Article: McDermott Concerned about PSE Dysfunction

[That's No Moon]

17 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It would be bad form for the NFL to be pushing for one now.

And that has stopped them exactly when previously?

[ChasBB]

Oil less than $1 (that's correct - ONE DOLLAR) a barrel right now.  Oil futures have even gone NEGATIVE for like the first time ever.  This must have a lot to do with Pegula's financial woes.  Thank you MSM for scaring the crap out of everyone over the virus - now Buffalo could lose one or both franchises over the economic woes - crazy.  I don't think will happen, but we need to open the country back up and SOON!

[JaCrispy]

18 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

This article seriously ruined my day. 

Yup...just rained on my draft day parade...?

[PromoTheRobot]

3 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

And that has stopped them exactly when previously?

 

Well you have to admit this is different.

[TheFunPolice]

I had a long post written up, but it boils down to this:

 

LOTS of very wealthy, very powerful people want the Pegulas to fail.

 

Simply put, they screwed up the NFL's dream to go international in Toronto. 

 

It doesn't matter if it was a good idea. the NFL destroyed the Chargers brand and turned them into a semi-pro team with 30,000 fans at games because the NEEDED 2 teams in LA at once when there had been none for years. 

 

If it weren't for the Pegulas the Bills would be in Toronto right now. If you want to believe that the Toronto businessmen whose stated dream was to bring an NFL team to Toronto were going to buy Bon Jovi the Bills and he was going to move to Tonawanda and buy a canal boat and devote his life to running the Bills in Buffalo then I don't know what to tell you....

 

But he said it on Howard Stern! LOL

Edited April 20, 2020 by TheFunPolice

[Doc]

29 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

The solution is to hire the right people, give them the resources and get out of the way.

 

Also, I’m seeing that they are losing $40M-$50M on the Sabres? I haven’t read the article but if that’s true it’s a MASSIVE indictment on them. I worked for a team that finished with one of the worst records in the league, had just traded away the greatest player in franchise history and was owned by the NBA. We sold more new season tickets BEFORE the lottery was completed than any team in the league. It was about having a plan and executing it. 
 

Anyone that says, “winning is all that matters” has absolutely ZERO clue what it takes to be successful. You build elite staffs so that you are insulated as best as you can be from team performance. That’s what the Bills have done for 25+ years. That’s why Russ Brandon was good at his job. They were a successful operation regardless of the record. 
 

Of course it is easier in football but that’s why I used my own experience. It can be done but you need the right people steering the ship. Obviously Botterill is a nightmare but so is Kim. Go get a real GM to run hockey operations and go get a real president to sit over PSE and/or the Sabres. There are a zillion people more qualified to do the job. She had some of them there!! Dave Wheat should have been given total autonomy to run those operations after RB left. That would have been the best move. Empower the right people and get the hell out of the way!!

 

There's now way they're losing $40-50M on the Sabres.  And what is the difference in the organizational structure between the Bills, who are successful now, and the Sabres?  Are Terry and/or Kim telling the Sabres who they have to draft and sign or how the coaches coach, and leaving the Bills to McBeane?

[Buffalo_Stampede]

The Pegulas get $600 million selling the Sabres. I'de be shocked if it doesn't happen in the next 5 years if things continue as is.

[ndirish1978]

12 minutes ago, Lurker said:

 

Roboman.  Do you have an Athletic subscription?     TG gave Kim a full interview, allowing her to go on record and explain her side.     I thought that was quite remarkable, actually.  How often do you get to see a real time rebuttal or response like this?      It's not one sided at all, IMO...

The questions he asked were incredibly confrontational and completely shaped to make the company look bad. 

 

Question: "Many [former employees] also expressed disappointment that the One Buffalo culture is practiced but not preached. They expressed feelings taken for granted, overworked because of continual downsizing, poor communication flow and inter-departamental disorder." 

 

The first part of this question is stating facts. A fair question to ask here would be "how would you respond to these feelings?" or even "why might these feelings be accurate/inaccurate?" NOPE. Graham's question violates rules of journalism ethics asking a loaded question (framing allegations as true and so that any answer is seen as confirming those facts; often taught as "were you drunk when you beat your wife").

 

Graham's Question: "What is being done to eliminate these issues within your properties?" This is loaded. It presumes any allegation brought by the fired employees is true, presents hypocrisy as a given, overworked people were overworked specifically because of downsizing and assumes disorder and poor communication as facts. Sorry, but there is nothing fair about that question. 

