Article: McDermott Concerned about PSE Dysfunction

[MJS]

41 minutes ago, CorkScrewHill said:

Wait .. one of PSE's goals is to make money??? It is clear that the Athletic, WalMart, Bob's Burger Shack, and each one of us is not concerned about return on investment , why is PSE. Even not-for-profits such as University of Buffalo, United Way, etc .. need to consider the return on investment for things or they end up unable to function.  The story may be relevant, but a company caring about ROI .. is a non-issue.

And that's the crux of the article. We're supposed to be shocked and dismayed that a key goal of the business is to make money. And we are supposed to interpret that as the Pegulas wanting to make money so that they can have a lavish lifestyle. And we are supposed to view all of the moves they have made in that light.

 

That's why the article is so misleading and dishonest. It's the goal of every single for-profit business to make money by definition. Unless PSE is a non-profit, which it isn't, that's their goal. This should not be shocking to anyone and it shouldn't be shocking that they will take measures to ensure profitability.

 

We seem to be led by the article to expect the Pegulas to make business decisions based on some other motive, which is something we don't expect of any other for-profit business in the world.

 

Organizations that have to fire people get villainized. That's all this is.

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Warren Zevon said:

Why do some folks hate Tim Graham so much?

That is the way media has become.

Today, as opposed to years ago, I think people watch and read the news that they LIKE...that gives them what they want to hear.....instead of listeing for facts or to be exposed to other points of view.  Trying to get someone to see, or even CONSIDER a point of view different than what they already have is asking for a fight most of the time.

 

Its not just Graham, its a lot of reporters....if someone has a strong opinion..or reports facts that are different than what you want to believe, people are not going to like them for it.

[eball]

1 minute ago, Coach Tuesday said:

“Hacks calling others hacks” should have been the title of this thread.

 

That would have been more appropriate than a title presuming unsubstantiated hearsay to be true.

[MJS]

11 minutes ago, CountDorkula said:

 

Yes all companies want to make money. Thats the point.

 

There is a difference between that and putting a board deck together where in it it states "we have to cut costs so we can continue to live our lifestyle" and weve had to put a hold on the build of our superyacht. 

Can you point to any actual evidence of that? Their slide showed that a goal of the organization was to make a return on investment. People chose to interpret that as them wanting to maintain a lavish lifestyle.

[Warren Zevon]

1 minute ago, MJS said:

Can you point to any actual evidence of that? Their slide showed that a goal of the organization was to make a return on investment. People chose to interpret that as them wanting to maintain a lavish lifestyle.

 

Not too peeved about the chart either but people aren't interpreting anything the chart doesn't blatantly say. Return on Investment--> fund lifestyle. It's a stupid slide to show to your employees.

 

[CNYfan]

Hey WZ, what's the tune of the day?   "Splendid Isolation"!!! is one of my faves for the moment..  

 

Of course Terry has to make money, and that should be common knowledge to the workforce.

[MJS]

2 minutes ago, Warren Zevon said:

 

Not too peeved about the chart either but people aren't interpreting anything the chart doesn't blatantly say. Return on Investment--> fund lifestyle. It's a stupid slide to show to your employees.

 

Ok, I missed that one word. I guess people don't like that word. Also I didn't realize that they framed this as the Pegula Family Goals rather than framing it as the business goals.

[HappyDays]

58 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

I don’t have a subscription, but there are people here who have discussed low energy prices and losses from the Sabres impacting the Bills.  If the Bills organization is being stressed to make up for poor performance of other businesses in the Pegula portfolio, then that is also a major cause for concern.

 

I don't actually see any evidence in this article that the Bills will be impacted. The closest thing to that is a couple sources who claim McDermott was "concerned" that low morale at PSE would spill over into the Bills. But there is nothing material to indicate this concern is valid. If the Bills are profitable I have no reason to believe that the Pegulas' outside trouble will bleed in.

 

It's a very well written article and I'm sure the employees there have a legitimate grievance about how some of this was handled. In general I just don't see anything here I didn't already know. Billionaire oil tycoons are ruthless and look out for their family's needs over their employee's needs. Billionaire families have a lot of nepotism. Corporate slogans like One Buffalo are marketing strategies. I mean, it's all good reporting and well sourced. I just already knew this stuff. This is how billionaires act. You don't get to that point without being ruthless. Maybe that should bother me more than it does.

Edited April 21, 2020 by HappyDays

[billsfan89]

Just now, HappyDays said:

 

I don't actually see any evidence in this article that the Bills will be impacted. The closest thing to that is a couple sources who claim McDermott was "concerned" that low morale at PSE would spill over into the Bills. But there is nothing material to indicate this concern is valid. If the Bills are profitable I have no reason to believe that the Pegulas' outside trouble will bleed in.

