Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher and every other Buffalo Sabre, Buffalo Bill and Pro athlete on the face of the earth, don't give a rat's hairy ###### about you or I. $$$$$$$$$$$ is God to them (and God bless them for it. I guess).
That said, the time is very rapidly approaching (and I swear this on my mother's grave) where I am going to completely stop buying tickets to Sabres and Bills games and all of them can kiss me rear. Major League Baseball lost me, hockey is not far behind. If there is no loyalty from the players. Why then should we be loyal? If players don't love the game itself, how can we love them? The reality is that this is what pro sports is all about in 2007. The reality is that I have just about had enough.

It's disappointing to see that there really is no loyalty from players anymore. However I will continue to cheer for every Buffalo team.

I gave up on baseball completely after the 1994 cancellation of the World Series. Fans need to realize that without us there is no sport. By continuing to support the teams we are saying it's OK to abuse us. I am almost at the point with the NHL that I reached with baseball 13 years ago. Sad but true.

So did I , I can't name a dozen baseball players now.

Before the strike, I never missed a Cubs game. Whatever I was doing on a particular day, I'd drop it to watch WGN every afternoon. School would get out at 2:30 and I'd race home to see the game. I loved baseball more than anything. Then those bastards ruined everything in 1994. I have not and will never forgive them for that.

they shouldnt make 1mil a year thats ######ed up they make more than the president thats wrong and for what because they excell at a sport give em 500,000 that way they cant say they dont make money and teams can afford them its totally ridiculous that players make as much as they do ######ing roger clemens is a ###### i love the yanks they were looking like they were comming around rocket shows up and eats pee pee 1 million dollars a day and u lose 3 of 4 real good u r

it would be nice to see a max salary for every sport say like $1M

but otherwise... its a business and a popular one, so there's gonna be a lot of money in it

PMHL.... Poor Man's Hockey League... ill invest and try out

I'll tell you what loyalty is. My family and I live in Fairbanks, Alaska. Do you know how hard it is to get the Sabres up here? I first had to find a Satellite provider and then get them to come to my house. They then told me to start cutting down trees. I terminated with extreme prejudice some where in the vicinity of 210-220 Spruce and Birch trees. It took me weeks. I went through 2 chain saws all to see the last week of the regular season and the playoffs. I really thought this was going to be the year and then the team lays a sh1t sandwhich in the playoffs. I will continue to cut down trees as needed because I am a life long Sabres fan. Is it too much to ask of the players to put money on the back burner for five minutes and just realize how extremely special this team and city(fans) is.

dang... now thats die hard, i live in buffalo so i dont know those hardships... i salute you brother

what did spikes ever do?

and regarless if you give anyone that much money chances are they will change

Well, the spikes issue is different. Because the bills, To be honest, havent been decent since like 6 years ago.

so much for Briere's home team discount!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The team will be fine, wish there wasn't so much doom and gloom here.



GO SABRES GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wait and see.

It's Buffalo folks who the ###### wants to live in a place where it's cold, rainy and snowy for most of the year. Plus what the ###### is their to do there. That's part of the reason most people from Buffalo leave because it's too cold, too snowy and the pay sucks there.

The Sabres owner has no respect or loyalty to the players. If he did he would have walked up top the free agents at the end of the seasons and said this is our best offer we could give you. It worked for the Ducks with JS the goalie. He was going to hit the open market and could of went anywhere he wanted. After the players leave and go to LA and other places its not a easy time to sign them. Remember they have their wifes and Grier whispering in their ears all kinds of things.

Wayne Gretzky took less money with the Kings. In fact he said if you want to offer that much to me then give some it to my teammates as a bonus. He was negotiating in reverse. The kings would say 8 mill and he would say 5. Its still tons of money but he didn't go for every penny like other guys. why would a guy want to max out? Then his team can't sign players to help him.

Our fans rock, except most of the negative ones that write on this board. This is the same stuff that goes on in every city in America, not just Buffalo. If the money is right they will come. Buffalo is a great place to live, be proud and stand behind your hometown teams.

You kind of answered your own question in you title Davey. Hockey is a business. Players come and go, following that ever elusive happiness that money brings. And owners and GM's attempt to make reasonable offers. (MOST Owners and GM's that is). I am not questioning your fan hood Davey. Just stating, that hockey is a business, and players are the employees, there going to go where the money is, like 95% of us would do. How can you fault someone when you may or may not do the exact same thing?

It's nice to see that a cancelled season has worked so well and has helped teams keep players. The cap has gone up 29% in two years. Thanks to that I can assure you that Buffalo is going to have even bigger problems in the coming years. If the trend continues we will be at prelockout levels in 2 seasons.

they had the corrupt players union by the b@lls, and they blew it. Absolutely blew it.

