Very Odd - Sabres making more money this year

[Novacane]

I believe they had been greatly exagerating thier losses for years anyway. Now that the old crook is gone maybe we can get a real feel for what this team makes/looses

[Novacane]

Knowing what a liar Rigas has turned out to be I bet you he counted the price of the 1000's of tickets he gave away as a loss.

[Typ0]

I'm not an accountant but from Adelphia's standpoint giving away a ticket to an employee is an expense. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't why the team at one point got turned over to Adelphia because on the books Adelphia probably never paid a dime for those tickets to the Sabres organization. So AR on the Sabres books had whatever amounts owed for the tickets they hadn't written off as bad debts expense and AP on Adelphia was huge $$$ owed to the Sabres to the point that it became difficult to see where Adelphia left off and the Sabres organization began. Then as payments Adelphia would give the Sabres air time at absorbed rates on their networks and targeted media only they would use the spots they weren't able to sell to generate actual revenues. Hence no cash was ever exchanging hands, but Adelphia was gaining revenues on the advertising while the Sabres were taking a loss and Adelphia was expensing the tickets (probably by increasing OE putting cash in the old farts pockets). You probably aren't nearly as confused as I am. Like I said I am not an accountant and not geared up to think through these types of problems.

[Typ0]

I will say there are a lot of Synergies between the Sabres and Adelphia few other organizations will be able to take advantage of. I don't know why Verizon doesn't scoop them up.

[Buffarama]

Originally posted by Typ0
I'm not an accountant but from Adelphia's standpoint giving away a ticket to an employee is an expense. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't why the team at one point got turned over to Adelphia because on the books Adelphia probably never paid a dime for those tickets to the Sabres organization. So AR on the Sabres books had whatever amounts owed for the tickets they hadn't written off as bad debts expense and AP on Adelphia was huge $$$ owed to the Sabres to the point that it became difficult to see where Adelphia left off and the Sabres organization began. Then as payments Adelphia would give the Sabres air time at absorbed rates on their networks and targeted media only they would use the spots they weren't able to sell to generate actual revenues. Hence no cash was ever exchanging hands, but Adelphia was gaining revenues on the advertising while the Sabres were taking a loss and Adelphia was expensing the tickets (probably by increasing OE putting cash in the old farts pockets). You probably aren't nearly as confused as I am. Like I said I am not an accountant and not geared up to think through these types of problems.

It's dizzying isn't it.
The more tickets they give away, the more they write off as well. Money never changes hands, only paper expenses and write offs.
I am willing to bet that those write offs free up much of the undisclosed "pocket" cash that the Rigas's used.
I am also willing to bet that this practice was used all the way up the company ladder between all the businesses they owned which I recall reading about now. It's almost like money laundering. Cash vanishes undeclared and shows up in your pocket.
This is probably why they were indicted in my feeble layman understanding.