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For years, rumors have circulated among Western New York business leaders that Terry Pegula was on the verge of selling the Buffalo Sabres.
Time and again, his executives would flatly deny the notion when asked. That person usually was COO Ron Raccuia, who was fired three weeks ago. Now here comes more news that has WNY buzzing about a possible sale.
It was announced Monday that Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the umbrella company that oversaw all of the family’s non-petroleum businesses, was dissolving. The Buffalo Bills will be handled by only Bills employees. The Sabres will be handled by only Sabres employees.
Except for Pegula serving as president and John Roth as the COO of both clubs.
“Terry is extremely excited about the Sabres,” Roth said. “He loves this team. He’s fired up. He’s investing his own money in this roster and the arena. I think you can tell by his actions how highly supportive he is of the organization.”
Roth said Pegula will pay for a new KeyBank Center roof, upgrade the acoustics and replace the video scoreboard.
Why precisely is PSE no more? Roth said it merely was eliminating too many staffers with overlapping duties. It had been an often frustrating dynamic for the rank-and-file. Sabres team sources say under 10 people have been terminated, with the moves being made to reduce redundancy, according to the source.
“The moves were made entirely for efficiency and better focus,” Roth said. “We just had too much redundancy. None of these moves were performance related.”
Nevertheless, those Sabres-are-for-sale rumors spiked again Monday. While the chances of that being true are close to nil according to team sources, that won’t stop the speculation from being revived today.
Roth was brought aboard as the Sabres and PSE day-to-day steward in January and has since made a series of moves to streamline operations. Roth doesn’t have a sports background. He previously was an investor and portfolio manager.
An unspoken aspect of this series of business moves is how decisively Terry Pegula and Roth have come to the conclusion Kim Pegula’s biggest business ideas have proven unviable. Unable to work after a debilitating cardiac arrest last year, her creations and closest allies continue to vanish from the company.
Kim Pegula was the driving force behind PSE’s creation. She also brokered a deal in 2017 for her and her children to purchase 70 percent of Raccuia’s ADPRO Sports, which was sold this month to Legends, the same company to which the Bills have contracted much of their new stadium’s business, including PSLs, sponsorships, merchandise and concessions.
PSE previously sold most of its restaurant businesses, most notably the showcase (716) Food and Sport to Southern Tier Brewing Company in 2021 and its Tim Hortons location in 2020.
Other entities from the PSE portfolio, including the Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks of the National Lacrosse League, the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League and the Black River Entertainment, will essentially remain unchanged with their respective leadership still reporting to Roth. — Graham
What this means for the Sabres
This reorganization is going to create a lot of questions in regards to the Sabres even beyond the idea that this makes it easier for Pegula to sell the franchise, as Tim mentioned.
Pegula taking over as president isn’t an unusual move for the franchise considering Kim Pegula held that role prior to her health issues. The curious part of the announcement is that the Sabres and Bills “will be separating resources between the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, allowing each respective organization to focus singularly on their efforts.”
But Pegula will be the president of both teams, and Roth will be the COO of both teams. On the Bills side, the business operation is run by committee between Roth, Kathryn D’Angelo, the team’s general counsel and senior vice president of business administration and Josh Dziurlikowski, who is the senior vice president of finance and business administration. It’s not yet clear whether the Sabres will form a similar structure for their business operations, but the team’s release only mentioned Pegula and Roth working collaboratively on the business side of the organization.
This all comes at a crucial time for the franchise both on and off the ice. The team is planning a series of arena renovations in the next few years and on the ice, Buffalo’s roster is on the verge of becoming a playoff contender and boasts as much young talent as any team in the league. Since Pegula eliminated jobs with the Sabres in 2020 and said his goal was to be “effective, efficient and economic,” fans have wondered whether the team is operating with an internal budget. The Sabres haven’t been spending to the salary cap in recent years, but that can be attributed to a youth movement and rebuild that general manager Kevyn Adams has executed. But more of those rising young players are in need of contract extensions and the team is getting closer to contention, so Pegula’s spending habits will tell the story in the next few years.
The Pegulas bought the Sabres in February of 2011, and the team hasn’t made the playoffs since that season. Adams seems to have the on-ice product heading in the most promising direction in over a decade. The hope from hockey fans in Western New York is that Pegula will continue to take a hands-off approach to a hockey department that is running smoothly. — Fairburn
Required reading
(Photo of Terry Pegula: Justin Berl / Getty Images)
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