It is being reported in a limited way, that the Sabres are actually making more money than last year.
Apparantly this is due to legitimate tickets being sold.
This is pretty mind boggling, considering attendance is down around 6000 per game.
So see, your tickets purchases DO count, and are helping.
And, who the heck knows what Rigas was doing.
Link please :)
Who the heck was he giving all those tickets to?
I heard it on WNSA Clump.
Many, many tickets were given away to employees. No doubt Adelphia paid the Sabres a discounted rate for them and both companies wrote off the costs and losses.
that was rigas' way of saying "here's your bonus" to his employees.i wish the old fart to be put away for the rest of his life.
Originally Posted by yordad
Originally posted by SABURZFAN
that was rigas' way of saying "here's your bonus" to his employees.i wish the old fart to be put away for the rest of his life.
that was sarcasm.the bonus part.the old fart part isn't.
Yep, and his sons should be right in there with him.
Seems like this team was designed to show a loss in this "small market".
So much for marketing and a plan for the Sabres. The plan was to lose money all along. The Sabres were one of their ways to hide personal expenditures.
does making more money mean that they are only losing less money...are they actually in the black??
For all the education and practice each of us undergoes, the achievment of mastery is ultimately the outcome of a personal quest for understanding.
3 points:
1. Their payroll is down from last year.
2. The few people who are going to the games actually paid for the tickets.
3. They do have a new deal with Empire that may be more attractive for the Sabre side to aid with the sale.
I don't think it means they are turning a profit, I think it means they have a better profit/loss ratio.
Let me think about this.Originally posted by Typ0
Many, many tickets were given away to employees. No doubt Adelphia paid the Sabres a discounted rate for them and both companies wrote off the costs and losses.
I sell tickets to my other company and take in the money, minus a markdown and write it off. Then I write off the purchase of those tickets as business expense from my other company.
Essentially, I have taken in no hard cash. But I have written off the price of 1 ticket plus the markdown. If the tickets were given away free, I've now written off double the face value , 1 from each company.
In the meantime, having taken in no hard cash, I have no profits and show a loss, which is a further tax write off. The more money I show I lose, the less money I have to pay out in salaries because I am a "small market team" losing money, and can't afford high priced players.
The more tickets I give away, the greater my write offs, the greater my overall loss, the lower my payroll, less money out.
Top it off with a full house, and losing money just proves that it's just too small a market.
Now if only I could televise my own games on my own TV network, just think off all the other bennies I can get for myself, and show even greater write offs and loss.
Un-freakin-believable stuff huh?
i think that if the SABRES show a little consistency,the people will start to show up.
I agree saburz. The first two games of the season the started like a tornado and now they're back to the Sabres of old.
See me here pushing you
If I then deny I do
Contemplate or wish away
If I ask you not to stay
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
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.
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 $$$ owed to the Sabres to the point that it became difficult to see where Adelphia left off and the Sabres organization began. Then as payments Adelphia would give the Sabres air time at absorbed rates on their networks and targeted media only they would use the spots they weren't able to sell to generate actual revenues. Hence no cash was ever exchanging hands, but Adelphia was gaining revenues on the advertising while the Sabres were taking a loss and Adelphia was expensing the tickets (probably by increasing OE putting cash in the old farts pockets). You probably aren't nearly as confused as I am. Like I said I am not an accountant and not geared up to think through these types of problems.
I will say there are a lot of Synergies between the Sabres and Adelphia few other organizations will be able to take advantage of. I don't know why Verizon doesn't scoop them up.
It's dizzying isn't it.Originally posted by Typ0
I'm not an accountant but from Adelphia's standpoint giving away a ticket to an employee is an expense. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't why the team at one point got turned over to Adelphia because on the books Adelphia probably never paid a dime for those tickets to the Sabres organization. So AR on the Sabres books had whatever amounts owed for the tickets they hadn't written off as bad debts expense and AP on Adelphia was huge $$$ 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.
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.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
