The Buffalo Sabres have undergone a renaissance since a labor dispute three years ago wiped away an entire NHL season.
Makes hockey an affordable option for fans in the small market.
Waiting list for season tickets now covers 6,000 names.
When peace was reached between owners and players, and action resumed in 2005, the Sabres were quicker than most teams out of the gate, offering a new look with a familiar blue-and-gold uniform color scheme and an up-tempo team that could score — a key ingredient for the “new” NHL in its bid to win back old fans while finding new ones.
Tom Golisano, who bought the club in 2003, and his management team also focused on making the product affordable in the small market. The Sabres reduced ticket prices, especially for season tickets, and introduced variable pricing, basing costs on opponent and weekday or weekend scheduling.
“He looks at this from a working man’s point of view,” Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn said of Golisano, the founder of Paychex Inc. “He’s known as a billionaire, but that wasn’t the case for about the first 50 years of his life.”
WHAT PEOPLE
ARE SAYING:
“The fact that they have turned Buffalo from a football town into a hockey town is well recognized.”
JOHN CIMPERMAN
Principal, Cenergy Communications
The moves paid off as season-ticket accounts leaped to a capped figure of 14,800, a gain of 9,000, generating capacity crowds at prices near the bottom of the league average. The franchise built up added demand with a waiting list that now has 6,000 names on it, a key indicator of its marketing strength.
After early criticism regarding the logo change (“slug” was the derogatory term most often used for the new, stylized buffalo), merchandise sales skyrocketed. On television, the Sabres became a favorite not only in their western New York market but with NHL broadcast partners NBC and Versus.
Labatt USA, which recently relocated its U.S. corporate base to Buffalo from Connecticut, has tapped into the team’s fan base. “We have a very common ground with the Sabres as we both try and grow our brands,” said Glen Walter, president of the brewing company.
Labatt has extended its marketing effort to the Sabres’ alumni group and a pond hockey tournament. “There is a strong, passionate hockey following, and we’ve incorporated that in our core promotions,” Walter said.
As well as the reincarnation of the Sabres has gone, nothing is static. The club has had more than its share of defections via free agency — most notably co-captains Chris Drury and Daniel Briere — and management has been reminded of that fact by the rabid fan base.
The NHL’s salary cap is designed to make operations more economical for all franchises, but the tradeoff is a rise in player movement. There’s also added revenue sharing, however, which has buoyed teams such as the Sabres that still rely heavily on ticket sales to fund the operation. Management, then, must perform a balancing act of keeping ticket prices affordable and stocking a roster that can compete for a Stanley Cup.
“It’s always a challenge, but I wouldn’t want any other one. I really love doing this in this town,” Quinn said. “As much as it can drive you crazy with some of the experiences you go through, I think there is nothing better than going out and watching this team win and the enthusiasm that takes place in this city, so it’s worth doing here and we’ll make it work here.”
