Building a business case for paying top $$

[Mitchy moo]

Tom G. had a plan and made it a reality in Buffalo. Build a great franchise through the minors and the draft & pay the people to stay in Buffalo. Mckee was damaged goods and got lucky (to the tune of $4M) but we kept a majority of our great talent. Danny B got a $5M score but he was also a top talent and was paid to be retained. In the old days, we normally would of just let him go but Tom G. wrote the check. He also looked at Timmy and said it's a risk but this guy might make it back for the playoffs and we couldn't of asked for anything better in buying a injured player of his caliber for a couple of million.

The unobvious part is Tom G. was betting (ALOT) that he could keep the Sabres running deep into the playoffs and have them be a top level team that might even win it. He offered reasonable playoff ticket prices last season's to the bandwagoneers last year if they laid a deposit down for season this year. He actually built a base of fans so when we actually did make the playoffs we would have a majority of the games sold out at high ticket prices and actually start making a profit.

The real reason I pointed out the obvious facts that have occured is to get to my real point here, Drury and Briere and many of our "Stars" are not going anywhere after this season. We will pay them to the max that the cap allows with literally pennies left. Tom G. has formed a very deep team with players that will last us for 5 years or more and he will pay to keep them as long as they don't get to stupid. We are going to look back at this squad in 5 years and say to ourselves these guys played on this one team all together?? Remember our finest hours and cherish the fact that we will see them for years to come.

P.S. As Spock used to say, It's only logical.

[Mitchy moo]

The final business case is when the Sabres become a even harder ticket to get next year, the year after sees the increases in season tickets / playoffs tickets to pay for it. Box costs go up for corporate players as well but if it keeps the clients happy & keeps them doing business it's a cost of doing business. I think the waiting list for season is like thousands deep now, it'll become 10,000 deep then & you'll have people reaching for their wallets to decide if they can watch the "hottest ticket" in town. We'll be the hardest ticket to get as well & you might as well start scratching those mini-packs off to help create a base off as well. It's obvious to me anyways & is a very strong business case (henceforth the title of the thread).

[Bill Brasky]

UFA's: drury, briere, zubrus, numminen, conklin...
RFA's: vanek, roy, peters, paille, paetsch

i don't see how they re-sign all those guys.

drury and briere - one of them will be gone
numminen will be gone
vanek and roy will command raises, possibly long term deals
i'd like to see them re-sign zubrus long-term

[Mitchy moo]

UFA's: drury, briere, zubrus, numminen, conklin...
RFA's: vanek, roy, peters, paille, paetsch

i don't see how they re-sign all those guys.

drury and briere - one of them will be gone
numminen will be gone
vanek and roy will command raises, possibly long term deals
i'd like to see them re-sign zubrus long-term

Drury & Briere need to swallow a Million a piece and get a long term contract, zubrus keeps his head, teppo retires with hardware & who is conklin?

Vanek gets a bump, roy moves on, peters is a dying breed, paille & paetsch- one stays / one goes.

Pretty simple & Danny and Drury are smart enough to know that if there is alot of talent around they will not get as much attention and will be able to play for many more years and make way more in the long run. Teams usually focus on a single best player on the team and try to knock them out, in the Sabres case that just puts a new fresh pair of talented legs on the field until healed.

[Meathead]

field?

[Mitchy moo]

field?

Isn't this the Bills site?? J / K

[Mitchy moo]

On the flip side of the higher expense to visit the games, you'll be looking at a team that will make the city proud and be contender's for years to come. It will also create a business case to keep the Bills in town and field a team that deserves a new stadium, if that's your thing. It will also show that there is money to be made here and attract larger corporate sponsors (like Toyota) who want a presence in new emerging markets. A downtown waterfront stadium for the Bills and the Sabres at HSBC will bring the businesses and people back to the city and the suburbs will get the regrowth from the inside out again. It's actually all a cycle in business / real estate and when done properly will pay large dividends to all involved. You should see how the market has grown in SW FL and we have no major professional sports to mention, unlike Buffalo. We have nice weather here though (Tom G.'s my neighbor and knows a good place to be) but lately have had alot of smoke from fires. Freaking sky was orange pretty much all day and smoke was everywhere. Oxygen tanks are in short supply for all my silver neighbors as well, oh well though.

[SabreEleven]

One thing that scares me is that they changed thier scouting system. They let people go and are doing scouting by video. Even Luce is gone. I don't think they can keep up the awesome scouting history of the last 10 or so years.

[Bill Brasky]

Drury & Briere need to swallow a Million a piece and get a long term contract, zubrus keeps his head, teppo retires with hardware & who is conklin?

Vanek gets a bump, roy moves on, peters is a dying breed, paille & paetsch- one stays / one goes.
ahhh, if only it were so easy as in the world of the skoob-miester...

you really think briere or drury will willingly take less money to stay in buffalo AND not be the feature guy? briere didn't do it last year, why would he do it this year, esp if philly is throwing 8 million in his face?

roy moves on? he is 23 and we've barely seen the best of him... come on.

vanek scored 40+ goals, how much of a "bump" do you think he will want? he's already around .9/year.

zubrus' head is 1.8 million right now. i don't see him taking a pay cut.

conklin who? our back up goalie who is more than sufficient in that role. lose him and we have to go pay somebody else even more on an open market (possibly)

i want to see more out of paille/paetsch.

this team isn't built with monopoly money.

unfortunately i think briere is gone. that frees up 5 million along with the 2 million numminen is making for the likes of vanek, zubrus, roy, and drury - if we're lucky. it sucks cuz i'd like to see everybody stay... i wish we had locked up briere long term when we had the chance.

[Michael82]

One thing that scares me is that they changed thier scouting system. They let people go and are doing scouting by video. Even Luce is gone. I don't think they can keep up the awesome scouting history of the last 10 or so years.
Excellent post! I am surprised not many people talk about this. Why on Earth would they screw with a scouting department that is soo damn successful? It makes no sense and scares the hell out of me for their future guys.

[Michael82]

I know it's way too early to say, but is anyone else worried that if they win everything this year, they are going to gut this team, just like what happened to Edmonton and even Carolina. I think we will lose quite a few guys and Briere will only be the first one. :ill:

[SabreEleven]

I know it's way too early to say, but is anyone else worried that if they win everything this year, they are going to gut this team, just like what happened to Edmonton and even Carolina. I think we will lose quite a few guys and Briere will only be the first one. :ill:

Tom won't let this happen. He is a business man and knows he need a quality product on the ice but I guess this could happen if everybody asks for a huge pay raise after winning a Cup.

[Mitchy moo]

Tom won't let this happen. He is a business man and knows he need a quality product on the ice

exactly!

[Michael82]

this could happen if everybody asks for a huge pay raise after winning a Cup.

That's exactly my point.

[Earthquake Enyart]

I think the video scouting is a thing of genius.

Why fly guys all around the world when you can have computer nerds cut tape of individual players for scouting. It's just like the NFL.

[don137]

Need to get a few more people that can bang some bodies and occasionally get a goal like Gaustad. Trade some people like Kotalik to free up some cash.
No way do they let Drury go. Briere is probably gone.