Mango

Oh for sure. I mean, I have a house I really like here, but my career had to get to a certain point before I got it. WE would have gotten something in Buffalo a little cheaper if we didn't have to leave for my SO's job. But the median income here is about 30k higher per year than Buffalo, so by that metric it isn't too bad. I don't get how the average person does it. Buffalo is infilling at the moment. Sort of filling in the donut hole. So as my friends have gotten really comfortable in their careers, they have bought houses on Richmond, Dorchester, etc. because it was trendy. Less are going to OP and East Aurora, Clarence. My more middle income friends who were renting in the city but can afford to buy now are pushing into first ring suburbs like Kenmore. It will be interesting to see what happens.

They let Russ Brandon decide on the HC and not their GM. Extended Whaley after hamstringing his HC hire. Fired their choice in HC, Rex Ryan, who was not Whaley's choice. Hired a McDermott Fired their GM, Whaley Hired Beane. A lot of this reads a TON like the decade of Sabres futility, this one just happened to work out. None of it implies any sort of mastery of how to run an org.

Ha! I just moved out of Buffalo and have been in the capital region (Saratoga)for the last year. I agree, I think it’s probably already starting. Lots of foreclosures in Buffalo at the moment.

This is a larger conversation, but you touched on something really critical for the region. Buffalo is seeing a HUUUUGE cost of living increase, but wages keep staying stagnant. The employment demographics (job opportunity not race, gender, etc.) have not budged. We aren't seeing a large influx of highly paid workers, increased wages, or highly skilled workers to justify it. Buffalo has hyped (fooled) itself into an expensive city that keeps lining the same pockets for generations (Macaluso, Sinatra, Savarino, Paladino, Montante, etc.). A few years ago I was looking to change employers. I found an opportunity at PSE that fit my skill set and career path. I have a friend who works for Labatt in the same building as PSE and knows a bunch of those guys who are higher up. So we go and grab a beer to chat and see what the deal is. They wanted to pay me about 40% of what I was making at my job at the time. They were also pretty candid and said there is very little room for movement internally at PSE. You basically get your job and stay in your job. Obviously I didn't look any further with PSE and moved into my current job that was a 20% increase in pay out of the gates and resulted in a few awards, promotions, and raises along the way.

It’s out of touch with reality in general. Like, which employees are taking public transit to work? For the Bills? In OP, or the Sabres? Not to be a dick, but Buffalo is relatively cheap town with absolutely terrible public transit. Nobody is taking the bus to one bills drive who is a full time employee. Hell, if you’re a full time employee for either the Bills or the Sabres you should make enough to not rely on public transit. It’s not expensive here. She just sort of said things that didn’t add up. She mentioned the Sabres a bunch of times actually.

Maybe it’s PTSD, but it feels like BB has wet dreams of signing a guy like Cam off the streets, then having him beat up on his old DC in a division rivalry. Then a stoic post game presser saying something like “All the credit to Coach McDermott. They do a great job and show up prepared. We knew how ready they would be for what Cam could do, And we know what a quality unit he has there in Buffalo. We knew we had to be ready for today. Our guys put in the work today. Of course you’d like some plays back, but we made enough of them today. On to Baltimore” All after CN drops 350, 2PTD, 82 yards on the ground and 1 RTD.

You don’t have to be cheap and lazy to be really bad at your job. You can bust your ass with tons of cash and still fail.

This is a super valid point. But it also needs to be separated from the average Buffalo income of $55k. Vet minimum ranges from $500-900k. 4-5 months away from your family to earn a million bucks is a different conversation. Now if they don’t want to risk their health given the pandemic, I get it. But earning a mil then zero is quite the loss for, well, everybody. My GF and I have joked she’ll send me away for a year for a million bucks.

Not just that, I found it a bit manipulative. I worked for a family like this for a number of years while I started my career, waiting tables and bar tending to help pay the bills. They assume that their employees can’t take care of themselves, then hold it over their head. Specifically speaking to the Feliciano (I think it was him) story about chattering a plane for his pregnant wife. The Pegulas didn’t charter a plane for them. They didn’t donate their plane. They helped make the contact. JF is a millionaire with an agent, who represents other millionaires. Who is part of an agency that represents even more millionaires. It’s like bragging about being a good neighbor for helping the guy next door find somebody to work on his transmission. It’s silly. Literally the entire thing was damage control. For their layoffs and a decade of failure with the Sabres. She said almost nothing.

