Terry Pegula's letter to Sabres season ticket holders

[Perfect_Drug]

As an Oiler fan, I am jelous of your owner.


Our billionaire owner extorted taxpayers to build his arena (which he owns), and even threatened to move our team to either Seattle and Hamilton despite a decade of sellout crowds for a historically crappy team.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Melnyk should take note

 

[rfournier103]

You would never see a letter like that from Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs. Any success the Bruins have is despite him and not because of his deft management.

As a division rival, I can’t wish the Sabres too much success, but I’m happy that the owner respects his paying customers at least a little bit. That’s refreshing...

 

[fsanford]

Is he Jerry Jones of the hockey world? Or does he let management manage?

 

[cpsman]

All of the Oiler fans comments here show how bad of an owner we have. Katz basically does whatever he needs to to make money and doesn't show at all that he cares about team success (as long as profits are still coming in) or satisfaction of the fans including season ticket holders.

As bad as Buffalo is, I give their owner props for actually doing something classy and writing a letter to the people that are giving you money for an inferior product, at least showing them that they are willing to make changes.

All the Oilers can do is "evaluate" and hire more people to help evaluate without getting rid of the problems. They continuously treat their fanbase as if they have an IQ of 10, even though it seems more likely that the fanbase could do a better job of managing the team.

 

[member 300185]

I agree.....its a mess. Not the letter, but the entire Sabres organization...well, the part of it that goes on the ice and behind the bench. There are probably 15 or so teams that wish they could have an owner like Pegula. He reminds me of Illitch. Things will get better as soon as they get rid of the coach and have a season not filled with controversy and injuries. Its hard to see where they are a last place team on paper.

Its a mess all right, but not with the letter or the owner.

And trust me, there are about 2 million Montreal fans who would swap out Molson for Pegula any day of the week.

 

[montreal]

Wish that was the Habs owner, instead after having the 2nd worst season points wise since the Habs started playing more then 50 games a year back in the '40's/early '50's, this asshole tells his fanbase that the fan experience needs to be better. If that's not a f*** you to your fanbase I don't know what is. Hey your team sucks but you will have better food!

 

[Frank Drebin]

If it was the oilers it would say they are evaluating and tickets are going up 5%

And people would line up to buy them

 

[HaNotsri]

Meanwhile in Edmonton we had a 6% season ticket hike and a $20 burger named after the VP of operations....

Maybe they cut it from his flesh?

 

[T-Funk]

"Dear Oilers Fans,

Get f***ed you f***s. Don't you know who I am?
Tickets are doubled"

 

[olli]

This actually seems pretty genuine.

 

[cpsman]

"Dear Oilers Fans,

Get ****ed you ****s. Don't you know who I am?
Tickets are doubled"

Do you actually think Katz would spend time addressing the people that blindly hand him money? Why would he waste energy on that? Plus, paper costs money. If he were to do this he'd strike a deal with city council to get Edmonton taxpayers to pay for it.

 

[Android 16]

This letter could have been used for each of the last 3 years.

 

[Lunatik]

This letter could have been used for each of the last 3 years.

Not really, they weren't trying to win games two and three years ago.

 

[Eisen]

lol what a friggin mess.

I don't know anything about Pegula. But that sounds good if he means it.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Nothing changes untilhe busts out the money and gets a real goalie

 

[Beerz]

Nothing changes untilhe busts out the money and gets a real goalie

Yes..because Pegula is a penny pincher...

What an absurd statement you just made.

Especially considering the Bruins throwing up 20 goals in 5 games against the Leafs perennial Vezina Winner.

 

[Sabresruletheschool]

I'm a little concerned that he may have PO'd other owners and lose potential future trading partners.

 

[Not Sure]

I'm a little concerned that he may have PO'd other owners and lose potential future trading partners.

how? besides, I doubt many owners deal with the daily grind of trade offers anyways. Do you really think some owner sends out a memo to not deal with the Sabres no matter what the offer is? This is like the offer sheet narrative, most GM's are too busy worrying about not getting fired mid season to not trade with a team because of something that doesn't effect them.

 

[razor8]

Not really, they weren't trying to win games two and three years ago.

That's probably part of the reason they're in this mess.

 

[Royal Thunder]

You can tell he really cares, and it's awesome for a team like the Sabres to have such a committed and passionate owner, willing to do whatever is in his power to try to fix things. If anything, probably cares too much, actually.

But the letter comes off with this air of whining that i'm kinda put off by. "When we started this rebuild, they told us we'd be good by now!!!" wah. Welcome to the sinkhole of intentional tanking rebuilds friend.


Also, that font is bush league, and having the fold right in the middle of a line of text...come on communications dept., get your act together.

It's not whining, it's fact. Of course everyone expected them to be better than dead last 3 years after drafting Eichel.

You rag on the communications department, but i think the charm of the letter is that it doesn't have the usual slick polished feel of a PR letter, it feels like he wrote and folded the letters himself.

Is he Jerry Jones of the hockey world? Or does he let management manage?

There has been no evidence of Pegula being actively involved in hockey decisions. His mistake was hiring the wrong people. He's interested sure but he's not a guy with an ego telling the GM what to do.

 

[Iceman]

Good owner hiring the wrong people. Somewhat unlucky in the lottery as well.

 

[MattySnipes]

At least he didn't increase prices.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

he may have a lot of money, but he doesn't know how to spend it wisely. Hasnt been able to put a competent management in place for the Sabres or Bills, with multiple attempts

 

[chethejet]

New GM has has hands full and will make decisions that improve the franchise. Scouting, coaching player development and procurement all need to improve. It takes time to install the changes and to see results. But with a top center, a couple very good forwards and D man, there is some promise here. I think Buff needs a better coach but that is not a primary concern right now in this off season.