Will The NHL Contract The Buffalo Sabres?

[John Corn]

Buffalo doesn't have a local owner, and I'm sure the league won't run the Sabres daily operations past this season. Hartford lost the Whalers to Raleigh, and I'd hate to see the Sabres relocated to Houston, Seattle or Portland. I've always thought of Buffalo as a loyal NHL market, and it will be a sad day if the Sabres are relocated or contracted. Most NHL teams are struggling to sell tickets. I have the NHL Center Ice, and It's disturbing to see a camera pan around so many empty seats in the league's arenas. Perhaps every team should blackout home games to boost attendance. I believe the Blackhawks already blackout all of their home games.

[Clarence Campbell]

Problem is that the regular NHL season is just "spring training" for the real season - The Stanley Cup Playoffs

The 2004 NHL Players strike will make the previous MLB tussles look like amateur hour

Expect no 2004 season and about 24 NHL teams in 2005

[Unthinkable]

Big big troubles in Ottawa also for such a great team that could be a dynasty with some slight tweakings and more size/grit...

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=20391

Couple other threads on this here:

http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58884

and...

http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58886

[James_F]

One more from ESPN...

http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/2003/0101/1485369.html

Its too bad these teams have to move out here (Phoenix, etc) to survive. At this rate Detroit and Chicago will both be in the east by next year. Good for the Yotes :D

[rspetti]

It doesn't look good. :( Mark Hamister (prospective new owner and current owner of Destroyers AFL team) wants $25 million from local and state governments to update the arena (which is only 6 years old) and build a parking ramp. The state, county, and city governments are so far in the red, that there's no way to come up with this money. It's going to be a very sad day when hockey leaves Buffalo. Now instead of one empty arena downtown, we'll have two.

John: there have been one or two home games not televised. They were among the lowest attended games all season. There was one sellout, when the Sabres played the Maple Leafs. The arena was probaly 3/4 Leafs fans that came down from Toronto. Otherwise attendance has averaged around 10-11,000.

Buffalo News - Hamister, facing Friday deadline in bid for Sabres, seeks extension (http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030102/1037152.asp)