What’s the latest on Buffalo Sabres’ arena lease, upgrades and season tickets?
Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz and Sabres COO Pete Guelli spoke to reporters Wednesday at KeyBank Center.
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The Buffalo Sabres and KeyBank announced a 10-year extension of the arena’s naming rights deal Wednesday. And they did so with a 30-minute event in the pavilion of the arena that included Sabres owner Terry Pegula opening a door onstage to reveal the announcement while pyrotechnics went off overhead. He and KeyCorp chairman and CEO Chris Gorman also donned Sabres away helmets with the KeyBank Center logo on them to announce the one-year helmet advertising deal for Buffalo’s away helmets.
But what the event didn’t include was any announcement of a new arena lease between the team and the county or any specifics about what upgrades could be coming soon to KeyBank Center. Pegula read a prepared statement but did not take questions. Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz and Sabres COO Pete Guelli did speak to reporters. Here are some takeaways from what they said.
What’s up with the arena lease?
Erie County owns the arena, and the Sabres lease it. The lease is set to expire later in 2025, but provisions within the lease allow for short-term extensions.“It doesn’t really expire,” Guelli said. “There are options that occur on Sept. 30 that we’re looking at to automatically extend for five years, which is likely the path we’ll take. We could also opt out, and then there’s another year on the lease after that. But the way it’s trending, we’re likely to continue with the lease.”
Poloncarz previously stated his long-term goal is for the county not to own the arena. That is the case with the Bills’ new stadium, which will be owned by the state. As it stands, the city owns the land the arena is built on, and the county owns the arena. The county is responsible for the outside structure of the arena, but the Sabres are responsible for the cost of all upgrades inside the arena. Pegula made an exception last summer when he offered to pay for the new roof, which was the most pressing concern with the building and one that would have been on the county to address.
The Sabres and the county haven’t started seriously negotiating another lease. Poloncarz said nobody thought that was appropriate with the ongoing construction of the Bills’ new stadium in Orchard Park. That stadium is set to be completed in 2026, and Poloncarz expects lease negotiations for the arena to begin more seriously in late 2025.
“I’m not going to negotiate in public, but we want to ensure that we’re going to keep the team here for a long time,” Poloncarz said. “We’re going to do that — I guarantee you that. But we’re also going to ensure it’s the best investment the county can make in the short term and the best impact on the county in the long term.”
Guelli noted that the Bills were able to find a path to building a stadium without the county owning it, and he’s confident the Sabres can find a similar path with a new arena lease. The city likely can’t afford the upkeep of the arena, so that would leave the state and Pegula as the two other options.
“Our goal is to make sure this team is here long-term and well situated,” Guelli said.
What about attendance?
The Sabres had an average attendance of 15,998 last season, which was the sixth-lowest number in the NHL. Based on the percentage of total capacity, the Sabres ranked even lower. Guelli said that “the season ticket number is hovering around 9,000, somewhere in that neighborhood.”The Sabres once needed a waiting list and capped season tickets at 16,000. Two seasons ago, their season ticket numbers were up over 11,000 before dropping to just under 10,000 last season. This would be the second straight season with a significant decrease for a team already struggling with attendance.
“From a ticketing standpoint, it’s always going to be a focus,” Guelli said. “There’s definitely urgency. There’s a lot of ways to fill a building. Season tickets you would love to have consistently north of 10,000, maybe in that 12,000 range. I’ve operated buildings like this before, and I would position that as more of a sweet spot. But there’s all kinds of group sales opportunities and individual game sales opportunities. There’s options on (the) type of tickets people can buy. It’s not just about season tickets. It’s about putting plans together to get as many people in here on a nightly basis as you can.”
The message from Guelli and Poloncarz was consistent: If the on-ice product improves, the building will be full again. Of course, the on-ice product’s improvement is not a given, considering how the last 14 years have gone.
What about upgrades to the arena?
Last summer, the Sabres put a new roof on the arena and upgraded the video board. Guelli didn’t get into specifics on what upgrades could be coming next. But he and Poloncarz agree there is work that needs to be done. Poloncarz, though, said the football stadium will be the focus before any significant work gets done on the hockey arena.“It’s coming up on 30 years (old),” Poloncarz said. “It needs some updates. But thankfully, we’re not talking about building a new hockey arena to keep the team in town. I expect the team to stay here a long time, and there’s some work that will be done. But we’ll resolve that all through the negotiations, probably coming in earnest later this year through next year. But we have to get that football stadium done on time.”
Guelli said he has talked to the state and the county about putting together a long-term plan for arena upgrades. He noted that KeyBank Center, which opened in 1996, is the oldest building in the NHL that hasn’t undergone a major renovation. That will likely be a focus in any lease negotiations that happen over the next couple of years. Poloncarz said the structure of the arena is in good shape, meaning any upgrades will be more focused on cosmetic issues inside the arena.
One area of concern for fans is the seats, and Guelli said that issue is “definitely on the radar.”
“There’s a number of things we know our fans are interested in,” Guelli said. “One of them is the seats. Candidly, one of the things we’re waiting on is, ‘What are we doing long-term?’ Before we go in and put a whole swath of brand-new seats, it doesn’t make as much sense until we know what we’re doing with the building long-term. But it’s something that’s definitely on the radar.”
Events that could be coming
With the new Highmark Stadium opening in 2026, the Sabres hope they will get another outdoor game and have discussed the possibility with the league. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has previously said he would be interested in seeing outdoor hockey return to Buffalo, which hosted the NHL’s first Winter Classic in 2008.“We’ve talked to the league about the Winter Classic. We talked to them about the Stadium Series,” Guelli said. “We told them, ‘We want it. We’d love to have it here.’ Right now, we’re in the process of kind of looking at the dates that might make the most sense for that.
“They would love to have it here. The first outdoor game in NHL history was hosted here in Buffalo. It was a big success. It will be fun to maybe memorialize that event with another one here in this market and to do it at the new stadium. I think it’s the perfect venue.”
Guelli also said the Bills have turned their attention to 2029 and 2030 as their target for hosting the NFL Draft.