All things Pegula 1

[SackTastic]

NHL's Executive Inclusion Council aims to create change throughout hockey
Memo to Kim: there's a lot of women that are qualified to work in hockey ops (analytics, scouting, coaching - particularly skating). There's a lot of women, some from this area, that could bring more to the broadcast team than Peters, Rivet, and Ray. By the way great job standing up for diversity with the Beauts.

That was honestly the canary in the coal mine to me. The second the NWHL agreed to a 50/50 sponsorship / media revenue split with the players, they punched out. (As did New Jersey.) The Beauts were one of the top teams in the league with respect to sponsorship revenue, and the league agreeing to split it meant that the Pegulas would be kicking some money back to the league.

The NHWL teams were never going to be massively profitable ; the best scenario was that you made a little side money, but promoted the growth of professional women's hockey. The fact that the Pegulas punched out as soon as a number wasn't great is embarrassing. Given the league pays all salaries, the Beauts prob cost a few hundred thousand AT WORST to run.

Maybe they could have gone with some cheaper decorations in the spare bedroom on the SS Arrogance. But naaaaahhhhh.

 

[TehDoak]

I was just thinking that *right now* is pretty much dead rock bottom in Sabres history.

Can anyone recall a worse time?

I think it was actually better when the owner of the team was being led away by police in handcuffs.

Yeah. This is about as bad as the John Rigas years.

We'll see what this team looks like both on and off the ice when the Pandemic ends.

But if they're still losing games and money, then yeah, then we hope a savior comes along and rescues the Sabres from the Pegulas.

Its honestly worse then the Rigas years from my perspective. At least with Rigas, we had tangible reasons for the failure: small market team, no salary cap, exodus of great players due to financial constraints, embezzling owner in bankruptcy. The Pegulas rode in on a white horse with the passion and resources to backstop this organization into a winner. It is only through their gross mismanagement that we are here. Early on, they claimed that they were learning on the job, but in 8 years, it is clear that they have not learned anything on how to manage an NHL franchise.

With the Rigas teams, I was pained by the thought of the team moving. With the Pegula era, I no longer care.

Really? Worse than the Rigas years?

Let's go through a few things:

#1. Rigas brought on a yes man GM (Regier) and forced out a coach of the year winning coach (Nolan)
#2. Rigas traded the team captain for peanuts (Lafontaine)
#3. Rigas forced Peca to sit out an entire season during prime hasek, refusing to trade him.
#4. Rigas ran the sabres on a austerity budget for 3 years post Hasek, until he was arrested for fraud.

The only thing that made Rigas look like an "ok" owner was a combination was the greatest goalie of all time + an era where you could run 4 3rd lines and clutch and grab. So the Sabres had on ice success. But, without NHL intervention, Buffalo wouldn't have a NHL team.

I'm actually glad the Pegula's tore down the front office. It had several layers of brokeness, a lot of which was their fault via mismanagement. What I'm not happy about is the DIY approach rather than trusting someone who has built a franchise before.

On ice success != good ownership. Golisano was another shit tier owner. But they also presided over the best two seasons the Sabres have had in 30+ years. So they are remembered at least somewhat fondly.

The Pegula's were good owners to start (money is no object, etc), but a lack of success has driven them into weirder and weirder solutions. First was the fast tank/rebuild that failed, then it was the "patient rebuild" they lose patience for. Now we don't know what the plan is.

 

[sabremike]

Really? Worse than the Rigas years?

Let's go through a few things:

#1. Rigas brought on a yes man GM (Regier) and forced out a coach of the year winning coach (Nolan)
#2. Rigas traded the team captain for peanuts (Lafontaine)
#3. Rigas forced Peca to sit out an entire season during prime hasek, refusing to trade him.
#4. Rigas ran the sabres on a austerity budget for 3 years post Hasek, until he was arrested for fraud.

The only thing that made Rigas look like an "ok" owner was a combination was the greatest goalie of all time + an era where you could run 4 3rd lines and clutch and grab. So the Sabres had on ice success. But, without NHL intervention, Buffalo wouldn't have a NHL team.

I'm actually glad the Pegula's tore down the front office. It had several layers of brokeness, a lot of which was their fault via mismanagement. What I'm not happy about is the DIY approach rather than trusting someone who has built a franchise before.

On ice success != good ownership. Golisano was another shit tier owner. But they also presided over the best two seasons the Sabres have had in 30+ years. So they are remembered at least somewhat fondly.

The Pegula's were good owners to start (money is no object, etc), but a lack of success has driven them into weirder and weirder solutions. First was the fast tank/rebuild that failed, then it was the "patient rebuild" they lose patience for. Now we don't know what the plan is.

