May Day 10

This team is the same as last year, but with Eichel on a 50-100 pace and the Skinner production transposed to Olafsson. That is the improvement. Let's see them play inspiring hockey the last 23 games here and I will listen to the reasons why we should be excited moving forward with Botterill steering the ship.

Without looking it up, it is close to that. I believe they were like 1-40-1 on the road or something like that ok, looked it up. 10-70-4. And they were actually 1-41-0 on the road with a 38 game losing streak in there.

without Eichel, this team is 92-93 Ottawa-bad

no way Courtney Love could execute a murder with a shotgun, stage it as a suicide, and get away with it.

Raising the prices a few bucks every year to meet demand is fine. Bills tickets are actually still vastly under-priced for a relevant NFL team in our market. when I say "Buffalo cant afford it", it is more in reference to the highly priced clubs, corporate suites, and amenities that all of these new facilities are built around. Nor do typical football fans around here want those things. We do not have the corporate or white collar upscale base to support high priced bells and whistles to make building them worthwhile.

Woods and Gilmore were both cases of guys who had enough here, unfortunately. I think Woods really wanted to go to the west coast anyways and everything, at least publicly seemed amicable. I love his game.

ha, I thought that after posting it. Not Plenz. The train of thought that you cannot move on from failing management just because you previously moved on from failing management.

That train of thought is ridiculous. The Sabres are where they are. It doesnt matter who is GM or Coach tomorrow. There isn't some magical 3-5 year reset button that gets pressed on a rebuild when you make a change. Just ask the Islanders or Hurricanes. Any GM would also be highly motivated to win now with Eichel in his prime. Those things can also be fleshed out in interviews. None of the Bills GMs or Coaches during the drought amounted to anything and were able to gain equal employment elsewhere. The best ones, you could argue, were the two coaches who quit. Was it change's fault or the organization's fault? Pretty easy choice says it was the organization. What I do know is that 95% of Botterill's moves have been trash. He has built a trash team and they have shown no progress (actually backward) in 3 years. Publicly, he speaks like a loser. "in a position to be in games', trying, learning, experiencing growth, been within 1 goal after 2 periods in x of y games, etc. He has hemorrhaged picks almost as rapidly as Murray with nothing to show for it. The pipeline is a tragic comedy. He isn't going to magically produce a winner. He is out of ideas, and organizationally, they are clinically dead. Again, after a hot start, they are among the NHL's worst 2 or 3 teams. The fact that they are at the cap with the 3rd highest payroll is sad. I also think they need to get him out before its too late and he used more of that cap flexibility on trash. They are also soft and boring. I hate them and cant waste time watching. Its awful. I wouldnt miss a game for like 35 years and I cant even justify the 2.5 hours. I have season tickets and have been to 3 games this season, all theme nights, motivated to go out of nastalgia. I am cancelling my season tickets of >20 years next week. They havent had a meaningful or relevant game in like 9 years.

A large part of me wants Brady to walk and have a gratification of a tangible end of this tormenting era. However, I think the best thing from a Bills standpoint is if he strong-arms Kraft into giving him a 2-4 year deal with a large bucket of guaranteed money. This will lock up their cap, lock them into an old and 'unathletic' QB, and very possibly will alienate belichick, who is probably the real reason for the dynasty. Brady walks, and I can picture Belichick getting better results out of someone like Bridgewater, or getting through to Rosen on the cheating system, or finding the next Lamar Jackson, etc. Also, arent the Patriots subject to a pretty big extra cap hit of $7 Million if Brady gets to March 18th, and they sign him anyways?

It is definitely coming Pegula himself said that a top of the line, state of the art $1-$2 Billion building does not fit the market here. It seems like there are 3 choices of location currently everyone is talking about Renovate in place Build a new facility on-site in Orchard Park Build Downtown, the most assumed spot is S and E of Cobblestone there. * - I think over near the 'elbow' of 190 and 90 would be the best spot. Lots of room and simple to set up the traffic pattern. IMO, building a new facility in OP seems like the most cost-effective option for all parties. Roughly, a major renovation of New Era Field will cost a similar amount as a new 'modest' build on-site, and a renovation is much more restricting than the clean-slate of a new build. There is also the question of where the Bills play during a renovation and the logistics of planning a major construction project in the snowbelt around a football season(s). Downtown, from miles above seems like the obvious move. However, land acquisition, demolition, updating infrastructure, updating the rail, Buffalo red-tape will add a great deal of cost, like maybe a 50% of the actual stadium price tag. I think we could be looking at $500K+ of costs before the building itself is taken into account. As it is now, I leave Sabres games early in the third period when there are only 14,000 people there because I dont want to get stuck in gridlock. Money is better spent, and the public ask would be a lot more reasonable in Orchard Park, where most things are in place and there are open lots to build in. There is also the number of meaningful events that are realistically going to be held in the facility. It is not enough to have a meaningful impact on businesses downtown. If it were an MLB ballpark, put it there at all costs. I think an Orchard Park Lucas-Oil-type 'fieldhouse'-style build is the most likely scenario here. If I could have my choice of a new facility, as much as I love New Era Field, I would love an outdoor, natural grass, semi enclosed/roofed stadium similar to Centurylink. It seems like some concrete details are going to come down this Spring or Summer. Looking forward to it.

I dont mind toronto if it isnt a dress rehearsal that the bills in toronto series was.

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.