Pegula Divests from Knight Hawks after pulling out of Rochester Lease

[Victory Formation]

51 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Or just moving on from underperforming assets.

Maybe it’s too much work for him as well? Owning various sports franchises can be a lot of work, maybe he can’t put 100% into all of his businesses endeavors at once?..

[SoCal Deek]

1 hour ago, Einstein said:

That poster didn't give you the backstory.

That slide was leaked along with several PSE employee comments about how the Pegulas treated their staff.

In that particular meeting, Kim Pegula allegedly told employees—per multiple sources—that their job was to ensure the Pegulas could maintain their lavish lifestyle. She would sooner fire staff earning meager salaries than cancel their lavish vacation to Tahiti.

The message was clear: you're expendable, your job is to fund our lifestyle, and our vacation matters more than you.

It made waves because it was the first time the public got a glimpse of the Pegulas’ not-so-polished side.

And you believe that story? Honestly? 

[PromoTheRobot]

I find it slightly weird, and very on-brand for Buffalo, that Terry Pegula is hated for the Sabres more than he's given credit for how his other teams do. The Bills are awesome, the Bandits are a dynasty and the Amerks have deep playoff runs every season. Why do we always focus on the negative?

2 hours ago, Victory Formation said:

Maybe it’s too much work for him as well? Owning various sports franchises can be a lot of work, maybe he can’t put 100% into all of his businesses endeavors at once?..

 

Lol, it's probably a good thing he's only focused on the Sabres.

[Mango]

One cannot look at a franchise that keeps Kevyn Adams as GM and long time Pegula family friend Jerry Forton employed and think that they are either 1. Well run or 2. Trying to legitimately win hockey games.

[Doc]

10 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I find it slightly weird, and very on-brand for Buffalo, that Terry Pegula is hated for the Sabres more than he's given credit for how his other teams do. The Bills are awesome, the Bandits are a dynasty and the Amerks have deep playoff runs every season. Why do we always focus on the negative?

 

Lol, it's probably a good thing he's only focused on the Sabres.

Because, for some reason, It’s personal.  

[Mango]

2 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I find it slightly weird, and very on-brand for Buffalo, that Terry Pegula is hated for the Sabres more than he's given credit for how his other teams do. The Bills are awesome, the Bandits are a dynasty and the Amerks have deep playoff runs every season. Why do we always focus on the negative?

 

They dont have a deep playoff run every season. In fact they missed a bunch of times and then went years without winning one playoff game.

 

There is no way that anybody legitimately believes that 1. Running an NLL team is comparable to the NFL,MLB, NBA, OR NHL. And 2. That Pegula has 1/8th of the involvement in the Bandits as he does the Sabres or Bills?

 

If you have full faith that Terry Pegula could tear this thing down and rebuild it again, by hiring the right GM and HC combo by himself, then I also have a bridge I would like to sell you.

 

Terry's most successful franchise is the one he gives less than zero forks about. He hasn't attended a single one of their championship games. Lol

 

 

[DapperCam]

16 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I find it slightly weird, and very on-brand for Buffalo, that Terry Pegula is hated for the Sabres more than he's given credit for how his other teams do. The Bills are awesome, the Bandits are a dynasty and the Amerks have deep playoff runs every season. Why do we always focus on the negative?

 

Lol, it's probably a good thing he's only focused on the Sabres.

There is an argument that the Pegulas just kind of got lucky with McBeane, and then lucky again with Allen. His first hire was Rex Ryan.

 

A lot of the Sabres woes seem to point to Pegula having an active role in the team. 
 

Nobody will give him credit for AHL or NLL success, those are borderline semipro leagues (and the Amerks haven’t really been successful over his ownership anyway taken as a whole.

[GunnerBill]

18 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

There is an argument that the Pegulas just kind of got lucky with McBeane, and then lucky again with Allen. His first hire was Rex Ryan.

 

A lot of the Sabres woes seem to point to Pegula having an active role in the team. 
 

Nobody will give him credit for AHL or NLL success, those are borderline semipro leagues (and the Amerks haven’t really been successful over his ownership anyway taken as a whole.