Attacking them over Patty is completely unfair. The team was absolutely right in not wanting him to play again (especially with what we now know).

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

Really? Worse than the Rigas years?

Let's go through a few things:

#1. Rigas brought on a yes man GM (Regier) and forced out a coach of the year winning coach (Nolan)
#2. Rigas traded the team captain for peanuts (Lafontaine)
#3. Rigas forced Peca to sit out an entire season during prime hasek, refusing to trade him.
#4. Rigas ran the sabres on a austerity budget for 3 years post Hasek, until he was arrested for fraud.

The only thing that made Rigas look like an "ok" owner was a combination was the greatest goalie of all time + an era where you could run 4 3rd lines and clutch and grab. So the Sabres had on ice success. But, without NHL intervention, Buffalo wouldn't have a NHL team.

I'm actually glad the Pegula's tore down the front office. It had several layers of brokeness, a lot of which was their fault via mismanagement. What I'm not happy about is the DIY approach rather than trusting someone who has built a franchise before.

On ice success != good ownership. Golisano was another shit tier owner. But they also presided over the best two seasons the Sabres have had in 30+ years. So they are remembered at least somewhat fondly.

The Pegula's were good owners to start (money is no object, etc), but a lack of success has driven them into weirder and weirder solutions. First was the fast tank/rebuild that failed, then it was the "patient rebuild" they lose patience for. Now we don't know what the plan is.

1. Regier build competitive team with a straight jack on. Nolan is a genius that no other team has wanted. He had Hasek
2. Lafontaine was broken. So just stop.
3. Peca got the worst advice ever from his agent. Ask him how his career went and if he ever got that money back.
4. Rigas was fraud but basically just company money to keep team afloat. I'd be mad as an Adelphia shareholder. As a Sabres fan, it's less clear. Ultimately, you are right. His fraud was not a long-term winning formula for filling seats and boxes.

 

[K8fool]

Hopefully josh allen pushes back w jack after these mandatory possibly manipulative capt sessions.. I love Jack's anger and annoyance at anything other than hockey . we'll see what effect this has on all of buffalo sports since i have no idea whose mind f#ck this was and how it will turn out. We absolutely love your fight and will Jack Eichel and Josh Allen.. Dont change either one of you other than follow your heart as our hearts our with you both .
This is for everyone around the buffalo organizations as i truly believe all of your hearts and wishes are focused on group success surrounding this city i will always love..



Sorry cant find the real version off axis.. But this isnt bad.



Always been fascinated by the lyrics and Jimi's murder as all this seems relevant to now and my love for buffalo ....

I just want to talk to you
I won't do you no harm
I just want to know about your different lives,
On this here people farm
I heard some of you got your families,
Living in cages tall and cold
And some just stay there and dust away,
Past the age of old
Is this true?
Please let me talk to you
I just want to know about,
The rooms behind your minds
Do I see a vacuum there or am I going blind?
Or is it just remains from vibrations and echoes long ago
Things like love the world and let your fancy flow
Is this true?
Please let me talk to you, let me talk to you
I have lived here before the days of ice
And of course this is why I'm so concerned
And I come back to find the stars misplaced
And the smell of a world that has burned
A smell of the world that has burned
Yeah well maybe, maybe it's just a change of climate, mmm mm
I can dig it, I can dig it baby
I just want to see
So where do I purchase my ticket
I'd just like to have a ringside seat
I want to know about the new mother earth
I want to hear and see everything
I want to hear and see everything
I want to hear the sea everything
Yeah
Aw shucks
If my daddy could see me now - everything, everything, everything, everything

 

[SackTastic]

#1. Rigas brought on a yes man GM (Regier) and forced out a coach of the year winning coach (Nolan)
#2. Rigas traded the team captain for peanuts (Lafontaine)
#3. Rigas forced Peca to sit out an entire season during prime hasek, refusing to trade him.
#4. Rigas ran the sabres on a austerity budget for 3 years post Hasek, until he was arrested for fraud.

#1a : Regier was hired by the Sabres on June 6, 1997, almost NINE MONTHS before Rigas took control from the Knox family. ( Rigas did not sign the MOU to purchase the team until Jan 1, 1998, and did not take control of the team until March 21, 1998. )

#1b : Hasek, who was the entire franchise at that point, publicly torpedoed Nolan by saying he did not respect him at all. Faced with a choice between Nolan and Hasek, Regier made the only choice he could.

#2 : Regier made the correct call on Lafontaine. The doctors were proven correct, he should never have played again.