Tell the fans not to go to the games and the cap will go down with the profits. The owners must be making more money if the cap keeps going up.

The loyalty part wouldnt be so bad if these greedy arss athletes would shut there mouth and stop saying ow much hey love the city they are plaing in and will stay in for a right price and then slap there fans in the face when they accept an offer from another team. Just keep your mouth shut about the city you are playing and play the game

They're making money by constantly raising ticket prices, as the Sabres are this year.

Two seasons ago the cap was $39mil. If they had been able to hold it there, or made slight increments (say, $1 mil per season), we wouldn't be in this hole right now.

And to those who don't want that extra profit to go to the owners, neither do I. Wouldn't it be cool if they did something totally off the wall crazy? Like...... LOWERING ticket prices? Crazy, I know. Why lower ticket prices when fans are willing to pay 20% more every season?

Everything looked great 2 seasons ago...now it seems to be unravelling again.

At this point I really believe that the Buffalo Sabres will cease to exist beyond the next decade. I foresee crowds of 10 000 again while our team not only struggles to remain competative but also in business. Trust me folks, we will be going through this same song and dance in the coming off seasons with Miller, Vanek and all our other players. I hate it. Losing to Ottawa felt less bitter than this. Curse the Goddam NHL.

agreed 100%... when a player is in a post game interview dont believe one word... lies lies lies to appease the mob

Right on Gil. Sadly I amost wish they had just stayed locked out and NEVER EVER came back. I feel like I've been stabbed in the heart today. Our GM seems to be nowhere and our players seem to only give a damm about the cash. In the grand scheme this means absolutely nothing in my life and yet I feel jilted like never before.

BTW Happy Canada Day buddy.

i disagree.. most of our players do have loyalty to this city! im big on loyalty to a team and honestly i thought danny was going to be the one who would be loyal to us - because he kept saying that he loves buffalo and that he wanted to stay. YOUR A MILLIONAIRE HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU NEED DANNY? danny briere is not a team player, he is all about himself and its really obvious now.. not even talking about money think about it - on the ice hes all abot himself. the only time he defends someone is when he is defending himself when we have players like gaustad and mair out there kicking ###### to defend danny, its just not right. danny thought you were gunna stay true to buffalo - i had so much faith in you. he really let buffalo down but you know what everyone WE ARE THE NEW HOCKEY TOWN!

we should always stay loyal to our teams! because if there are no fans there is no team! yeah we get the occasional jerk whos all about money but dont take it out on the other players like gaustad and mair its not fair to them. they are getting cheated too.. players like them deserve our loyalty because we have their loyalty too.

danny have fun in philly - you might have the money, but you wont get far with them. and you will never have better fans then you had here - you got a big head for such a small body danny!

Who?

Uggh more wimpering.

dito here. the fact that Danny is on his way to philly and probably drooling at the idea of how to spend his loads of cash makes me want to cry. do I know him personally? Nope. Am I sitting up at 1:16 in the morning when I have to work all day tomorrow because of him? Yup. Drury now being a Ranger has nothing to do with me or my life. am I going to toss and turn tonight because he's gone? uhuh. I don't know these men and I never will. but I still feel like I just lost 2 people that mean a lot to me. it just sucks. If our joke of a GM would do something, maybe I could let a little hope in. but right now, I am seriously affraid of seeing less than 10,000 a game at HSBC in a year or 2. lets face it, all it would take to throw this fan base away would be one bad season. as sad as it is.

No need to dwell on what will happen a few years from now. Lets see what 07-08 brings first. Maybe they will at least make the playoffs haha.

All the goodwill this team built (with WNY and Southern Ontario) in the last two seasons is gone. The fans will turn on this team as sure as it will snow in Buffalo come November. Listen to the call in shows, it has already begun.

This is going to be one ugly week around here. From love affair to lynch mob in a month!

I almost wish I still lived in Buffalo to hear all those call in shows. The whole city is going to be talking about it.

You can listen at WGR550.com.

I'll tune in tomorrow.

Just the title of this makes me sick. You are a SABRES fan not DRURY/BRIERE fan. Thanks Mach, I kind of took what you said but you were so right.

LMFAO. We were told by Quinn and Regeir that this team would spend right to the cap. They lied to us. I am pissed off and they are lucky I've already paid for my tickets because honestly, I would cancel them immediately if given the chance.

Well, I feel bad for you. I 'm glad that a lot of other people on here aren't being like you.

No you're right. My bad. I forgot how everyone else is in a real happy place about Sunday's lack of activity.

I cant stand fans who are stupidly optimistic when they have no reason to be...