Wonderful actions by the Pegulas in this time of crisis!!
BUFFALO, N.Y. – It’s a volatile time for the hospitality industry. Hotel rooms are unused because of the novel coronavirus and restaurants are closing their doors.
That includes the Buffalo properties owned by Terry and Kim Pegula. They laid off most of their hospitality workers Thursday afternoon, including those at (716) Food and Sport, the Draft Room and the Healthy Scratch at Harborcenter. It’s an unfortunate side effect happening all over the world due to the pandemic.
But it’s the fine print that has left a bad taste for the Pegula Sports & Entertainment food workers. Their jobs won’t be waiting for them when the restaurants reopen.
“As a valuable asset to our hospitality family when business returns to normalcy, we encourage you to come back and apply for an open position. You will be amongst the first considered to re-join our teams,” Dominic Verni, the vice president of hospitality, wrote in the termination letter obtained by The Athletic.
Even if the employees are rehired and return to work, there has been no guarantee they’ll come back at their same rate of pay. In addition, the organization is not paying out the Paid Time Off (PTO) that employees have accrued, citing a clause in their separation policy, according to a laid-off supervisor from the hospitality team.
“There are a lot of dark ways about the inner workings at PSE,” said the former employee, who was granted anonymity to avoid impacting his future employment chances. “They are very much about the bottom line and financials — very little about the ‘One Buffalo’ way they shove down this city’s throat.”
A PSE spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from The Athletic regarding the layoffs, but did email this quote from Verni, which was also included in the termination letter to hospitality workers.
“Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and the various government mandates necessary to slow the spread of this terrible virus, we are temporarily closing the majority of our hospitality operations to help protect our staff and communities. As result, like many businesses in Western New York, we made the difficult decision to lay off many of our valued team members. We hope everyone is safe and healthy during this time.”
The restaurant decisions follow a misstep in another part of the Pegula empire. While NHL teams and owners have decided nearly en masse to pay arena event workers during the postponement of the season, the Pegulas announced they will wait for a cancellation before giving checks to the employees they are responsible for in KeyBank Center and Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena.
There is no timeline for cancellations, so it could be months before workers receive the pay they have been promised for hockey games, concerts and other arena events. It is the only income for many of the security guards, ushers and ticket takers, who are not technically Pegula employees but are contracted through the teams and receive their paychecks from the Pegula organization.
An arena exception is concession workers, who are employed by Delaware North. The Buffalo-based hospitality giant has not announced any plans for its workers, drawing nationwide criticism. Many sports owners have stepped in and will pay those concessions staffers, too.
But the Pegulas have stayed on the sidelines, which is noticeable because they launched the aforementioned “One Buffalo” campaign after buying the Sabres and Bills. At the program’s inception, they promised it would serve as a “representation of teamwork and a deeper connection between Buffalo sports teams, fans and the community.”
There are now doubts as to whether the connection is real.
“Makes you wonder if they are who they are,” said the laid-off hospitality worker. “It’s been a weird aura for a while there. Either they really don’t care and are super out of touch or they have a good crew of overpaid cronies keeping them turned a blind eye. I’ve seen so many qualified and talented people leave due to their inability to have compassion or look past financial or sales missed goals.”
The hospitality layoffs follow other employee dismissals within the empire. Sources tell The Athletic that PSE has been examining personnel cutbacks across multiple departments for months in an effort to recalibrate an overambitious portfolio expansion that turned unwieldy.
In November, PSE fired 10 of 30 staffers at PicSix Creative, a marketing and communications subsidiary established just two years earlier to service outside clients.
“They took on more than they can chew, and the people at the top don’t know how to handle anything,” said another former hospitality employee, who cited a secrecy surrounding the organization’s dismissals. “No one knew what was going on. That is how they do it. They are too afraid to address staff and give them possible scenarios. They say they know nothing, and then, bam, ‘You are all screwed. Good luck collecting unemployment.’”
The two termination documents sent to employees Thursday included website addresses for unemployment departments, assistance programs and national bartender relief funds. The letter also included notice that the workers’ health insurance coverage would expire March 31.
“For the last week the only communication I had from the company was to sit tight as the situation was changing rapidly,” the impacted supervisor said. “I honestly loved my job and the exciting atmosphere of what we did. It’s tough to feel like just a number to them, I guess.”
Terry Pegula made his fortune in natural gas. When he was introduced as the Sabres’ new owner in 2011, he declared money would be no object to creating a winning culture and hoisting Stanley Cups. He famously remarked, “If I want to make money, I’ll drill another well.”
Natural gas was selling at $4.21 per unit that day.
The price closed Thursday at $1.65, one day after dipping to an all-time low of $1.555. With warmer weather, a substantial rebound is unlikely.