#3 / #4 : Close. The austerity budgets started YEARS before the Hasek trade. That was the reason Peca was not offered a reasonable contract and held out. Peca was traded in June 2001, Hasek July 2001. The indictments of the Rigas family came down in May 2002. The writing has been on the wall with all the Rigas owned businesses for about 24 months at that point. (I was an Adelphia employee at that time. )

 

[SackTastic]

4. Rigas was fraud but basically just company money to keep team afloat. I'd be mad as an Adelphia shareholder. As a Sabres fan, it's less clear. Ultimately, you are right. His fraud was not a long-term winning formula for filling seats and boxes.

As a Sabres fan you should be. The fraud of that family nearly caused the franchise to fold.

The Rigas family took out loans to buy the Sabres, which Adelphia was ultimately on the hook for. After the sale, they pulled so much financial engineering that by the time the Sabres had to file bankruptcy in 2003 , they listed $64M in assets and $235M in liabilities. $150M of those liabilities were THE LOANS THAT THEY TOOK TO BUY THE SABRES, NOW OWED TO ADELPHIA. This was a standard Rigas move; take loans to buy something, then shift the deck chairs so that what they bought now owed Adelphia the loan.

On top of this, Adelphia gave away a metric ton of free tickets to employees in this area. The Sabres booked those tickets as 'tickets sold' , but Adelphia never actually paid the team the money. Later on during the bankruptcy filing, Hockey Western New York, LLC ( the company that Golisano setup when he bought the team) filed claims against Adelphia for almost $48M for these tickets, and other items that Adelphia never paid the Sabres for during those years.

It's generally painful to try and trace through all the documents, but I cannot understate just how close the Sabres came to folding because of that family, and how much they straight out stole. Their corruption never stopped either ; John Rigas was granted 'compassionate release' in early 2016 because his lawyers claimed he had 3 months to live. He's still alive today.

 

[BloFan4Life]

300 million, just like that


Terry Pegula’s East Resources Acquisition Co. files for $300 million IPO

 

[Myllz]

There's one IPO I'm not touching with a 90 foot pole.

 

[BeTheBallDanny]

hindsight is always 20/20

The pegulas are currently 1-1 for professional teams in Buffalo

 

[BloFan4Life]

There's one IPO I'm not touching with a 90 foot pole.

10 dollars a share is worth the investment.

 

[SackTastic]

There's one IPO I'm not touching with a 90 foot pole.

Warren Buffett just invested $10B ($4B cash / taking $5.7B of debt) in a natural gas storage and transmission company. This move by Pegula isn't crazy; some very smart people seem to think that NG has bottomed out.

 

[SackTastic]

10 dollars a share is worth the investment.

You won't get it at the IPO price of $10/share unless you have a relationship with a brokerage firm that would consider you eligible to get in. Once the IPO is COMPLETE, the shares will start trading on the secondary markets , and it's only then when the rest of us plebs can get in on it.

 

[Myllz]

Warren Buffett just invested $10B ($4B cash / taking $5.7B of debt) in a natural gas storage and transmission company. This move by Pegula isn't crazy; some very smart people seem to think that NG has bottomed out.

It's not the industry, it's the ownership.

 

[Buffaloed]

300 million, just like that


Terry Pegula’s East Resources Acquisition Co. files for $300 million IPO

I think he's going to buy up properties cheap and realize a huge profit when energy prices rebound. It might take 10 years but it will be a winning strategy.

 

[SackTastic]

It's not the industry, it's the ownership.

Oil and gas, he knows.

 

[SackTastic]

I think he's going to buy up properties cheap and realize a huge profit when energy prices rebound. It might take 10 years but it will be a winning strategy.

Exactly.

 

[SackTastic]

Don't worry boyz, Kim Pegula is only a Director in this new company, not the President! ( Uncle Terry is CEO and Pres. I wonder why... :p )

Kim S. Pegula, Director
Ms. Pegula currently serves as a Director. Ms. Pegula has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of East Management Services, an affiliate of our sponsor, since 2011. She is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pegula Sports and Entertainment and President of both the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. A native of Fairport, NY, she attended nearby Houghton College and graduated in 1991 with a degree in communications. She began her professional career with East Resources, Inc. in 1991 and was involved with the company until its sale in 2010. She has served as an independent director of Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) since 2017. Ms. Pegula is married to Terry Pegula, our Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. Ms. Pegula is well-qualified to serve on our Board due to her extensive management experience and experience in the oil and gas industry.

LOLOLOL

 

[SackTastic]

Wow... they are SLICK. (Yes, I am reading the S-1 while day drinking.)

