How the Sabres rebuilt their business operations
“There was 13 difficult years before I got here, but inside the organization, we had to look at two years ago as day one,” Pete Guelli said. “I couldn’t do anything about those previous 13 years, but I could focus on what we could do moving forward.”
Pete Guelli realizes it has been a long and grueling 14 years for the playoff-starved fan base of the Buffalo Sabres.
But for the president of the team’s business operations, the Sabres' “reclamation project” that included a major push to change the team's business structure to help get fans back into the seats, improve the game experience, and create excitement again for hockey has been only two seasons in the making.
Guelli started as chief operating officer for the Sabres and Buffalo Bills in April 2024, so the long-awaited turnaround the Sabres are experiencing this season has happened somewhat quickly and ahead of schedule, from his perspective.
He knew from the start that things didn't just need to change on the ice, but also behind the scenes.
“There were 13 difficult years before I got here, but inside the organization, we had to look at two years ago as day one,” Guelli said. “I couldn’t do anything about those previous 13 years, but I could focus on what we could do moving forward.”
Sabretooth engages with fans as the Sabres took on the Flyers on April 17 at KeyBank Center. Jake Vernon,
the Sabres' chief commercial officer, has been tasked with improving the experience on game days. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Winning helps. Attendance has surged since the Sabres started their current hot streak in December, just before the firing of general manager Kevyn Adams, with Jarmo Kekäläinen taking over. It has also helped the team rebuild a season ticket base that had shrunk markedly during the NHL-record playoff drought.
Heading into play on Sunday, Buffalo (106 points) leads a pack of three teams vying for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Sabres are also in the race for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with two games remaining in the regular season before the playoffs start later this month.
All that success on the ice helped supercharge the efforts by Sabres leadership to bring fans back into the arena, but it was also important to be ready for their return.
The Sabres have sold out 17 straight home games and are again in the top half of the NHL in total attendance after languishing toward the bottom of the league since fans were allowed to fully return to arenas in 2021-22 after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We were determined to put a strategy in place to get this right, and you can’t necessarily determine the timing, but I was confident in the strategy, the level of execution and commitment from ownership,” said Guelli, who previously spent 10 years with the Bills and, as COO of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, helping revitalize the franchise’s business, before working for the NFL's New York Giants.
"We’re certainly not done and know we have more work to do, but it’s exciting to see how far we’ve come,” he said.
When Guelli first got back to Buffalo after working for five years reshaping the business model and operations for the Giants, the Bills were in great shape, so the focus was on staying competitive and doing what was necessary to get the team's new, more than $2 billion stadium finished and ready by the 2026 season.
But the Sabres needed some work and better structure, both on the ice and behind the scenes, and Guelli had to make sure the resources were in place to help form a strategy to build an organization that the fans could be proud of again.
Last season was all about evaluating business and hockey operations and seeing what it would take to get the fans back into the arena, he said. That included a plan for improvements around the arena and in the game experience.
Over the past two offseasons, the Sabres have spent millions of dollars to replace the arena roof, put up a new video board, and install an upgraded sound system. The team is also in preliminary lease discussions with Erie County, the city, and the state that will likely include a request for public funds to help pay for significant investments needed around the 30-year-old arena.
It was just as critical to put the right people in place to help lead a resurgence for the franchise, and that didn’t just mean the right general manager, coach and players. Guelli needed to form his own team.
In came Jake Vernon as chief commercial officer for the Sabres in June. Vernon had spent 12 years working with the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, where he helped build the business foundation for the franchises just as the teams were starting to take off on the court.
He oversees ticketing and sponsorship operations, as well as the team’s business intelligence department. In Minnesota, he helped the business department set multiple franchise records in ticket sales and premium partnerships.
Vernon said his experience in Buffalo has been very similar to that in Minnesota, where the teams were also trying to come up with the right strategic initiative to attract fans to the arena and the ideal people to execute the process.
“My conversations with Pete were really centered on how we rebuild this fan base and bring this city back to loving hockey,” Vernon said.
Pete Guelli, left, president of business operations for the Sabres and Bills, with Terry Pegula, right, who owns both teams, and his daughter, Laura Pegula.
Guelli believes that the Sabres' turnaround, which has seen the club end a 14-year playoff drought, has happened ahead of schedule. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Guelli said bringing Vernon in to lead commercial activities has been critical.
Vernon has been an important part of revamping the team's approach to ticketing. Season-ticket renewals were sent out earlier this season than ever before, and the team was finally in a position to leverage the on-ice success.
“You can’t cut your way to profitability,” Guelli said earlier in the season. “You need to really dig in and start growing revenues. He’s really process-oriented and knows the business.”
Guelli has also moved things around on the leadership team, creating an executive group that has been expanded to six people in direct report roles who are handling various aspects of the business. That process had actually started in 2023 after the dissolution of Pegula Sports & Entertainment.
He put together a leadership team on the Sabres business end that includes Rob Minter, senior vice president of business operations; Anna Stolzenburg, vice president of content and production; Kyle Allen, VP of financial planning and analysis; Nicole Hendricks, VP of communications; and Cara Murphy, VP of marketing.
Guelli also spent a lot of time with Sabres owner Terry Pegula and his daughter, Laura Pegula, who has become increasingly involved on the business side, looking at every aspect of the operation of the team, as well as the KeyBank Center as a property.
“It is all connected in the greater ecosystem,” Guelli said. “Put the right people in place to run the hockey team with the performance on the ice and what the fans are generating from the excitement in that building, and it puts you in a great place to be a successful organization.”
Part of the rebuilding process was to be ready for fans to come back in droves, Guelli said. In the NBA, when he worked for the Hornets, Guelli called it being “50-win ready.” That effort for the Sabres is being described as “100-point ready.” The Sabres reached that mark for the first time since the 2009-10 season with a win on March 31.
“You’re not sure when that season is going to happen, but you want to be ready for it, and I feel the time we spent last year, over the summer and early this season, put us in a great position to make this type of turnaround,” Guelli said.
The results in the arena speak for themselves. The Sabres have sold out every home game since Jan. 15 and have 23 total sellouts this season – a remarkable turnaround from having four all last season.
The team has also added approximately 2,500 season ticket holders. They’ve already secured 11,000 season ticket holders for the 2026-27 season. The Sabres approached the season with the equivalent of around only 9,000 season ticket holders.
The Sabres also put into place a playoff ticket sales process that would make sure to reward loyal season ticket holders and those who got a jump on others by signing up for season tickets next season. The team is close to selling out its first two playoff games in the opening round − the only ones guaranteed to be played in the best-of-seven series, regardless of whether the Sabres have home ice advantage.
After years of bleeding money from missing the playoffs, the business of the Sabres is finally flourishing.
Vernon said he feels good for co-workers who have been with the Sabres for years and endured much of or all the postseason drought.
He has been impressed with Buffalo’s fan base and said the team has been trying to meet fans where they are to come up with ways to rebuild interest in the team.
But he also realizes that a team can build as good a strategy as possible, but many times, it won’t work until there are winning results.
“That perfect storm is what every sports franchise is after, and I think we’re seeing that take place right now in Buffalo,” Vernon said. “I think it’s a special thing that we shouldn’t take for granted. I know the staff is here every day, energized to continue this process. It’s something that we think will become the norm around here.”