The petroleum industry has been devastated in recent weeks by concerns over COVID-19, Saudi Arabia’s formidable investments into its natural gas operations and a Saudi-Russia price war over crude oil.
Forbes estimates Pegula is worth $5 billion, a guess because his holdings are privately held.
NFL ownership has been a surefire moneymaker because of the league’s colossal television broadcast deals. But NHL teams, especially those that don’t make reach the postseason, struggle to be profitable and depend mightily on revenue sharing and box office receipts. Buffalo is in jeopardy of losing six home dates to COVID-19 schedule postponements. The Sabres are averaging 17,194 tickets sold in their 19,070-seat arena, the lowest number since 2005-06 as fans have been turned off by a team that will miss its ninth straight postseason.
Despite their affluence, the Pegulas have tried to maintain an everyman reputation in Buffalo.
The son of a truck driver, Terry Pegula’s wealth was self-made. He stood in subsistence lines as a child while his father recovered from hernia surgery and was unable to work. Pegula attended Penn State and, with the help of a grant from Marathon Oil, got a degree in petroleum engineering. His future wife had even less of a chance at birth, having been orphaned in Seoul before a suburban Rochester family adopted her.
In 2010, Terry Pegula sold off most of his East Resources petroleum company to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion.
To fund his purchase of the Bills four years later, he sold $1.7 billion of his remaining oil-drilling acreage to American Energy Partners.
The morning the NFL unanimously approved the Pegulas as the next Bills owners, natural gas opened at $3.89 per unit — $2.24 more than Thursday’s closing price.
How much the Pegulas rely upon natural gas within their business portfolio is uncertain.
Pegula still operates JKLM Energy, named after four of his children: Jessica, Kelly, Laura and Matthew. Operations are based in suburban Pittsburgh and Coudersport, Pa., with over 120,000 drillable acres in Potter County.
JKLM Energy ceased drilling in July because natural gas prices had fallen too far. The price of natural gas closed at $2.14 per unit on July 29. Wednesday’s all-time low closing price was a 24.3 percent drop from a figure that was considered not worth JKLM Energy’s effort eight months ago.
The Washington Post has reported President Trump is considering a federal-assistance program for American natural gas producers harmed by recent developments.
Meanwhile, there are Buffalo event workers waiting indefinitely for payment, and Pegula restaurant employees don’t have a job waiting for them when the world returns to normalcy.
“With the wealth they have,” the former supervisor said, “a little generosity would go a long way.”
BUFFALO, N.Y. – It’s a volatile time for the hospitality industry. Hotel rooms are unused because of the novel coronavirus and restaurants are closing their doors.
That includes the Buffalo properties owned by Terry and Kim Pegula. They laid off most of their hospitality workers Thursday afternoon, including those at (716) Food and Sport, the Draft Room and the Healthy Scratch at Harborcenter. It’s an unfortunate side effect happening all over the world due to the pandemic.
But it’s the fine print that has left a bad taste for the Pegula Sports & Entertainment food workers. Their jobs won’t be waiting for them when the restaurants reopen.
“As a valuable asset to our hospitality family when business returns to normalcy, we encourage you to come back and apply for an open position. You will be amongst the first considered to re-join our teams,” Dominic Verni, the vice president of hospitality, wrote in the termination letter obtained by The Athletic.
Even if the employees are rehired and return to work, there has been no guarantee they’ll come back at their same rate of pay. In addition, the organization is not paying out the Paid Time Off (PTO) that employees have accrued, citing a clause in their separation policy, according to a laid-off supervisor from the hospitality team.
“There are a lot of dark ways about the inner workings at PSE,” said the former employee, who was granted anonymity to avoid impacting his future employment chances. “They are very much about the bottom line and financials — very little about the ‘One Buffalo’ way they shove down this city’s throat.”
A PSE spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from The Athletic regarding the layoffs, but did email this quote from Verni, which was also included in the termination letter to hospitality workers.
“Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and the various government mandates necessary to slow the spread of this terrible virus, we are temporarily closing the majority of our hospitality operations to help protect our staff and communities. As result, like many businesses in Western New York, we made the difficult decision to lay off many of our valued team members. We hope everyone is safe and healthy during this time.”
The restaurant decisions follow a misstep in another part of the Pegula empire. While NHL teams and owners have decided nearly en masse to pay arena event workers during the postponement of the season, the Pegulas announced they will wait for a cancellation before giving checks to the employees they are responsible for in KeyBank Center and Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena.
There is no timeline for cancellations, so it could be months before workers receive the pay they have been promised for hockey games, concerts and other arena events. It is the only income for many of the security guards, ushers and ticket takers, who are not technically Pegula employees but are contracted through the teams and receive their paychecks from the Pegula organization.
