Buffalo Sabres home arena to remain KeyBank Center after reaching 10-year naming rights extension
The new deal will kick in next year and run through 2035-36. The Cleveland-based bank has a large regional presence in Buffalo, and took over the downtown arena's naming rights after acquiring First Niagara Bank in 2016. As part of the extension, the bank's name will be featured on the Sabres' helmets for away games starting this season.
The arena is undergoing a series of long-needed renovations since first opening in 1996. Last year, the Sabres replaced the roof and installed a new video scoreboard over center ice. The next series of renovations are expected to address upgrading the seats and fan amenities.
The Sabres' control the building, which is also home to the three-time defending National Lacrosse League champion Bandits, and have placed an emphasis on adding more events since Pete Guelli took over as the team's chief operating officer last year.
In November, the arena will host one of Paul McCartney's 20 North American tour stops, as well as host a pre-Olympic U.S. vs. Canada women's hockey Rivalry Series game.
The Sabres, meanwhile, have been struggling on the ice with the team in the midst of an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
22 minutes ago
- USA Today
WNBA-to-Boston celebrations premature? League pushes back on CT Sun move after Pagliuca deal
Fans celebrating the arrival of the WNBA to the City of Boston might want to temper their expectations in the short term. Recent reporting from the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn relates that the WNBA itself is throwing cold water on ta potential move of the recently-purchased Connecticut Sun to a new location. Former Boston Celtics minority owner and Bain Capital executive Steve Pagliuca recently purchased the team for a record $325 million, with another $100 million earmarked to build a dedicated practice facility for the team in Boston. But per Washburn, after news of the sale broke this week, the league sent the reporter a release pushing back on a potential move out of the Nutmeg state. "Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams," related the WNBA to Washburn, also noting that "no groups from Boston applied for a team." This could put a bit of a damper on things, given Pagliuca would be one of the first names for an expansion team in the area, yet the former Celtics owner now finds himself the new owner (pending league approval) of a team the WNBA appears determined to keep in Connecticut. "Nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration. Those other cities remain under consideration based on the extensive work they did as part of the expansion process and currently have priority over Boston," added the league. This course of action may have actually put the city behind the proverbial eight ball, as the WNBA may be looking to avoid following in the footsteps of the NBA with the highly unpopular move of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City in the aughts. Interestingly, the release tendered to Washburn also notes that a "prospective Celtics owner has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time." Does this mean the ownership group helmed by Bill Chisholm currently in the process of securing final NBA approval to buy the Boston-based NBA ball club is also the leading group to secure a WNBA team in the same city? At present, details on all of the above are murky, but will likely continue to develop in the coming weeks. Listen to "Havlicek Stole the Pod" on: Spotify: iTunes: YouTube:
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt wins women's Tour de France at her first attempt
CHATEL, France (AP) — French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt won the women's Tour de France at her first attempt on Sunday, launching an attack to clinch the final stage and increase her overnight lead. It gave Ferrand-Prévôt a resounding victory. She finished 3 minutes, 42 seconds ahead of 2023 champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands and 4:09 clear of defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland. There was little of the drama of last year's final day, which produced a four-second winning margin for the narrowest victory in the history of the women's and men's races. The 33-year-old Ferrand-Prévôt had put herself largely in control by winning Saturday's eighth and penultimate stage with an audacious solo breakaway on the last climb. That gave her an overnight lead of 2:37 seconds over Australian rider Sarah Gigante and 3:18 over Vollering. Sunday's ninth stage from Praz-sur-Arly to Châtel was a 124-kilometer (77-mile) trek featuring three big mountain climbs. But Ferrand-Prévôt did not face any big attacks and instead launched one of her own with 6 kilometers left. The crowds cheered her all the way to the finish line and, moments later, the tears flowed as she lay on her back, exhausted but elated. Vollering was 20 seconds behind in second place and Niewiadoma followed in third place as they sprinted to the line. Earlier, Ferrand-Prévôt was with Gigante and a few others when they tackled the mammoth climb up Col de Joux Plane — an 11.6-kilometer grind with a gradient of 8.5%. Gigante is known to have trouble descending at speed and was dropped on the long downhill. She could not make the time up, especially with no teammates to help her, and lost her podium spot, finishing sixth overall. Having won Olympic gold in mountain biking and conquered the cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix classic, Ferrand-Prévôt added another line to her glittering resumé with a Tour victory.