[Doc]

Just now, Buffalo_Stampede said:

The Pegulas get $600 million selling the Sabres. I'de be shocked if it doesn't happen in the next 5 years if things continue as is.

 

And if/when that happens, say "sayonara Sabres."

[BullBuchanan]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You should apply for a job with the Pegulas. 

 

I was a journalist and found it almost always to be true. 

It's par for the course with that guy. My recommendation is not to give him the time of day.

[FireChans]

48 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Why can't it be both? It probably is both. But the Athletic's focus is on one side, the one that damages the reputation of the team owners the most.

 

Have you read this article? https://buffalonews.com/2020/04/19/buffalo-bills-buffalo-sabres-terry-and-kim-pegula-nfl-nhl-oil-prices/  Take a look and tell me if this looks like good journalism to you as well?

If only they gave Kim Pegula the chance to make a statement for her side. For shame.

[chris heff]

28 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

The solution is to hire the right people, give them the resources and get out of the way.

 

Also, I’m seeing that they are losing $40M-$50M on the Sabres? I haven’t read the article but if that’s true it’s a MASSIVE indictment on them. I worked for a team that finished with one of the worst records in the league, had just traded away the greatest player in franchise history and was owned by the NBA. We sold more new season tickets BEFORE the lottery was completed than any team in the league. It was about having a plan and executing it. 
 

Anyone that says, “winning is all that matters” has absolutely ZERO clue what it takes to be successful. You build elite staffs so that you are insulated as best as you can be from team performance. That’s what the Bills have done for 25+ years. That’s why Russ Brandon was good at his job. They were a successful operation regardless of the record. 
 

Of course it is easier in football but that’s why I used my own experience. It can be done but you need the right people steering the ship. Obviously Botterill is a nightmare but so is Kim. Go get a real GM to run hockey operations and go get a real president to sit over PSE and/or the Sabres. There are a zillion people more qualified to do the job. She had some of them there!! Dave Wheat should have been given total autonomy to run those operations after RB left. That would have been the best move. Empower the right people and get the hell out of the way!!

I agree with all of that. I read the article. What I came away with was the only entity that PSE owns that makes money is the Bills and based on the current circumstances this probably will be a rough financial year for them. The Sabers apparently lose a lot of money, I was surprised that they have high TV ratings. The other businesses are what? Professional lacrosse, minor league hockey, record label,  restaurants and a hotel. I was in the restaurant business and dabbled in hotels, they are hard businesses. All of these businesses will certainly be severely affected by the pandemic. PSE apparently had hold over  employees from prior regimes. It also appears, that like a lot of businesses, middle management was bloated. I’m not really surprised people were fired. I know from experience, having been a manager and then an owner, my reaction to financial issues were significantly different as an owner. 
 

I don’t have an opinion on Tim Graham, however this line is telling, “Terry and Kim Pegula, meanwhile, have paused construction of their new superyacht in Amsterdam.” Is this pertinent? Seems to me it is not, he doesn’t go on to explain it he just throws it out there. Is he insinuating that they have financial problems? It could be that the optics of building a yacht while firing is not great, or maybe they just don’t like the design. The way that he did this is a passive aggressive shot. To me it is indicative of a an agenda.
 

i

[Your Brown Eye]

 

[buffalobillsfootball]

11 minutes ago, chris heff said:

I don’t have an opinion on Tim Graham, however this line is telling, “Terry and Kim Pegula, meanwhile, have paused construction of their new superyacht in Amsterdam.” Is this pertinent? Seems to me it is not, he doesn’t go on to explain it he just throws it out there. Is he insinuating that they have financial problems? It could be that the optics of building a yacht while firing is not great, or maybe they just don’t like the design. The way that he did this is a passive aggressive shot. To me it is indicative of a an agenda.

 

Or, it might have more to do with the optics of asking the State and County to pony up $400M for a new stadium/renovation? Bad timing...

 

Pic of his current yacht - Top Five - which is for sale:

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by buffalobillsfootball

[CommonCents]

8 minutes ago, buffalobillsfootball said:

 

Or, it might have more to do with the optics of asking the State and County to pony up $400M for a new stadium/renovation? Bad timing...

Why does it have to be anything more than an example of them not spending money where they planned on spending it? 

 

They are Billionares, the article is painting a picture of their financial concerns. It’s very much related. Joe and Susie were building a beautiful home, their business was doing really well, suddenly do to no fault of their own their business began to suffer. They halted the beautiful home and decided to stay where they were at til things improved. 