 

It's a well written article and I'm sure the employees there have a legitimate grievance about how some of this was handled. In general I just don't see anything here I didn't already know. Billionaire oil tycoons are ruthless and look out for their family's needs over their employee's needs. Billionaire families have a lot of nepotism. Corporate slogans like One Buffalo are marketing strategies. I mean, it's all good reporting and well sourced. I just already knew this stuff. This is how billionaires act. You don't get to that point without being ruthless. Maybe that should bother me more than it does.

 

If the Bill's are profitable then it still is a concern that the other business troubles could bleed in. For example if the Bill's are making money and the Pegula's are losing money everywhere else they may cut costs on the Bill's to maximize profits to make up for other losses.

 

The last thing I want to hear from an owner is them being overly concerned about costs. 

[NewEra]

18 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I don't see any lies by Tim Graham. And in my experience, no. People get most annoyed when you are close to a truth they don't want told. 

I get mad at both.  Just saying 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

21 minutes ago, Tesla03 said:

 

lol just because you don't like him doesn't mean its a bad article

 

 

 

it's a bad article because it's YET ANOTHER in a long string of petty, vindictive articles written by a bitter hack.

 

 

[Coach Tuesday]

Just now, Joe in Winslow said:

 

it's a bad article because it's YET ANOTHER in a long string of petty, vindictive articles written by a bitter hack.

 

 

How would you know?  You “stopped reading” after the author’s name.

[HappyDays]

1 minute ago, billsfan89 said:

 

If the Bill's are profitable then it still is a concern that the other business troubles could bleed in. For example if the Bill's are making money and the Pegula's are losing money everywhere else they may cut costs on the Bill's to maximize profits to make up for other losses.

 

The last thing I want to hear from an owner is them being overly concerned about costs. 

 

I'll be shocked if it ever gets to the point where the Pegulas are cutting costs for the Bills. They're losing money right now because we're in a terrible economy and their primary source of income is being hit as hard as any industry. This isn't a long term problem.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

1 minute ago, Coach Tuesday said:

How would you know?  You “stopped reading” after the author’s name.

 

I am capable of reading what's in the thread, little buddy.

 

[YoloinOhio]

7 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I don't actually see any evidence in this article that the Bills will be impacted. The closest thing to that is a couple sources who claim McDermott was "concerned" that low morale at PSE would spill over into the Bills. But there is nothing material to indicate this concern is valid. If the Bills are profitable I have no reason to believe that the Pegulas' outside trouble will bleed in.

 

It's a very well written article and I'm sure the employees there have a legitimate grievance about how some of this was handled. In general I just don't see anything here I didn't already know. Billionaire oil tycoons are ruthless and look out for their family's needs over their employee's needs. Billionaire families have a lot of nepotism. Corporate slogans like One Buffalo are marketing strategies. I mean, it's all good reporting and well sourced. I just already knew this stuff. This is how billionaires act. You don't get to that point without being ruthless. Maybe that should bother me more than it does.

Pretty much, naive to think otherwise. Being rich isn’t a crime. Business owners have the power to make decisions on how they stay rich and how they define what they need. 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Just now, YoloinOhio said:

Pretty much, naive to think otherwise. Being rich isn’t a crime. Business owners have the power to make decisions on how they stay rich and how they define what they need. 

 

Stop with the common sense. There's proletariat feels to be expressed!

 

[oldmanfan]

40 minutes ago, Tesla03 said:

 

lol just because you don't like him doesn't mean its a bad article

 

This is a very very huge concern moving forward. Pegula's have shown nothing so far for us to think they are a quality ownership group. Sabres have been a total failure since they acquired the team and the Bills went through a mess until they got lucky with Beane/McD

You know, this kind of crap gets ridiculous.  A few things first.  One, I think Tim Graham is a very gifted writer.  Some of the articles he's written, such as his one about Talley a few years ago, are just fantastic.  But it is also clear from reading a lot of his stuff over the years, and from the reports people have posted over the years that have tried to tweet him or email him, that he is thin skinned and can have agendas that he tries to push, especially when i comes to Buffalo teams.  This article it seems to me is one of those.