Conflicts of Interest
JKLM Energy may compete with us for acquisition opportunities. If JKLM Energy decides to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from procuring such opportunities. In addition, investment ideas generated within JKLM Energy may be suitable for both us and for JKLM Energy and may be pursued by JKLM Energy rather than by us. Neither JKLM Energy nor members of our board of directors who are also employed by JKLM Energy have any obligation to present us with any opportunity for a potential business combination of which they become aware. Members of our management, in their capacities as management of JKLM Energy or in their other endeavors, may be required to present potential business combinations to JKLM Energy or third parties, before they present such opportunities to us.
Certain of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present business combination opportunities to such entity. Accordingly, in the future, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such opportunity to such entity. We do not believe, however, that any fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers arising in the future would materially undermine our ability to complete our business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.

There is a lot more like this, but in a nutshell, the way I am reading this :

• They are going to IPO this new company and collect cash to invest in the oil and gas industry.
• If in the process of operating they come across an opportunity that they like for JKLM, they can just do the deal with that (private!!) company instead. ( This is shady AF ; this means if you are an investor into East Resources Acquisitions, you are giving them your money to find deals for JKLM , a private company which you cannot invest in. )
• They have left the door open for East Resources Acquisitions to buy JKLM. ( Something they are only likely to do if things go really south, but it's a nice parachute to have. )
• JLKM and East Management Services (both privately held by the Pegulas) will be billing East Resources Acquisitions (the public company) for "services related to the identification and pursuit of business combination opportunities". i.e. ; The public company will be paying the private companies to work on deals that the private company gets first dibs on executing.

There is no way in hell I would advise investing in this. I have more to read, but this is shaping up to be primarily a vehicle for them to get other people to pay for expansion of the portfolios of their private businesses. This is not extremely uncommon in Corporate 'Murica by and large, but this is pretty egregious IMO. ( Legal, but egregious. )

This is also great :

Past performance by JKLM Energy, our management team and members of our Board may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, JKLM Energy, our management team and members of our Board is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by JKLM Energy and such individuals is not a guarantee either (i) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate or (ii) that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our initial business combination. Certain of our officers, directors and advisors have had management and deal execution experience with special purpose acquisition corporations in the past. You should not rely on the historical record of performance of JKLM Energy or our management team and members of our Board as indicative of our future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward. Additionally, in the course of their respective careers, members of our management team and
Board have been involved in businesses and deals that were unsuccessful.

No shit. ( It's mostly boilerplate language, but still funny.

 

[Buffaloed]

Pegula plans stock sale to raise $300 million to buy energy businesses

The company said the current depressed environment within the energy industry is similar to what occurred in the early 2000s, when Pegula bought natural gas fields that became the foundation for his East Resources business. In 2010, Pegula sold much of his natural gas business to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion. Four years later, in 2014, he sold another business in which he was the majority owner, HG Energy, to American Energy Partners for $1.75 billion.
Earlier this year, National Fuel Gas Co. agreed to pay $500 million for many of the same natural gas fields that Pegula had sold to Royal Dutch Shell a decade ago for nearly $4.7 billion.

Terry Pegula is a one-trick pony but it's a good trick.

 

[PegulasSportsEmpire]

Well he did say if he wanted to make more money he'd drill a well

 

[brian_griffin]

The incestuous relationships don’t seem to be that much different from a mutual fund company which contracts with its own research division for investment advice and clears the transactions through another back room entity it owns.

 

[SackTastic]

The incestuous relationships don’t seem to be that much different from a mutual fund company which contracts with its own research division for investment advice and clears the transactions through another back room entity it owns.

It's not a ton different. Self dealing chargebacks are pretty standard stuff.

The bigger WTF is the stuff about company acquisition. They have this setup so that East Resources Acquisitions will spend all the $$ needed on finding deals, but JKLM would then actually DO the deals and reap all the benefits from it. Great if you own JKLM... but we can't.

It's not illegal, since they are disclosing everything, but if you were a potential investor into East Resources Acquisitions, this is important to know.

 

[sabremike]

Over the past 30 years has there been a worse more sad ridiculous and incompetent owner in the NHL than Terry? He has done virtually nothing right, has completely destroyed a market that was so strong to the point that they can't even give tickets away and took what was once the 3rd most successful franchise by record in history and turned them into a historic laughingstock. Only Rich Gordon compares to him IMO.

 

[Sabre Dance]

Over the past 30 years has there been a worse more sad ridiculous and incompetent owner in the NHL than Terry? He has done virtually nothing right, has completely destroyed a market that was so strong to the point that they can't even give tickets away and took what was once the 3rd most successful franchise by record in history and turned them into a historic laughingstock. Only Rich Gordon compares to him IMO.

I think the hard part now is he ruined all the positive energy they had after 2015. At that time fans and media thought any move was possible, now we're back to the days of no one wants to come to Buffalo. They have to rebuild that, winning is the only thing that will do that.