He's not concerned about money. He's not raising them 10%.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

he may not care about whether or not the franchise is in the black every year, but he still isnt going to run the franchise with no worry about money.

i could see 5-10%

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you can't be that jaded.

I can't see 10%. The Sabres have decent attendance records.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

yes, but the point is they have very few seats and box seats. and the attendance record is good after the lockout, but before the lockout they had a few seasons when the tickets didn't sell at all.

edit: we're also located in a poor market- a couple bad seasons and tickets don't sell well again.

We do have many Canadians coming down to see the games, the market isn't that bad. 10% seems a bit much, especially since we're striving for a playoff spot.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

i'm not talking immediately or even next season. within 2-3 years.

that doesn't even count for economic inflation.

It depends if we do good within the 2-3 years. If Pegula jacks this team up we probably wont experience ticket prices rising.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Why would he say money is no object, then jack prices??? As far as I can see, he's a fan who owns a team. He's loaded, so putting in a $20k carpet is like putting it in his house. Chump change, and it makes HIM happy. The same way it makes us happy to spend money to see our team.

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Wheelhouse

They missed the playoffs 2 years in a row, yet still have a season ticket waiting list.

they were competitive. remember when they were battling for 10th before the lockout? there was no waiting list then.

I think you're ignoring the state of the team pre-lockout.

After the run in 99, the team slipped. Rigas got arrested, the team was owned by the NHL, and a lot of people thought they'd be gone. The play on the ice was also terrible. 3 straight seasons dead last in the division. Nobody was going to buy tickets to that.

that's part of my point. 2 bad seasons and people won't buy tickets like that. buffalo is not a rich area, so more people won't spend their money on a bad product.

it's not that we're flaky fans, it's that our disposable income is different than a lot of cities that have big league teams.

i guess i'm the only one on my side of the argument...and that's fine. i just think we're getting off pretty easy right now as far as prices go, and i hope that i'm wrong, but i think we're due for an increase in prices.

I used to work for Rigas, I met him 3 times. Nice guy.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I did as well.

I was in the first group of 30 employees hired for the never-built office tower in Buffalo.

i dunno if the team slipped right after 99.... they finished 5th in the conference in 00-01. and came within 77 seconds of the conference final (which would have pitted them against a new jersey team they matched up with real well)

had peca had signed... i still think buffalo makes the finals.

still played .500 hockey in 01-02, 10 games under in 02-03, 3 games over in 03-04. no, it wasnt spectacular hockey, but it wasnt horrific hockey.

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But people have continued to buy tickets after two bad seasons. No playoffs in 07-08 and 08-09, yet the season ticket base has stayed capped out at 16,000.

The advantages that the Sabres give season ticket holders will help keep those sales up there.

I was a cable maggot for Adelphia, I drove too Coudersport for training sometimes.

One day they detoured us from class to this little John Rigas museum. Yes sir, nothing like being asked TO BUY some pictures of John Rigas after a long day of training and with a growling stomach. Having met the guy, I doubt he had a hand in most of the shady things that went on with the company. But somebody sure did.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I was spared having to travel to Coudy. Wasn't high enough on the food chain, mostly thanks for being passed up for promotions because they wanted to promote a group of people from West Virginia first. (Apparently the promise of promotion is what it took to get these people to leave West fucking Virginia.)

I'm pretty convinced it was all his kids' doing. John didn't seem like he was with it enough to manipulate the numbers like they did.