Erie County is receiving a large increase in compensation to provide security at KeyBank Center events, but not all agree with the new deal.
The Buffalo Sabres’ new security agreement will pay $585,000 to the Erie County Sheriff’s Office to provide services for the upcoming hockey season. That’s roughly a third of the total security expense.
Erie County Legislator Jeanne Vinal is the only one to vote against the agreement, saying the Sabres should cover the whole cost or provide their own security.
“County taxpayers are paying two-thirds of the costs," she said. "We're privatizing the profit of the Sabres, but we're socializing the security costs, and we're making people who go to the game, or don't go to the game, pay for the security costs for a company that could pay it themselves.”
Private security was used for KeyBank Center until 2022. After that, the county under a previous agreement was paid $120,000 per year for security.
The new deal is a major win for the county and residents, County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo said.
“This is a reimbursement that Erie County is getting that we wouldn't get otherwise. It was a discussion last week at committee that we had," she said. "We got good answers from the sheriff's office explaining what a win this was to get that amount of funding back to the county.”
The deal will jump to $720,000 for the Sabres’ 2028-29 season. The county also will receive $6,647.72 for every additional event in 2026-27, outside of the planned 88 arena events. That will increase to $8,181.81 by 2028-29.
