BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Sabres will operate as separate entities after the teams’ owner Terry Pegula dissolved their parent company on Monday.
The announcement to dissolve Pegula Sports and Entertainment is being referred to as one “allowing each respective organization to focus singularly on their efforts.” The decision marks the next step in a management restructuring Pegula began in July, when he fired executive vice president and COO Ron Raccuia, who oversaw the operations of both franchises.
Pegula appointed himself as Sabres president, a title he now has with both teams, and previously held by his wife. Kim Pegula has been unable to fulfill her duties while dealing with significant language and memory issues after going into cardiac arrest in June 2022.
Sabres COO John Roth will continue splitting his duties overseeing the business side of both franchises, with Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams responsible for running the hockey side of the organization.
“It is a great time to be a Buffalo sports fan and we have a tremendous amount of confidence that this restructuring will allow our businesses to continue to elevate with our teams,” Pegula said in a statement.
Under the PSE umbrella, the teams previously shared business and marketing departments.
The split comes as the Bills are four months into building a new stadium scheduled to open across the street from their existing facility by the 2026 season, and now projected to cost $1.7 billion -- up from the initial $1.4 billion estimate when factoring in cost overruns.
The Sabres, meantime, are in the early stages of planning major structural and technical upgrades to their downtown home arena, KeyBank Center, which hasn’t undergone any extensive renovation since the building opened in 1996. The project is expected to take years to complete because much of the work will have to be done during the team’s offseason.
PSE was established shortly after the Pegulas purchased the Sabres in 2011. They followed up by buying the Bills in 2014 after the death of the franchise’s founder and Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson.
PSE’s dissolution is unlikely to have much of an effect on Pegula’s other holdings -- including a recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee, and a downtown Buffalo hotel/ice arena complex — because they were mostly being operated as separate entities.
Copyright 2023 by The Associated Press