10 Years of Pegula Ownership of the Buffalo Bills

By Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba

The hometown franchise this week is celebrating ten years of ownership under Terry and Kim Pegula, who is still recovering from a serious illness.

The first take on the Pegula’s as an organization is that they have had so much turnover, it is difficult to keep up with their organization outside of the football operation. They were lucky to have inherited Doug Whaley, who they symbolically gave him the title of General Manager, but refused to give him final say over the football operation which caused nothing but trouble during the tenures of Doug Marrone and Rex Ryan.

Finally, on the recommendation of Doug Whaley, they hired Sean McDermott, who in turn required full control of the football operation, which led to the dismissal of Doug Whaley after the 2017 draft. Under Sean McDermott this franchise has made the playoffs six out of seven years.

The problem with the Pegula’s is what they decided as a new stadium in Orchard Park, New York which will go down as one of the worst decisions in Western New York history and only benefits an aging owner, who could have changed the entire region by choosing to put a multiuse facility in Downtown Buffalo but instead has continued the same status quo policies that have hurt this area for a number of years.

Not only did Terry Pegula make one of the worst decisions on a new stadium in this region, but he also continued the status quo policies of not advertising with accredited Black media. He refused to answer numerous letters regarding this critical issue in which our elected representatives have remained silent except Erie County Legislature Chair April Baskin.

So many of you are just happy to have your team here, but many of us who have covered this franchise as accredited media get very little sponsorship dollars as others because I believe rests at the feet of The Pegula Family, who fails to practice reciprocity with Black Media and we are just about shut out of full opportunities because of his failure to advertise with accredited black media outlets in Western New York.