The Buffalo Sabres, who haven't qualified for the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, are once again heading rapidly in the wrong direction after losing seven of their past eight games, and the franchise's incredible fanbase continues to dwindle as a result.
Buffalo currently ranks 31st out of the league's 32 teams in the percentage of its home arena that's filled per game (86.1%). The Sabres are averaging 16,421 fans at the KeyBank Center, which has a maximum capacity of 19,070 for hockey games.
Here are the NHL's bottom five organizations in that category, per Hockey Reference:
- 32. Chicago Blackhawks: 85.6%
- 31. Buffalo Sabres: 86.1%
- 30. San Jose Sharks: 86.6%
- 29. Pittsburgh Penguins: 86.9%
- 28. Philadelphia Flyers: 87.6%
At least supporters of the Hawks and Sharks have two of the league's brightest young stars — Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, respectively — to watch when they attend a game.
The Sabres are caught in an endless losing loop that's resulted in the longest playoff drought in NHL history, and their current core doesn't appear strong enough to seriously contend, either.
Buffalo Sabres' vicious circle of poor attendance and limited salary-cap spending is a nightmare combination
Everything changed for the Sabres in June 2020 when team owner Terry Pegula made it clear his declaration made when purchasing the franchise in 2011 — "Starting today, there will be no financial mandates on the Buffalo Sabres’ hockey department." — was being rolled back.
"I mentioned three words: effective, efficient and economic," Pegula said in 2020. "... But I can tell you this, with all the existing technology that exists in the world of sports today, we can move forward much leaner than we operated in the past and much more efficient."
Since that point, the Sabres thinned out their scouting department and made an annual habit of not spending to the NHL's salary cap.
Over the previous five seasons (2020-21 through 2024-25), Buffalo was a combined $52.4 million under the cap at season's end, according to Spotrac. It was projected to have about $5.1 million in free cap space this season before an injury crisis necessitated multiple call-ups to lower the figure.
Yes, it's fair to argue simply spending more money doesn't guarantee better results. That said, leaving so much money on the table every year with an obviously flawed roster isn't giving your team the best chance to seriously compete.
At the same time, the Sabres' attendance has continued to lag coming out of COVID.
In 2019-20, the season before pandemic-related arena restrictions, Buffalo averaged 17,167 fans. It has never returned to that level since people were allowed to return in full force during the 2022-23 campaign, per HockeyDB.
The Sabres' attendance is actually up year-over-year based on early 2025-26 data but, when discounting the past five years, the 16,421 figure would still represent the lowest total since 2003-04.
Here's the bottom line: The entire situation has become a vicious circle.
The Pegula family has become more financially conscious about the Sabres, unwilling to pour additional funds into a team that isn't putting fans in the KeyBank Center seats.
On the flip side, Buffalo sports fans have become less willing to spend their hard-earned money on an organization that doesn't appear all-in on trying to build a Stanley Cup contender. Even the extraordinarily low bar of making the playoffs feels impossible to jump.
It's created a franchise that's become one of the biggest laughingstocks in North American sports alongside the NFL's New York Jets.
Nevertheless, Sabres fandom isn't dead in Western New York, it's merely dormant. When things finally turn around for the organization, fans will come rushing back in droves. That's a guarantee.
When that'll happen is a mystery, though. And this year's attendance numbers could nosedive if the team's recent losing skid doesn't come to an end soon.