Rumors and expectations of renovations at KeyBank Center have been rumored going back as far as 2017. Work will finally get underway on updating the 28 year old building this summer as the Sabres officially announced a new scoreboard and roof on Monday.
It should be noted this work was previously confirmed and discussed ahead of the season, so it’s not new news, but the confirmation is a positive sign. Especially for anyone who has been eager to see work begin in the aging building.
The roof work is a necessary evil that is going to take precedence over sexier, fan-facing upgrades still expected in the years to come. It’s also possible that in addition to making any repairs to a roof that’s nearly three decades old, additional support structures could be needed to hold the new scoreboard. Given the history of the building, that’s a step worth taking. I understand the sour reaction to the roof being one of the two projects announced considering the many, many areas of need around the arena and although I’m not a structural engineer, it certainly doesn’t look good when you drive by on the Skyway and I’ve heard of people getting dripped on in the 100 level on rainy days, so it certainly seems like a pertinent project to tackle.
I certainly wish the roofline could change to help trap more sound in the building and give the building a different look from the street, but that’s pie-in-the-sky thinking. The key, in my opinion, is that the organization will check off a big ticket item that was going to be a necessity at some point. It’s unfortunate that it falls within the general cycle of renovations since it’s possible the roof repair eats into the budget of something that would make the fan experience more interesting.
The scoreboard certainly falls into that latter category and you could make a healthy argument it’s one of the most pressing upgrades needed in KeyBank Center outside of the seats. Buffalo’s current videoboard was put in place in 2007 and has only received minor updates and window dressing (adjustment of sponsor placement and logos) since. It has fallen well short of others around the league, especially in the wake of the scoreboard arms race that took place in the mid-2010s. The new 27×43 board won’t be as flashy as the massive boards hung in Philadelphia, Tampa Bay or Colorado, but it will effectively be twice as large as it is now, giving a drastically different look and feel in the seating bowl. Assuming the design shown in the team’s release is what the final product will be, it will be an attractive board that isn’t overpowering in the space and isn’t so large that you want to watch the screen over the play on the ice.
I like the wraparound design with the curved side screens and the larger primary screens will be a huge upgrade over what’s there now. The lower screens for people seated in the bottom rows are a nice touch and pretty standard in new videoboards these days.
The rendering is missing one thing and that’s some sort of a Sabres logo that will shoot smoke out of its nose. A few people pointed out that they may be able to accomplish this with smoke that comes out of the board while the bison is animated on the screen, but i can’t help but think there would be something lost if there isn’t some sort of physical representation of the logo blowing smoke out of its nose after every goal. Maybe there’s space for that in the upper corners or some contingency could be put in place elsewhere in the arena, but I don’t think it can be completely left in the past. The feature has been a staple in this building since it opened and I think it would be a shame not to continue that tradition.
These projects also offer the opportunity to look ahead to the next phases of work that will be needed around the building. The seats are a pain point for just about everyone these days and the concourses aren’t far behind. How deep the Sabres care to get into improving the arena will be an interesting story to track. There is a lot of room for improvement around the building, with plenty of space available to grow the arena’s footprint if desired. But will the various stakeholders have the appetite for that substantial of an undertaking?
Whatever the next steps are won’t become public until the end of 2024 at the earliest. I’d suspect it’s more likely that whatever is to come after the roof repair and scoreboard installation won’t be announced until some time in 2025, with the potential for a multi-phase, and therefore multi-year renovation project to follow the new roof and videoboard.
No matter what that looks like, the process has started in earnest and we’ll have tangible proof of that for game one of the 2024-25 season.
Two in the Box 