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 12 hours ago by Buffalo716

[PromoTheRobot]

8 hours ago, Mango said:

 

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

 

 

 

How many owners have any clue about running their teams? Bob Kraft? How's he doing with the Pats now that Brady left?  What you said is probably true about 80% of sports owners.

 

Bottom line: The Bills are still the Buffalo Bills because of Terry & Kim Pegula.

Edited 6 hours ago by PromoTheRobot

[Doc]

23 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

How many owners have any clue about running their teams? Bob Kraft? How's he doing with the Pats now that Brady left?  What you said is probably true about 80% of sports owners.

 

Bottom line: The Bills are still the Buffalo Bills because of Terry & Kim Pegula.

Yep. Terry got no more lucky than any other owner got with their first time head coach, and even second time head coaches who were failed first time head coaches.  It’s not like somebody told him he had to hire McDermott and/or that McDermott was a sure thing.

[BarleyNY]

7 hours 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.

 

I think that there’s something to my speculation. You are correct that WNY is big enough to support both the Bills and Sabres. And that the Sabres’ longtime ineptitude has worn away loyalty and sapped any enthusiasm. That’s a big part of the problem. But what I’m talking about is the bet the Pegula’s would have to make on turning the Sabres around - and the possible financial outcomes. 

 

It reminds me a lot of what happened in Cleveland in 1995. The Browns were on their way out of town and the Cavs were terrible. Indians owner, Dick Jacobs, saw an opportunity. He had a beautiful new stadium, some good homegrown talent and Cleveland had a huge hole in the sports market. So he took a chance and spent large on filling out his roster. The Indians went from being ann perpetually inept team and drawing a few thousand fans every game to an MLB powerhouse that drew celebrities to the city and sold out 455 straight games. But Jacobs said he would not have tried it all if the Browns had stayed and been competitive. There just wasn’t room in the market.

 

It would be one thing if the Sabres had stayed a competent and competitive team. They’d have a fan base that was engaged and spending money at games. But they’re nowhere close. They would really have to do something to convince the fans to come back and spend. That would mean investing large early and in continuation to have a chance to be good enough to bring back fans. That’s a big dollar gamble with no certainty of a payout. 

 

If you are Pegula, why take that gamble now? When you’re also selling PSLs to the same fan base? When you’re pouring cash into the Bills team and stadium? When the fans are already spending on the Bills? you can’t tell me that if the Sabres were as good as the Bills that many fans would not have to make a choice between which one to get season tickets for or that games attended for one would not impact games attended for the other. It would for many. So why take a very large gamble on the Sabres now instead of when the payout would be bigger?

[FireChans]

9 hours 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.

Are you seriously asking why Terry’s results in professional leagues matters more than rec leagues?

[Mango]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

How many owners have any clue about running their teams? Bob Kraft? How's he doing with the Pats now that Brady left?  What you said is probably true about 80% of sports owners.

 

Bottom line: The Bills are still the Buffalo Bills because of Terry & Kim Pegula.

 

Bob Kraft has by and large been a good NFL owner and has run a stable organization for two decades. Even pre-Brady, Kraft has been in the SB. 

 

They may be sticking a bit to get grounded, but he gets a little extra rope because, well, he hasn't had the worst run as an owner in the history of the NHL. The Pegula Sabres are arguably one of the worst runs by an owner in all of sports ownership history.

18 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Are you seriously asking why Terry’s results in professional leagues matters more than rec leagues?

 

No dude, they are totally the same.

 

John Tavares, the current HC, and maybe the greatest NLL player ever, is currently a HS math teacher in Mississauga as well.

 

So yeah, NHL, NFL, NLL. Tomato Tomato. 

 

And again, Pegula has never been to one single Bandits Championship game.

[May Day 10]

7 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

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

 

Buffalo, IMO is overrated as a hockey market.  We puff out our chests for the "ratings", but the fact is, if me, my uncle Ron, and grandma watch an NHL playoff game, it moves the ratings needle.  In LA, they could have a fraction of the rating, yet, many more eyeballs on the screen.    People do not really support anything besides the Sabres.  We have 2 D1 teams where about 100 people attend.   The Sabres have managed to erode their fan base and have not resonated at all with a whole generation of fans (perhaps anyone under 20 years old at this point).  

 

Also, sadly for us, the NHL is increasingly moving away from needing the grassroots fans, butts in the seats, anyone to watch at all.... to a large market, corporate behemoth.  Franchises are north of $1 Billion.  We are getting ads everywhere.  Virtual ads, ads on uniforms, increasing amount of revenue suites and premium tickets.  Buffalo and Lloyds Tacos cant keep up with Verizon and Walmart.  

 

Travelling around for youth hockey is eye-opening.  The facilities and organizations I have seen and experienced out of Buffalo are top-class and growing.  The rinks put ours to shame.  The organizations are better.  There are less politics and BS... better coaching, and better players are being produced.  A lot of this locally trickles down from the Jr Sabres (another Pegula operation) which is a joke and his little sycophants have their hands all over that as well.  

Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, LA, Philadelphia, and Columbus all have a better and more thriving youth and amateur hockey scene.  Cross the border and it is night/day as well.

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by May Day 10

[Mango]

7 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

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

 

When Pegula bought the team the Sabres were averaging 99% attendance. They were near the top of the league for capacity for arenas without standing room only (who break 100%) and top 10 overall.

 

The Bills and Sabres regularly sold out during the Bills draught. Anybody saying the Sabres suck because of the region can't have two teams is just making excuses.

 

The day Terry Pegula bought the team the Sabres total P% was 4th in the league. They were easily the best franchise to never win a cup. They've plummeted to 14th.

 

To give anybody an idea of how deep that hole is. If you took Scotty Bowman's best 10 single years coaching, and linked them back to back to back, the Sabres still would not get back the 4th overall.

 

Think about that. A decade of the very best years from the very best coach could not get Buffalo back to where they were pre-Pegula. 

 

This franchise is historically bad.

[FireChans]

12 minutes ago, Mango said:

No dude, they are totally the same.

 

John Tavares, the current HC, and maybe the greatest NLL player ever, is currently a HS math teacher in Mississauga as well.

 

So yeah, NHL, NFL, NLL. Tomato Tomato. 

 

And again, Pegula has never been to one single Bandits Championship game

I don’t know why folks say that Buffalo has never won a championship, I won our beer league last year.

 

1 minute ago, Mango said:

 

When Pegula bought the team the Sabres were averaging 99% attendance. They were near the top of the league for capacity for arenas without standing room only (who break 100%) and top 10 overall.

 

The Bills and Sabres regularly sold out during the Bills draught. Anybody saying the Sabres suck because of the region can't have two teams is just making excuses.

 

The day Terry Pegula bought the team the Sabres total P% was 4th in the league. They were easily the best franchise to never win a cup. They've plummeted to 14th.

 

To give anybody an idea of how deep that hole is. If you took Scotty Bowman's best 10 single years coaching, and linked them back to back to back, the Sabres still would not get back the 4th overall.

 

Think about that. A decade of the very best years from the very best coach could not get Buffalo back to where they were pre-Pegula. 

 

This franchise is historically bad.

I think it’s not a stretch to say that the Buffalo region isn’t financially prepared to support the Sabres if they are terrible.

 

Habs are clearly a much better franchise but even at 3 straight bottom of the conference finishes, they led the league in attendance in 23-24.