Hello,
I’ve been a Sabres fan for as long as I can remember. I remember watching them on Channel 29, I remember the May Day call in the car and I got grounded because I wanted to watch the OT on TV but my parents wanted to leave. I was there for No Goal when my dad was snoozing in his chair. I was there through 06-07, I was there for July 1st, 2007. I was at the first game after Terry Pegula bought the Sabres. I endured the tank. I went through the agony of losing the lottery and getting Jack Eichel. I even made up a silly song about Jack Eichel that I would sing before every Sabres game.
Now I’m leaving you. I’m moving on. I’ve put away my Sabres gear and have dropped it off at a charity. I threw out my Sabres flag, I shipped all my NHL games to Amazon for cash. I’ve cleared out all my Outlook entries that have the Sabres schedule on them.
It’s not me, it’s you.
It’s your inability to address the concerns of the LGTBQ+ community of safety in your arena, when other teams have gone above and beyond a form email, it’s your stubborn refusal to discipline a unrepentant Evander Kane when it is completely in your power to do so. It is your inability to show some empathy in your media. It’s your inability of your parent company to be inclusive to the entire Buffalo area. It’s your inability to create original content. Let’s not get started with how incredibly bored your fans are at the game, your off ice products are as good at keeping fans entertained as your on ice product is.
Instead, you continue to raise prices, which is within your right and you claim is needed to be in line with revenue sharing, but you continue to put out a shitty product. You refuse to press the issue of putting your preseason games on TV, and even continued your shitty deal with MSG, for what? Two hours of local programming? You hired Russ Brandon, who is directly responsible for the 16 year playoff drought of the Buffalo Bills, while still able to print money for them. We know where your priorities are. Your owners are not about making a winner at all costs, you’re about making as much money as humanly possible and fuck anyone that is in the way. Again, that is well within your rights, as we are a capitalistic society, but I also have the right to choose where to spend my money. America.
Admittedly, many of these are just minor, oh get over it, or it’s not a big deal. It adds up. The Sabres are in a league that shows it does not give a shit what the fans think or want. In a league that fails to capitalize on its talent, chooses to have horrible US (and Canadian) TV representation. Meanwhile, other American sports leagues actually lets its players express an opinion, embraces individuals, and doesn’t have the outright racism and sexism that is prevalent in the NHL. How the fuck is Don Cherry still allowed on the air in 2016? I actually started thinking about writing this piece a few days ago, but decided to wait, maybe write some of it out and then wonder, am I doing the right thing? I think so. What do I have to lose?
I’m moving on, and that’s my decision, you can do whatever you want, I’m not going to deride fans for supporting the team, but I wanted to write this one last article. I’d like to thank Rich for letting me blow off hot takes on this site, and taunt Joe for unsuccessfully being able to fire me. I might be back, maybe if the Sabres have less horrible people in their front office running a team and a team that actually knows how to acquire talent and use that talent successfully.
See you on the Internet.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