 

Now, as to the Pegulas.  Are they a "quality" ownership group?  You might want to define what you mean by quality first.  Have they made mistakes?  Yes they have.  Do all owner make mistakes?  Yes they do.  Let's separate the Bills and Sabres, starting with the Sabres.  Terry has let his emotions perhaps overrun his brain sometimes, but they have hired guys who by all accounts should have succeeded.  Murray had a good rep before taking the GM job, and turned into a disaster.  Byslma - a former Stanley Cup winning coach who did not do well here. Botterill came out of a very successful organization, Houseley everyone thought was ready for his shot at a HC spot.  And Housely didn't work and the ice is thin under Botterill.  Sometimes you don't know whether a guy will succeed or not till they get put into the position, and the guys he's given a shot to haven't worked.  And neither did the one guy with expereince in Bylsma.  You can say bring an experienced guy in to right the ship, but how well did that work for the Leafs with Babcock?  At this point the hope is that Kruger is the guy, but if he doesn't get it done than it might be time to look at whether it's the players on the roster that are more of the problem.  

 

Now as to Mc D and Beane.  This crap about Terry being "lucky" to get them is just stupid and condescending.  He made a bad choice with Ryan, absolutely.  That one was on him; I hated it at the time and it never made sense to me.  But people tend to forget here that the NFl has a committee that looks at potential up and comers for HC positions.  Terry took some advice from that team I would guess, brought McD in to interview, liked him, and hired him.  That is not luck, that is interviewing and hiring the right guy.  Then he sat with McD and they decided to bring in Beane as GM.  Again not luck, a considered hire that has worked out very well.  This crap that they need to take the blame for bad decisions and just write off good decsions as luck is absurd.  They get credit for good calls, get blame for bad calls.  

 

It should come as no surprise to anyone that has been watching things that the Pegulas would be in some financial straits as so many are right now.  Their sports teams rely on revenues based on actually playing the games, and right now that isn't happening.  And so some folks get laid off.  They also sem to have some folks in the offices that have a different view of how the owners should run things.  For me, I would listen to such employees, consider their input, decide if some changes are warranted, and then explain my choices.  For all we know the Pegulas have done that.  It seems like some of the employees that left over  the past several years have done so for valid reasons, such as Brandon and the sexual harassment stuff.  Again, no one here knows exactly what goes on in PSE, and from reading through this thread and others there are some former and current disgruntled employees and some that are complementary of the owners.  For whatever reason it seems that Graham did not reach out to the latter group and only focused on the former.  An agenda perhaps?

 

If I were the Pegulas I personally would bring in a guy like they had in Brandon before he couldn't close his zipper, a guy who can run the business side of PSE.  But I can also understand why they feel they may have gotten burned with that approach.  I would extend both Beane and McD as they have shown they are quality guys.  I would sit down with Kruger and ask him what he sees in the Sabres organization that needs to be fixed.  right now is a particularly unsettled time, with no one knowing when games will start again, whether fans will be allowed to come to games, what the future for professional sports will look like down the road.  To jump on right now and criticize their business decisions is kind of dumb to me.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by oldmanfan

[Mr. WEO]

2 hours ago, Dirtyd415 said:

Oil prices have never before in history fallen this fast or remained this low for an extended period of time.  They only thing worse to have your money in right now would be entertainment.  At least people still need oil, albeit at much lower demand.  The entertainment industry (including sports) will emerge from the pandemic a battered and disfigured version of itself.  When only essential business are able to operate, you don’t want to have all of your money tied up in the least essential business of them all.

 

 

Exactly.  I think PSE was struggling before the current crisis.  Keeping leasing tenants in their commercial properties seemed difficult.  And the hotel  business is shaky in Buffalo.  I don't think oil prices have anything to do with their current predicament.

5 minutes ago, Joe in Winslow said:

 

it's a bad article because it's YET ANOTHER in a long string of petty, vindictive articles written by a bitter hack.

 

 

 

You are free to dispute the facts and quotes in the article.  Why don't you do so, so that we can all conclude as you have that it's "a bad article"? 

 

 

[Mr. WEO]

23 minutes ago, Warren Zevon said:

 

Not too peeved about the chart either but people aren't interpreting anything the chart doesn't blatantly say. Return on Investment--> fund lifestyle. It's a stupid slide to show to your employees.

 

 

Definition of tone deaf.

18 hours ago, Rockpile233 said:

I thought it was a well written piece, but I never underestimate how fiercely apologetic sports fans can be to billionaire owners.

 

Most of the anecdotal evidence I’ve heard supports the article. With that being said, they own the teams and can mismanage them as they see fit. I’m just shocked how many people get fired up to defend them despite having even less evidence than the writer.

 

Stick around.....

[Coach Tuesday]

9 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

Exactly.  I think PSE was struggling before the current crisis.  Keeping leasing tenants in their commercial properties seemed difficult.  And the hotel  business is shaky in Buffalo.  I don't think oil prices have anything to do with their current predicament.

 

You are free to dispute the facts and quotes in the article.  Why don't you do so, so that we can all conclude as you have that it's "a bad article"? 

 

 

Actually reading and critiquing isn’t part of the 4Chan troll strategy.