would come to the games. It's easy to make a political gesture when it costs you nothing.

Yes but you have to draw the line somewhere. Fans generally live on hope next year stuff. At a certain point you have to say I've had enough and now it's on you, the franchise, to show me and win me back.

[7+6=13]

I imagine Terry has been devastated by what's happened to his wife.  There was so little coming out about what she had and I think it was around summer of last year, she visited the Bills.  

It was tough to see the condition she was in for me on a human level.  

I imagine a lot of you are wrong that Terry is sitting around thinking of ways to hate you as much as you hate him.  

[Dr. Who]

5 minutes ago, 7+6=13 said:

I imagine Terry has been devastated by what's happened to his wife.  There was so little coming out about what she had and I think it was around summer of last year, she visited the Bills.  

It was tough to see the condition she was in for me on a human level.  

I imagine a lot of you are wrong that Terry is sitting around thinking of ways to hate you as much as you hate him.  

That's really a brutal and rather appalling piece of rhetoric. Everyone is very sorry about what happened to Kim. I doubt anyone here lacks compassion for Terry Pegula the human being. That doesn't absolve him of responsibility for the state of the Sabres, and fourteen years of abject failure. If it was too much for him to bear, he could sell or let capable hockey folk make decisions.

Edited Thursday at 03:18 AM by Dr. Who

[GoPuckYourself]

Just watched the new EMBEDDED the Sabres put out, it tells me all I need to know (Adams isn't going anywhere) about this sorry franchise, Adams literally consults everyone especially Terry about every move. This whole thing makes me absolutely ill that the owner is this involved in hockey moves other than signing the checks for players. We're absolutely screwed until Terry sells the team imo.

 

[7+6=13]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

That's really a brutal and rather appalling piece of rhetoric. Everyone is very sorry about what happened to Kim. I doubt anyone here lacks compassion for Terry Pegula the human being. That doesn't absolve him of responsibility for the state of the Sabres, and fourteen years of abject failure. If it was too much for him to bear, he could sell or let capable hockey folk make decisions.

Yeah you're right.  Who cares about what he went through, last year.  It's about you now and he needs to pay for what he's done to you.

[GASabresIUFAN]

4 minutes ago, GoPuckYourself said:

Just watched the new EMBEDDED the Sabres put out, it tells me all I need to know (Adams isn't going anywhere) about this sorry franchise, Adams literally consults everyone especially Terry about every move. This whole thing makes me absolutely ill that the owner is this involved in hockey moves other than signing the checks for players. We're absolutely screwed until Terry sells the team imo.

 

I want to watch this video, but I'm afraid, very afraid at the same time.

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, 7+6=13 said:

I imagine Terry has been devastated by what's happened to his wife.  There was so little coming out about what she had and I think it was around summer of last year, she visited the Bills.  

It was tough to see the condition she was in for me on a human level.  

I imagine a lot of you are wrong that Terry is sitting around thinking of ways to hate you as much as you hate him.  

Yes, no doubt his wife's health has had an impact on him. So go and deal with that and get the F out of the Sabres management meetings. Focus on your life and let the hockey people make the hockey decisions. 

I'm not going to dignify your last dumb sentence with a response. 

1 hour ago, GoPuckYourself said:

Just watched the new EMBEDDED the Sabres put out, it tells me all I need to know (Adams isn't going anywhere) about this sorry franchise, Adams literally consults everyone especially Terry about every move. This whole thing makes me absolutely ill that the owner is this involved in hockey moves other than signing the checks for players. We're absolutely screwed until Terry sells the team imo.

 

Yup, sounds like they are just going to give it another go, stay the course. TP in on all decisions just like we thought/assumed. He is the constant in all these years.

The big takeaway is get them in better shape and better prepared in the off season for the next season, to which I just think where the F was that last off season? Most of us here said they need a boot camp and Ruff needs to change things right off the hop but they didn't. So NOW we are supposed to believe the same people will get it right. Ya sure. 

What's that definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Sabres hockey.