TBN: Sabres exec on Pegulas' engagement, jersey misspellings, fan concerns

[Jim Bob]

Sabres exec on Pegulas' engagement, jersey misspellings, fan concerns

General Manager Jason Botterill hasn't deviated from his plan to get the Buffalo Sabres back to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Botterill has emphasized the importance of patience while building the Sabres through drafting and developing young players. However, fan unrest is growing, as illustrated by the peaceful protest held in KeyBank Center's Alumni Plaza last Saturday and average attendance that has fallen to its lowest levels since 2005-06.

Though Botterill spoke recently about his plan for on-ice improvement, he wasn't in a position to address fans' anger about misspellings on alumni jerseys, why the red-and-black goat head jerseys weren't worn by current Sabres for on-ice warmups for a 1990s celebration Jan. 4 or potential improvements to the experience in KeyBank Center.

Kevyn Adams, the Sabres' vice president of business administration and a former NHL player, spoke to The Buffalo News about those topics and several others during a sit-down interview Thursday.

Q: Why haven’t Terry and Kim Pegula addressed fans’ concerns publicly?

KA: Last week, Jason spoke on behalf of Terry and Kim about the hockey side. Obviously, I’m here today talking about the business side on behalf of Terry and Kim. I think at the appropriate time Terry and Kim will talk. The most important part of this that I want to make sure I get across is just because they haven’t spoken publicly doesn’t mean they aren’t engaged. They are completely engaged. No one has committed more resources to the Sabres organization and the city than Terry and Kim Pegula. They care. They’re passionate. They want this to be better and they’re working hard across every area of the organization to find solutions. I just think that’s a really important part of this.

It was a pretty good Q&A even if the answers aren't exactly what all fans will want to hear.

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[Gabrielor]

Answers seemed drone-like.

I don’t doubt that
the Pegulas care. I do doubt their management hiring aptitude. Q.E.D.

 

[Not Sure]

They do care, they just dont have 5 minutes for an interview and the printers ran out of ink so they cant send out a press release. I dont know why people think they arent engaged, I mean everyone gets paid on time so theres that.

 

[CrazyMonkey1208]

Why can't they answer the questions themselves? Poor Kevyn Adams has to do it.

 

[debaser66]

Typical PR blah blah without much substance

 

[FormerSabresFan]

Meh...pretty generic responses. However, it does sound like someone was canned for missing the deadline to wear the goatheads for warmup on 90s night. So there's that.

Not really sure why they couldn't have tried to wear them for the game though...the Canucks are killing their 50th anniversary jersey parade.

 

[Myllz]

Not a single actual answer to a question in that entire interview. Whole lot of pandering talking about how great and passionate the fans are, though.

 

[BuffaloGooner]

Not a single actual answer to a question in that entire interview. Whole lot of pandering talking about how great and passionate the fans are, though.

He did say that the leadership that botched the players not wearing the jerseys for that decade (blue and gold 70s/80s, 90s era black and red) is no longer in their position.

 

[oldgoalie]

Why can't they answer the questions themselves? Poor Kevyn Adams has to do it.

...the mouth of Sauron?

 

[Myllz]

He did say that the leadership that botched the players not wearing the jerseys for that decade (blue and gold 70s/80s, 90s era black and red) is no longer in their position.

I took his response on blaming the Murray team for that. "Under previous leadership, there were errors made." AKA a holdover from the Murray team screwed it up and it wasn't someone we hired.

 

[sabremike]

Honestly the Pegulas should've just had the jerseys made up, had them be used in warm ups and dare the league to fine us. Whatever the fine would've been would be dwarfed by the goodwill it would've earned the organization from fans that they desperately need right now.

 

[Chainshot]

I took his response on blaming the Murray team for that. "Under previous leadership, there were errors made." AKA a holdover from the Murray team screwed it up and it wasn't someone we hired.

The deadline that was missed was this summer. They've owned the team for 9 years now. The business side has been under Kim's direction for several years. I took it as "unnamed fall guy was dealt with harshly" to placate the masses.

It reminded me of the opening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- the people responsible for sacking the people responsible have been sacked.

 

[Myllz]

The deadline that was missed was this summer. They've owned the team for 9 years now. The business side has been under Kim's direction for several years. I took it as "unnamed fall guy was dealt with harshly" to placate the masses.

It reminded me of the opening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- the people responsible for sacking the people responsible have been sacked.

If anything I think it just shows it was another non-answer. It was answering the question without answering the question. If there's doubt about what he meant, it didn't really explain or answer much.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I don’t get how the Pegulas doing an interview or issuing a statement makes anything better? How does it fix any of the Sabres problems?

And I take issue with them being categorized as some type of absentee owners who don’t care.