Some good points here. But a point of contention. I actually don’t see much of a change from Terry “scheming” with Regier without looping in Ted Black. They continue to push a flat management structure, even mentioning it on their zoom call a few weeks ago. They continue to hire people they are comfortable with rather than people who are good at their jobs and elevating them to be better. They quite literally keep doing the same exact thing and producing the same terrible results. I have questioned some of the moves from McBeane. But holy hell, if the Sabres are the basement of what this ownership is capable of, lock up McBeane for whatever the hell they want for the next 30 years.

This might be a great topic for another thread. But I think you’re right. Mario Williams was fine here. George Edwards wasn’t. By the time his luster wore out off after some highly productive years, he wasn’t the highest player in the league anymore. Dareus was one of the best DT in the league. His fall from grace was tragic and I feel for the guy. Hating on him is hindsight criticism at its best. Tre will be fine. They are a very good unit but lack a lot of star power. He plays with a lot of good enough at CB but not a ton for good. If we can keep a very good and cost efficient safety pairing it’s worth the cost. Josh Allen. Boy this one will be contentious unless he turns out to be a stud. If in 2 years Josh signs at 33M average we’ll be fine, assuming the cap starts to increase again. It’s actually probably a steal once you factor in a cap increase or two. But if it starts to push substantially more than that, he’ll have to make up for much lesser talent at OL and WR and this board will get rough. Then of course Gilmore was too much according to Bills fans. He’s currently a stud. Marshawn has a registered gun in his trunk, and searched while parked for no real good reason, he gets run out of town. Bob Woods wasn’t worth his LA contract, he was, and it was reasonable. We could go back decades with this.

This. Depending on up front bonus money, he could invest and get the possibly the same or greater return on compounding interest compared to fajita chasing market value.

Yes and no. Part of the issue that makes it trickier is that the NHL is not all that popular to begin with. Where as the Bills can basically break even just from the TV contracts alone. ($255M per year and $198M salary cap) It isn't that different than most teams in the NHL. They need to have lots of butts in lots of seats just to hit a break even point. What is happening to the Sabres is just 10 years of futility catching up to them in a bit of a niche sport. Not necessarily that Buffalo cannot support an NHL team unless there is some wild set of circumstances. The Pegulas are actually in an enviable situation professionally. They have a market that will support their team and make them millions without much issue as long as they are even average at your job. But they can't get out of their own way. They are tanking their own business. Sure, maybe LA could make them more money, but Buffalo isn't a town where it should be costing them money to run the team. If they just made the playoffs every other year, people would literally camp out overnight to get tickets and buy merch. Could you imagine you go to work and people are begging you for your product already, there is almost no customer acquisition costs, no consumer education, no real key verticals. Just a base of people that already want your product. All you have to do is hire people who are about average at their job and get out of the way. Then you can make millions. Most of us are not that lucky. They are actually in complete control of their destiny here. This is their problem, not the towns. They have been absolutely miserable owners of the Sabres. Like one of the worst owners in all of professional sports. It's not the market (albeit there are some issues with comparative profitability to other franchises)

I actually used to sell signage like this for a bit. I think it is funny that they used a picture with the test screen to make sure all of the "cabinets" are working properly. Like there wasn't somebody there from Samsung with some football content loaded on a player to show of the new install.

Jesus, my new puppy kept me up ALL night last night in the crate, after a weekend of no crate hanging at the lake. Normally I am pretty good with this stuff. I appreciate you pointing out the my WA debacle using old data. My CA reference was more in comparison to the size of the population and total population sprawl across the state (mostly along the coast). They are definitely trending up, but not at the rate of say Texas or Florida in total cases and they only have 50-60% of the total population. I totally agree with you here, I was just painting with a broad brush. California is an interesting case study for all sorts of issues. As much as everybody wants to think that CA is all hippy-dippy and surfer dudes, there are large communities that are not. CA should see another large pop early this week. No reporting from San Diego or LA this weekend with the 4th.

