May Day 10

It had to be when they thought they could pass Russ Brandon off as an NFL General manager.

IMO, the red tape and necessary $ cost for infrastructure improvements/traffic will prevent a downtown stadium. I always thought the best $ spent for this would be a new stadium across the street from New Era Field. Goodell's recent comments though give me alarm that the major renovation may be the conclusion of the studies and analysis.

Still zero motivation to watch

A lot of the business and PR stuff drive me more crazy than the state of the team. They are 100% in control of all business aspects. Its like they fly from the seat of their pants. They miss jersey deadlines (were supposed to be royal blue this season and were supposed to wear black&reds on 90s night). Their promotions are disorganized (like how they gave away 5-cent sunglasses to 9,000 fans on fan 'appreciation' night one season.... and now do a bobblehead that night, but there are never any details until the last minute. They dont do anything by the way of team hall of fame honors or theme nights (other than the 50th anny ones this season). The Hasek jersey retirement ceremony was fit for a high school presentation.... and that is an event that is supposed to be as rare as a championship (although the Sabres retire jerseys like they are giving away candy... 11 and 39 should be it). Business wise, they need someone with the attitude of Sam Rothstein from Casino who thinks of everything including the ratio of blueberries from one muffin to another. The sports field is oversaturated with professionals, its easy to find good ones. As I said, they are in FULL control of this. Dont need to worry about drafting, development, luck, salary cap, etc.

The Pegulas have been absolutely devastating for the Sabres franchise. They do a lot of decent peripheral things: Harborcenter, Combine, lockerroom renovation, etc. They desire to win, and will spend money we believe. I like the family as people. But man oh man, they have run the team into the ground. I have never felt lower about a Buffalo sports team, and that includes Wilson-owned Bills throughout the 00s. They are actually very similar to Ralph Wilson in ownership style. They like to be involved, and like to surround themselves with managers they are comfortable with and who will allow them to provide input. The organization is strife with nepotism (business-wise too) and nice people who get to keep their jobs 'just because', which results in a lot of poor and neglected aspects of the organization. This also keeps away experienced management with credibility like Lombardi, Quenneville, (Babcock), Burke, Lamoriello, etc. People like that demand autonomy. Instead, we get first-timers or people just happy to get a job. Like Botterill, Housley, and Kruger. Players cant wait to get out of here. Watch another NHL game in comparison, and the Sabres have been absolutely listless for like 9 years. Its boring. The arena is dull. They had a great team president who engaged the fans, but instead they sent him packing for Russ Brandon in yet another 'great' decision. Since then, the fans have been forgotten. Cap that with the 'jerseygate' with missing deadlines to wear/change uniforms and also giving alumni chinese knockoff jerseys.... complete with mis-spelling a HHOF player and one of the most prominent players in franchise history on his jersey.... Just What is going on there? This is not a professional outfit. The answer is they need help. Help in every aspect of running the organization. They seem to reject help and chase it away. Its bad, and fans are starting to disengage. This is my last year of season tickets of 20 years. I wouldn't miss a game for nearly 30 years and I have watched maybe a dozen games on TV total in the last 3 years, and haven't watched in months.

I like listening to sullivan or graham on the radio. Gotta say though, it wasnt a habit to tune in. The format on wgr is just so repetitive and spans years. Other local sports shows are refreshing, and they also tend to dive more into other realms besides the sabres and bills. Ub, canisius, niagara, st bona, bandits, nba, etc...

Botterill needs to go. He is awful. Nothing redeeming. The sooner the better. Mike milbury, tim murray, buddy nix, russ brandon, marv levy were never going to build a winner if given time. Take the garbage out to the curb. Changing management doesnt mean a 5 year rebuild reset. Plenty of teams get things going in 1 or 2 years with the right decision maker(s).

Thank you for this! I have been trying to explain this at hockey fans for years and 90% cannot make this leap. Last season, only 9 teams were below ".500" based on a clean 82 points. Some seasons it is even less. Some games are worth more than others so it throws traditional .500 out the window. .500 historically means you are at the mean. "true" .500 is finding out the average number of points in the NHL and basing it on that. Last season it was 91 points or approximately a 42-33-7 record which I would consider '.500'. The season before, it was 92 points. 3-2-1-0 Points system seems like such an obvious, slam-dunk change, I cannot figure out why the NHL resists it. The OT/SO Win/Loss system skews the standings.

Im fine with it. My tickets are still under-priced, especially with a relevant NFL team

Good team. Almost there.