 

For us it’s a home, for Billionares it’s a super yacht. I don’t think any of it is that alarming, only a small percentage of people will avoid any financial interruptions from this. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by CommonCents

[Kirby Jackson]

19 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

There's now way they're losing $40-50M on the Sabres.  And what is the difference in the organizational structure between the Bills, who are successful now, and the Sabres?  Are Terry and/or Kim telling the Sabres who they have to draft and sign or how the coaches coach, and leaving the Bills to McBeane?

That’s just the number that I’ve seen on social media. As I said, I haven’t read the article.

 

The Bills and Sabres are totally different business models. You need to look at each team as 2 sides. There is a business operations side and a team operations side. There is little to no crossover. Beane and McDermott run the football operations side for the Bills. Botterill and Krueger run the hockey operations.
 

The business operations staffs are probably about 100 deep. I think that’s about what we were as an NBA team. Typically NBA, MLB, and NHL are a little heavier staffed because there are elements of local broadcast that don’t exist in the NFL. There are also many more games so ticket sales are a bigger piece of the revenue pie.
 

Kim runs the business side. She’s ultimately responsible for those 100+ employees and 10 or so different departments. That’s kind of how this thing got sideways. What background and qualifications did she have to oversee a $41M ticketing department? What about negotiating a new media deal? What is her background in selling advertising and sponsorship? You see where I’m going with this. There are a zillion, seasoned sports executives with the education and experience to take this on. She is not one of them. The Pegula’s have a right to put whomever they want in whatever role that they want but shouldn’t be surprised when it inevitably fails.

 

It is not complicated to turn the ship around. The problem is that the captain of the ship needs to realize that it is better in someone else’s hands. That’s the tricky part. The best thing that Terry and Kim could do is to go find an elite executive, throw a bunch of money at them and give them full autonomy. I don’t think that’s likely to happen but that’s the answer.

[buffalobillsfootball]

1 minute ago, CommonCents said:

Why does it have to be anything more than an example of them not spending money where they planned on spending it? 

 

They are Billionares, the article is painting a picture of their financial concerns. It’s very much related. Joe and Susie were building a beautiful home, their business was doing really well, suddenly do to no fault of their own their business began to suffer. They halted the beautiful home and decided to stay where they were at til things improved. 

 

For us it’s a home, for Billionares it’s a super yacht 

 

Very well could be... I'm not here to argue.

[CommonCents]

3 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

That’s just the number that I’ve seen on social media. As I said, I haven’t read the article.

 

The Bills and Sabres are totally different business models. You need to look at each team as 2 sides. There is a business operations side and a team operations side. There is little to no crossover. Beane and McDermott run the football operations side for the Bills. Botterill and Krueger run the hockey operations.
 

The business operations staffs are probably about 100 deep. I think that’s about what we were as an NBA team. Typically NBA, MLB, and NHL are a little heavier staffed because there are elements of local broadcast that don’t exist in the NFL. There are also many more games so ticket sales are a bigger piece of the revenue pie.
 

Kim runs the business side. She’s ultimately responsible for those 100+ employees and 10 or so different departments. That’s kind of how this thing got sideways. What background and qualifications did she have to oversee a $41M ticketing department? What about negotiating a new media deal? What is her background in selling advertising and sponsorship? You see where I’m going with this. There are a zillion, seasoned sports executives with the education and experience to take this on. She is not one of them. The Pegula’s have a right to put whomever they want in whatever role that they want but shouldn’t be surprised when it inevitably fails.

 

It is not complicated to turn the ship around. The problem is that the captain of the ship needs to realize that it is better in someone else’s hands. That’s the tricky part. The best thing that Terry and Kim could do is to go find an elite executive, throw a bunch of money at them and give them full autonomy. I don’t think that’s likely to happen but that’s the answer.

I remember you saying this when she took over and you got flamed a bit. I’m still with you on this one! 

[PromoTheRobot]

20 minutes ago, FireChans said:

If only they gave Kim Pegula the chance to make a statement for her side. For shame.

 

Main story

Kim rebuttal

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

2 hours ago, Joe in Winslow said:

 

I stopped at Tim Graham. Hacks gonna hack.

 

The Athletic is filled with outstanding sports journalism,  Graham Included. Your entitled to your opinion of course, but to not read something because Graham’s name is attached is short sighted.