 

They got lucky with Sean McDermott. They got a serious, professional, dedicated leader with the strength of character to walk straight into his first NFL Head Coaching job and start calling the shots (got the GM sidelined, then fired, had the long time PR guy who leaked liked a sieve moved on, and most importantly he got the trust of the owners and kept them away from football). 

 

Separate to the questions about whether McDermott is a bad, good or great coach which is being done to death elsewhere he is undoubtedly the biggest reason the franchise stopped being a laughing stock. There is no Brandon Beane, there is no Josh Allen, there is no culture and consistency had the Pegulas not got that choice right. Had they hired Anthony Lynn as the "nice guy in situ" who had done a decent job as OC in the previous season or Harold Goodwin I have zero doubt we'd have carried on spinning our wheels and we'd be onto a 3rd, 4th maybe even 5th regime under this ownership by now. Not dissimilar to the Sabres.

[Mike in Horseheads]

They traded Peterka...  The Buffalo Sabres forward was reportedly traded to the Utah Mammoth late Wednesday night in a deal for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan. DailyFaceoff.com's Frank Seravalli first reported the deal and Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman indicated the return. Neither team has confirmed the transaction.

[Doc]

Outside of the Sabres, the 4 other teams owned by Terry have made the playoffs at least 60% of the time.  More (at least 70%) if you remove the Knighthawks and the fact that they’ve only been in existence for 5 seasons and (understandably) missed the playoffs their first 2.  

[BigDingus]

On 6/24/2025 at 10:22 AM, BarleyNY said:

I think that Pegula realizes that there’s a limited number of dollars people in WNY have to spend on sports. If the Sabres were as good as the Bills, then a lot more people would be making decisions about where to spend their money between the two

 

It would take a lot of money up front and more in continuation to get the Sabres to a point where they’d be truly competitive. If you are strictly looking at maximizing profit, then why push with the Sabres now?

 

Is that really an issue? I know WNY isn't a huge market, but it's not all about population size with some of these franchises. Like MLB teams in Miami & Tampa Bay, the Islanders in NHL, the Wizards or Suns in the NBA, etc. all have big markets, but they're lower in attendance than most of the leagues they play in. Meanwhile, you have Cleveland, not a huge city, supporting an NBA, NFL & MLB, having great attendance, all with Cincinnati just 3.5 hours away with their own NFL & MLB teams.

 

It's often just about team success, other times it's about fan loyalty over sheer numbers. In terms of loyalty, look at New Orleans. I doubt the average person living there makes much more money than those in WNY, yet the Pelicans had the 3rd highest NBA attendance & the Saints had the 14th highest NFL attendance. 

 

I think Buffalo can definitely support the Sabres, it's just that they've been terrible for too long, and the organization hasn't done anything to inspire confidence things will improve.

[Buffalo716]

53 minutes ago, BigDingus said:

 

Is that really an issue? I know WNY isn't a huge market, but it's not all about population size with some of these franchises. Like MLB teams in Miami & Tampa Bay, the Islanders in NHL, the Wizards or Suns in the NBA, etc. all have big markets, but they're lower in attendance than most of the leagues they play in. Meanwhile, you have Cleveland, not a huge city, supporting an NBA, NFL & MLB, having great attendance, all with Cincinnati just 3.5 hours away with their own NFL & MLB teams.

 

It's often just about team success, other times it's about fan loyalty over sheer numbers. In terms of loyalty, look at New Orleans. I doubt the average person living there makes much more money than those in WNY, yet the Pelicans had the 3rd highest NBA attendance & the Saints had the 14th highest NFL attendance. 

 

I think Buffalo can definitely support the Sabres, it's just that they've been terrible for too long, and the organization hasn't done anything to inspire confidence things will improve.

Honestly Buffalo certainly is hockey crazy 

 

It's basically connected to Canada and the cultures intertwined 

 

Buffalo breeds hockey players 

 

Like the city and the surrounding suburbs 

 

The sabers certainly have a big fan base.. it's just they want top dollar for consistent year after year let downs and that just makes it tough 

 

In the NHL we're eight teams make the playoffs per conference and there is also parody it's crazy that the sabres have went this long without the playoffs 

 

 especially for a once proud franchise

Edited 2 hours ago by Buffalo716