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Legendary Long Island law firm Sullivan-Papain turns 100
They've pleased the court. A Long Island law firm that changed the world using out-of-the-box thinking on everything from smoking to cars to beer at baseball games is celebrating centenarian status this year. 'Everything that you have grown up with and have taken for granted is because of what's happened in this firm over the last 100 years,' New York State Supreme Court Justice Christopher McGrath told The Post of firm Sullivan-Papain, which has recovered north of $2 billion in settlements in the past decade alone. 4 Sullivan-Papain partners Thomas McManus, Eleni Coffinas, John Nash, Nick Papain (back row left to right) and Bob Sullivan (seated) at the law firm's office in Garden City. Dennis A. Clark The judge cut his teeth with the Garden City-based practice as a 23-year-old under the tutelage of its late 5'2″ skinny founder, Harry Lipsig, who was a giant in the legal world 50-something years ago. 'He was just different. He's a genius — and yet, we'll call him a little quirky at the same time,' McGrath said. 'One time, my job was to meet him at his apartment at seven in the morning. The train got me in late at 7:05, and he said, 'Good afternoon.' ' Lipsig's high standards weren't without reason. He used a mix of sheer brilliance and common sense to change how the world operated; perhaps most notably, starting with how stadiums sold beer 80 years ago, after a man at a New York Giants baseball game got belted in the head with a glass bottle at the old Polo Grounds. 4 Harry Lipsig was a founding partner of the 100-year-old firm. Dennis A. Clark 'The Polo Grounds was saying it wasn't their fault. … 'We can't put a police officer in every other seat. We can't have everybody stop anybody from throwing something down,' ' recalled senior partner Bob Sullivan. During the three-day trial, Lipsig, who passed away in 1989 at age 89, brought a mysterious handheld paper bag into court with him each day and left it sealed on the table. 'When he got to summation, he pulled out a paper cup and he said, 'This is how you stop it.' … That's how that came to be in stadiums all across the country,' Sullivan said. 4 Senior partner Bob Sullivan recalls the creative way Lipsig was able to win a case against the old Polo Grounds stadium. Dennis A. Clark On a case-by-case basis The novel way of thinking that Lipsig was known for — he once won a shark-bite case by proving the victim's hotel wasn't dumping its garbage far enough at sea and drew in the predators — has been passed down generation to generation. New York state recruited Sullivan-Papain in its lawsuit against smoking companies in the late 1990s, which yielded an end to cigarette ads and $25 billion in recovery locally. 'The genius was that we didn't represent the smokers, we represented the nonsmokers,' Sullivan said. 'Your taxes, what you pay for Medicare, Medicaid, for all these people who got sick and were dying of cancer, went through the roof. That was the key point.' 4 Partner Nick Papain was involved in a case that helped make cars safer. Dennis A. Clark Ironically, most of the firm's team on the case was hooked on nicotine. 'Every hour, we would take a 10-minute break so the lawyers could go out and smoke,' said partner Nicholas Papain, a lawyer who led to changes in how cars are built. He was involved in several cases of people who got into accidents by unintentionally hitting the gas rather than the brake when first getting into their cars. Ultimately, the high-volume litigation led to automakers keeping gearshifts locked unless a driver's foot was on the brake. The firm has also branched out into medical malpractice and represented the FDNY for four decades, with partner Eleni Coffinas saying cancer patients often find emotional strength in court victories. Sullivan-Papain has done an estimated $40 million in pro bono work for the families of first responders on 9/11, too. 'I think it speaks to that firm culture, philosophy, that is a big reason why it has been around for 100 years,' said managing partner TJ McManus, who added that it is common for new workers to hear of Lipsig's legend during their first week on the job. 'I think he set certain parameters and a legacy that is followed all the way through to today.'