Sorry, I misread the article from CBS News. It is Yakima County, which is SE of Kings County. They are moving patients from Yakima to Kings County. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/washington-state-require-face-mask-hospital-beds-coronavirus/

This is actually less from you, and more for everybody trying to make some wild, "BuT tHe PrOtEsToRs" and "MuH FrEeDoMs" claim 1. Protests were outdoors 2. 99% of people there are wearing masks So fine, abide by CDC guidelines. Everybody HAS to wear a mask or they are booted and/or fined. Also no attendance at indoor stadiums. Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Minnesota, Detroit, Arizona, Indy, Vegas, LA Rams, LA Chargers. Playing by the same rules, here are the other stadiums that cannot host any games because their hospitals are pushing too close to capacity. Miami- Hospitals are 75% + Carolina- Hospitals are at 75% + Tampa- 4 hospitals in the county are at 100% capacity Seattle- Ran out of beds 2 weeks ago. San Fran- Taking patients for neighboring counties who are at capacity. Cannot afford to lose beds. Oakland- See SF So here we are. Only football that is left is basically from the coalition of states with everybody's least favorite "DiCtAtOr" Andrew Cuomo. All the places where there was some big government conspiracy. But turns out, had everybody across the country just effing listed, instead of whined like entitled little babies, we could actually be talking about going to games in some capacity. Here are the home teams of games that we can go to: Browns, Bengals, Steelers, Bills, Pats, Jets, Giants, Ravens, Skins, Eagles, Chiefs, Broncos, Bears. ...but edit that down, because I am not sure they would want a bunch of fans in Kansas City, from Tampa Bay.

Can somebody help me clarify this one. I am reading this at first as, "She organized this "Listen, Learn, Love" group. Which is great. But then says all the participants were black? Did she mean all the speakers were black? When I read "participant", I read that all people, attendies, presenters, etc. If that is the case, is this just an echo chamber of POC telling each other what it is like to be a POC. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to be gained from a group therapy model, especially in trying times, but it almost reads like she organized her own focus group to explain to her what living as a minority is like. She organized the whole damn thing and named it "Listen, Learn, Love" I would imagine that having white people their to, ya know, "Listen, Learn, and Love" is imperative for this entire exercise.

Literally one city, in a state that is on a steady decline, is your big "contact tracers are infected by politics". Cool, DeBlasio sucks, always has. He was wrong here. Reads a lot like you are implying protests are leading to spike, which is silly. But oddly enough most states spiking are generally not a bastion for liberal protest on a large scale. You know Arizona, still locking kids in cages, they love to protest to help protect POC. New York is continuing to trend down. Minnesota has been trending down. Washington State is trending down. California has remained largely stagnant, but high as the largest state in the country. Florida and Texas will probably pass California this week. All these places that are making headlines for the size of their protests have seen a continued and significant downward trend in infection rate.

That was only in NYC, and is so incredibly irrelevant. You are trying to make a point that has no basis in any sort of reality. 1 week before protests began in NYC there were 2000 cases in the entire state. A week later we were down to about 1000, and now we are in 6-800 area. It is almost as if the people who marched for George Floyd also believe in science and protecting their fellow man.

Just put it this way, if people stopped making up some load of crap about "PeRsOnAl FrEeDoMs" and how a mask somehow impairs that, there is a good chance that they could go to a football game in September with minimal risk of killing people.

It may not “do anything” but they are the largest TV draw of the week, and they’re making a public display of which side they stand on. People don’t like their side, not their action in this.

Correct. As I posted earlier, it’s not about a second song, it’s people being made to feel uncomfortable about their pen crappy ideologies. I just had a similar conversation with a neighbor a week ago. She was upset that another neighbor, who is a POC, was racially profiled in our neighborhood. Others were of color cited being ID’d in their own driveway and yards by police. She was upset that “people were bringing this to her doorstep”. Well lady. The world exists, and whether you like it or not, this is life for your neighbors of color. By opening your door, these are the issues of the world. You can deal with them or keep your door closed and wait to die. People hate inconvenient truths.

I think this should be boiled down to the nuance of what’s happening. People are upset that the NFL is finally saying that there are systemic racial injustices in this country and some don’t like that they are disagreeing with their POV so publicly. Call it what it is. This isn’t about a song.

With Cuomo's coalition of states, it won't be in the north east. Maybe they could go to Ohio. The Pegulas are probably going to be asking NYS for money in the next few years for a new stadium. Based on the economics/budget of the pandemic in NYS and the way the Pegulas have been managing their business (outside of football). Pegula will need NYS to help with that. Not sure pissing off the government to skirt pandemic safety rules is the best course of action long term.