An arena exception is concession workers, who are employed by Delaware North. The Buffalo-based hospitality giant has not announced any plans for its workers, drawing nationwide criticism. Many sports owners have stepped in and will pay those concessions staffers, too.
But the Pegulas have stayed on the sidelines, which is noticeable because they launched the aforementioned “One Buffalo” campaign after buying the Sabres and Bills. At the program’s inception, they promised it would serve as a “representation of teamwork and a deeper connection between Buffalo sports teams, fans and the community.”
There are now doubts as to whether the connection is real.
“Makes you wonder if they are who they are,” said the laid-off hospitality worker. “It’s been a weird aura for a while there. Either they really don’t care and are super out of touch or they have a good crew of overpaid cronies keeping them turned a blind eye. I’ve seen so many qualified and talented people leave due to their inability to have compassion or look past financial or sales missed goals.”
The hospitality layoffs follow other employee dismissals within the empire. Sources tell The Athletic that PSE has been examining personnel cutbacks across multiple departments for months in an effort to recalibrate an overambitious portfolio expansion that turned unwieldy.
In November, PSE fired 10 of 30 staffers at PicSix Creative, a marketing and communications subsidiary established just two years earlier to service outside clients.
“They took on more than they can chew, and the people at the top don’t know how to handle anything,” said another former hospitality employee, who cited a secrecy surrounding the organization’s dismissals. “No one knew what was going on. That is how they do it. They are too afraid to address staff and give them possible scenarios. They say they know nothing, and then, bam, ‘You are all screwed. Good luck collecting unemployment.’”
The two termination documents sent to employees Thursday included website addresses for unemployment departments, assistance programs and national bartender relief funds. The letter also included notice that the workers’ health insurance coverage would expire March 31.
“For the last week the only communication I had from the company was to sit tight as the situation was changing rapidly,” the impacted supervisor said. “I honestly loved my job and the exciting atmosphere of what we did. It’s tough to feel like just a number to them, I guess.”
Terry Pegula made his fortune in natural gas. When he was introduced as the Sabres’ new owner in 2011, he declared money would be no object to creating a winning culture and hoisting Stanley Cups. He famously remarked, “If I want to make money, I’ll drill another well.”
Natural gas was selling at $4.21 per unit that day.
The price closed Thursday at $1.65, one day after dipping to an all-time low of $1.555. With warmer weather, a substantial rebound is unlikely.
The petroleum industry has been devastated in recent weeks by concerns over COVID-19, Saudi Arabia’s formidable investments into its natural gas operations and a Saudi-Russia price war over crude oil.
Forbes estimates Pegula is worth $5 billion, a guess because his holdings are privately held.
NFL ownership has been a surefire moneymaker because of the league’s colossal television broadcast deals. But NHL teams, especially those that don’t make reach the postseason, struggle to be profitable and depend mightily on revenue sharing and box office receipts. Buffalo is in jeopardy of losing six home dates to COVID-19 schedule postponements. The Sabres are averaging 17,194 tickets sold in their 19,070-seat arena, the lowest number since 2005-06 as fans have been turned off by a team that will miss its ninth straight postseason.
Despite their affluence, the Pegulas have tried to maintain an everyman reputation in Buffalo.
The son of a truck driver, Terry Pegula’s wealth was self-made. He stood in subsistence lines as a child while his father recovered from hernia surgery and was unable to work. Pegula attended Penn State and, with the help of a grant from Marathon Oil, got a degree in petroleum engineering. His future wife had even less of a chance at birth, having been orphaned in Seoul before a suburban Rochester family adopted her.
In 2010, Terry Pegula sold off most of his East Resources petroleum company to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion.
To fund his purchase of the Bills four years later, he sold $1.7 billion of his remaining oil-drilling acreage to American Energy Partners.
The morning the NFL unanimously approved the Pegulas as the next Bills owners, natural gas opened at $3.89 per unit — $2.24 more than Thursday’s closing price.
How much the Pegulas rely upon natural gas within their business portfolio is uncertain.
Pegula still operates JKLM Energy, named after four of his children: Jessica, Kelly, Laura and Matthew. Operations are based in suburban Pittsburgh and Coudersport, Pa., with over 120,000 drillable acres in Potter County.
JKLM Energy ceased drilling in July because natural gas prices had fallen too far. The price of natural gas closed at $2.14 per unit on July 29. Wednesday’s all-time low closing price was a 24.3 percent drop from a figure that was considered not worth JKLM Energy’s effort eight months ago.
The Washington Post has reported President Trump is considering a federal-assistance program for American natural gas producers harmed by recent developments.
Meanwhile, there are Buffalo event workers waiting indefinitely for payment, and Pegula restaurant employees don’t have a job waiting for them when the world returns to normalcy.
“With the wealth they have,” the former supervisor said, “a little generosity would go a long way.”