I completely agree. His dream is/was to be a baseball GM, but got his break in the NFL and tried to learn how to do that. Ralph Wilson loved Brandon and gave him every opportunity. This shielded the Bills from attracting (or attempting to attract) and coach or executive with clout and credibility. He thought he would be sent packing with new ownership, even had his buddy float that the Raiders were interested in him... but somehow, the Pegulas decided to keep Brandon around. The guy was human poison for a football organization. Notice how all those organizational leaks and fighting stopped once he was gone? The McDermott hire spelled the end of that. McDermott was purely a Pegula hire, and essentially succeeded in walling Russ Brandon out of the football department. Pegula was fully vested in McDermott, and it resulted in Beane being hand-selected by McDermott as GM.

you have to wonder if the 'neutral site' market will be over-saturated with games. 16 a year, every year. Will people flock to an 80,000 college stadium to watch the Lions and the Panthers?

I don't agree with his politics, or at least the division that he feeds people from his show... But he is a radio legend. To fill that much time on a show that is formatted the way it is takes immense talent in his field.

I am not sure how I like 17 games. I love the 16-game records and the math that is locked in with that. I also do not like it if it is uneven. Not sure if there has been anything set in stone regarding the neutral site games for each team. I do like the possibility of the elimination of a week or 2 or preseason and possibly starting the NFL season earlier. I wouldnt mind an extra playoff team in each conference either.

I think that all brady is doing is playing games with kraft and the new england fan base to get what he wants. I dont believe he has any intention of leaving the patriots

No way he would. He was very calculating. I could buy that he would have done excellent. They did need new eyes though. The Ron Rolston hire for an NHL team was cringeworthy. Another problem is, pegula let regier choose a path, then changed his mind, fired him, the lafontaine thing, murray, housley, etc. Just a lot of bad hires and half measure changes during the course of a deep cutting rebuild.

Regier masterminded the tank

Just filling in is fine and a change of pace from Murphy

I want to see a sitcom with skinny pete and badger. Loved combo too

Flutie brothers band

it is however the Team President defines it. Someone like Rick Dudley has been involved in numerous organizations and has seen success nearly everywhere he has been. It is reasonable to think he knows a good structure and delegation of duties... and would also be able to hire management personnel with the same philosophies. For example, right now he is VP of Hockey Ops with the Hurricanes. Waddell is their president and GM. Carolina got serious with management and suddenly they are run well and are a playoff team. There arent horrific battles and resignations over trades and draft picks. It works. These things work in many organizations who are run much better than the Sabres. We have potatohead Jason Botterill with nothing around him, save Kim Pegula who is officially team president.

It can be the same job, but doesnt have to be. I am thinking of a guy like Rick Dudley perhaps. He has enough experience, success, credibility, and connections to build the whole organization from the top-down. He probably would not want to take-on the heavy lift and pressure of the General Manager job. He would essentially be the wall and conduit between ownership and the team. The current format of both the GM and Coach reporting to ownership is toxic in the NHL and with how disposable coaches are. Thinking about the Pegulas and the Sabres funding Karin Housley's Senate campaign. They will also never attract a GM worth anything if he cant fire a coach whenever he wants. Lamoriello fired Julien once with a week left in the season, when they were in first place because he felt they werent prepared enough for the playoffs. Or it could be a pres/gm combo like Lombardi (or Lamoriello), who do everything, but are completely empowered over the hockey ops. Some successful organizations have a president and then a GM. You have Neely-Sweeney with the Bruins, you have Shanahan and Dubas (and previously Hunter and Lamoriello) with Toronto. John Davidson/Gorton with the Rangers, Linden-Benning with Vancouver, Holmgren and Fletcher with the Flyers, etc. It is pretty much science-fact that the Sabres' organization is broken they need help fixing it. Especially before they squander Jack Eichel in the process. They could use a healthy dose of credibility and a clean start. I would fire Botterill today and hire Dudley (theoretically if he would accept) as President of Hockey ops and Interim General Manager. Allow him to negotiate the deadline and monitor/interview all potential candidates for the best GM for the direction he wants this team to go. If he likes Krueger, thats fine. If he isnt a fan, Im not willing to let krueger be the reason the Sabres cant alter their course.

IMO, that plot line stinks and would hurt the integrity of the show.

He failed to sign Cal Peterson. Even looking at the top 20 in save percentage... many of them have changed teams since Botterill's tenure started.

I think the numbers can be helpful, but they also need to be weighed with real life humans in a continuous sport like hockey with such variable situations. Baseball is different because there is such a large sample space and the conditions are generally easy to define. For example. A team that doesnt possess the puck well pulls the goalie very early because the analytics say so. The Sabres have given away a staggering number of empty net goals and have gained nothing from pulling the goalie. The clown-act with Skinner's usage is another head scratcher.