In a Buffalo News article from last fall, Kim Pegula was quoted as saying the hope for PSE, the Sabres and the Bills isn’t to follow the lead of other teams in each respective league, but to blaze their own trail. This is a great stance to take, particularly for the Sabres who have often been guinea pigs for NHL projects. Why be a follower time and time again when you can be the gold standard across the league?
However, I’ve come to notice other NHL clubs engaging in various practices and promotions which I would love to see the Sabres take on. What caught my eye most recently is a mini-pack ticket promotion the Anaheim Ducks are running that comes complete with a mini third jersey from throughout the organization’s history. I can say definitively that if the Sabres offered a line of mini jerseys they’d have full license to take as many of my hard earned American dollars as they pleased. I don’t care if it’s a blatant rip-off of the Ducks current promotion, these would kill in Buffalo.
Yesterday’s post on collector edition scarves got my wheels turning on a pair of potential projects that the Sabres could work on for the Sabres Store.
Pretend like this was made by an actual artist and you’ll get the idea.
The first is one that came up in conversation with TJ Luckman a few weeks ago and the second is an idea that @MattyRenn has been preaching on for quite some time. Both would be entirely unique to the Sabres and both would almost certainly be items that fans would flock to the store to buy.
The first idea centers around a collector series of prints or lithographs of Sabres goal masks. The second, which is wholly and entirely the intellectual property of Matt, would be box sets of DVDs that chronicle great games and players throughout team history. I really love Matt’s idea as it gives so much latitude for the games they would wish to highlight. Continue reading →
The Sabres store can be very hit or miss when it comes to some of the merchandise they offer. Some of it is simply not to my taste while certain items can’t be to anyone’s taste.
As I was discussing the Thirds Not Turds contest with a few people on Twitter last week, friend of the blog @MattyRenn brought up a very intriguing idea which would provide fans with a customization option that would go beyond the typical jersey purchase.
Matt’s idea calls for each team, specifically the Sabres, to provide a service that allows fans to order custom player t-shirts from various points in team history. As a team with a plethora of previous jersey designs, it would allow fans to get a shirt featuring their favorite Sabre along with their favorite Sabres logo and color scheme.
Imagine having the freedom to choose from any player and Sabres logo in team history for your next Sabres Store purchase.
It’s truly a brilliant idea. The team could charge a premium for the service – I imagine upwards of $35 or $40 per shirt – while giving fans the ability to pick and choose who winds up on their shirsey. It would be particularly effective in seasons like this one when barely any players inspire confidence and so many fans are looking to the future or past for good feelings about their favorite team.
This would be easy enough to carry out. The easiest way would be a basic order form where you select the logo from the era you wish to sport and then provide the player name and number you’d prefer. An interactive web forum could pare down the options to either a custom entry or specific players who wore those particular colors. I like the latter idea for continuity reasons and because it keeps the team’s history nicely in line.
If the team really wanted to get creative, some sort of computer workstation in the store could serve as the custom shirsey headquarters where you can see your order on the screen, not unlike the custom jersey generator on the NHL site.
Either way, this is a terrific idea for bringing in revenue from fans who like to hearken back to the black and red goathead jerseys, or the red butter knives thirds. Perhaps someone wants an Afinogenov slug shirt. Who knows? All of those personalities would be served by this idea. It’s foolproof. Dare I say, even the Sabres couldn’t screw it up. Continue reading →
If you mosey on down to the Sabres Store at any point during the regular season you’re bound to find a decent selection of game used sticks. Sometimes you can even find brand new sticks that haven’t been cut down, let alone taped up. The sticks cost about $100 the last time I checked, which happens to be a sweet price for a piece of pro stock equipment. Factor in that these sticks retail for over $250 in most cases and the deal really can’t be beat.
Unfortunately this is about as far as the Sabres are willing to go when it comes to selling their overstocked equipment. In the early weeks of the summer the selection is a bit deeper – with socks, gloves and pants available for purchase – but usually that stock runs dry quite quickly.
That brings me to my main point. Why is it that the Sabres don’t run an equipment sale each year? Continue reading →
I am a big proponent for developing the city of Buffalo. I even touch on it in this space from time to time. Those of you who follow me on Twitter, or sit behind me at work, know that I have been dreaming up a grand vision for a practice/junior hockey venue near HSBC Arena.
After a little bit of Photoshop and Illustrator work I have a picture to go with my ramblings. Please excuse the polish of my work, I am quite the novice when it comes to both Photoshop and Illustrator. The pictures and overall vision can be found after the jump.
I gave this creation a name just so it looks a little less bare. I chose to call it the New Era Centre because the cap company is a large Buffalo-based corporation and the name flowed well off my tongue.
Basically this idea cropped up in my head because there are two enormous, barren surface lots in the “Cobblestone District” that don’t get very much use. It is a real shame because the remaining buildings in the District have a similar feel to the Distillery District in Toronto. I began thinking of things that could be put in their place to add some life and density to a neighborhood that is composed of about six buildings on one city block. This multi-purpose arena came to mind.
Two in the Box 