from John Vogl of The Athletic,

When talking and listening to Sabres fans, the anecdotal evidence was overwhelming: Ticket sales were going to be ugly.

The actual evidence proves it.

Buffalo has hosted two preseason games, and acres of empty blue seats greeted the players in KeyBank Center. The Sabres announced 6,846 tickets sold for Friday’s loss to Pittsburgh and 6,327 tickets sold for Monday’s 5-3 loss to Columbus. The actual attendance in the 19,070-seat building was just a fraction of those low numbers – it would have been possible to count the attendees Monday night – but ticket sales tell the damning story.

Fans who bought full season-ticket packages were charged for the three home preseason games. So, at most, the Sabres have sold 6,327 full-season packages, based on Monday’s ticketed attendance number. Buffalo used to cap season-ticket sales at 16,000, so the team could experience a drop of nearly 10,000 regular customers.

It’s a dizzying freefall for a place once dubbed “Hockey Heaven.”

continued (paid)