They’re on their 4th different GM and 6th HC since taking over the (about 8 years ago). That’s not the actions of an absentee owner who doesn’t care.

They’ve also poured money into the Sabres. They built a state of the art 2 rink facility, upgraded the facilities at the arena out of their own pocket, expanded the scouting staff, etc.
They’ve supposedly actually lost money owning/running this team in some previous seasons.

They attend at least a dozen or more games a year (they wouldn’t attend every Bills game either if they played 82 games).

They’re in constant contact with the GM and coach (Botterill said they talk almost every day).

They are not absentee owners.


I know the Pegulas care. I know they want a good team. Them giving an interview to the press does little for me. I wouldn’t mind hearing some questions answered but Words mean very little at this point. All I truly care about is the team actually improving.

 

[N.Y. Orangeman]

Really disappointing, Kevy/in

 

[BananaSquad]

The Pegulas are far from the problem . They sell this team, everyone here might actually lose the Sabres from Buffalo. Also them coming and talking does nothing but make it a heated press conference.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

What are the Pegula's actually going to say? "We're disappointed and we are as frustrated as the fans are." "We trust botterill's process and hope to be competitive next year." "our goal is to bring stanley cups to buffalo and that has never changed."

There...that's your interview with the pegula's in a nutshell.

 

[Asymmetric Solution]

Honestly wish Kim would leave the team alone. Her pet project because she’s the wife of a billionaire doesn’t mean she’s qualified to make business decisions for a sport she obviously doesn’t understand. Terry not having the nuts to hire someone who does know what they’re doing to guide her is just as baffling. Quite obvious who the shot caller is in that marriage.

 

[Montag DP]

Why can't they answer the questions themselves? Poor Kevyn Adams has to do it.

Why would anyone who has ever heard Terry Pegula speak want to hear him do it again?

 

[UnleashRasmus]

Chickens running around with their heads cut off.

 

[Ygo]

Misses the point on so many levels... It's not about the team sucking, that happens, it is sports. It is about management/ownership (the team representation) not understanding their responsibility to the fans (the revenue stream).

• No accountability from ownership or management... Wow!!! Are there ever a lot of excuses and "explanations" for making so many mistakes (are we really supposed to believe that they could only get replica jerseys because they don't make them anymore? How in the world did Vancouver pull this off? I will tell you how... they planned for it!
• Whole article panders to fans... "this is really a positive because our fans are so great" (thanks, appeal to us like we are idiots, we can tell the difference between earnest effort in management vs going through the motions)
• Speaking of going through the motions... why is this interview taking place now (way too late) and why is it KA?

Bottom line, sucking on the ice is one thing, and to some extent luck and other factors outside the teams control can emerge. How you choose to manage your product and treat your consumers is 100% always in your control. This is what PSE is missing - did anyone call it our better than Ted Black in his post?

For the PSE sympathizers, i understand your point, they have put money into the team and the team being bad (on the ice) is not entirely their fault... however, they OWN the team and need to find a way to operate it more effectively.

 

[sabremike]

The Pegulas are far from the problem . They sell this team, everyone here might actually lose the Sabres from Buffalo. Also them coming and talking does nothing but make it a heated press conference.

Said this before and I'll say it again: Anyone who tries to move the Sabres will have to do so over Gary Bettman's dead body. The league would literally never allow it.

 

[jfb392]

Meh...pretty generic responses. However, it does sound like someone was canned for missing the deadline to wear the goatheads for warmup on 90s night. So there's that.

Not really sure why they couldn't have tried to wear them for the game though...the Canucks are killing their 50th anniversary jersey parade.

It’s much easier to get a warmup jersey approved than it is a game jersey.
You see many variations of current templates during warmups, but as soon as you’re attempting to use a new template, problems crop up.

This is what I heard: after the throwback game jerseys were bungled, the team wanted to at least wear throwbacks during warmups on each of the different era nights.
This wasn’t possible though, as none of the throwbacks had been adapted to the new Adidas template, and the lead time of the request wasn’t great enough to even create them for warmup jerseys.

 

[CrazyMonkey1208]

What are the Pegula's actually going to say? "We're disappointed and we are as frustrated as the fans are." "We trust botterill's process and hope to be competitive next year." "our goal is to bring stanley cups to buffalo and that has never changed."

There...that's your interview with the pegula's in a nutshell.

At least we would know they're actually aware of the mutiny in the air, because as it stands now for all we know they're more interested in planning their next vacation rather than trying to right the ship. Silence/no acknowledgement leads to doubt.

 

[5 Minute Major]

who cares if they missed the deadline to wear the black and red....they should have wore them in warmups anyway. What, would the NHL have fined them for doing that?