Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres chairman abruptly resigns after confronting owners over alleged inappropriate relationship

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• Russ Brandon has resigned as president of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres after being confronted by the teams’ owners over an allegedly inappropriate relationship.

• The relationship in question first became apparent to a number of team employees when the Sabers visited New York for a game against the Rangers on January 18.

• Brandon most recently served as Managing Partner of the Bills, was an alternate for the Sabres on the NHL Board of Governors and a member of the NFL Business Enterprise Committee.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Russ Brandon abruptly resigned from his dual role as president of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres after confronting the teams’ owners about an alleged inappropriate relationship with a female employee, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because it is an internal matter, and owners Terry and Kim Pegula did not provide a reason for accepting Brandon’s resignation in a statement released Tuesday.

The relationship in question first became known to a number of team employees when the Sabres visited New York for a game against the Rangers on Jan. 18, the sources said. During that trip, the team hosted a fan event at a bar the night before the game.

Kim Pegula will take over Brandon’s roles overseeing the Bills, the Sabres and Pegula Sports Entertainment, the company that controls the owners’ many interests.

In a text to the AP, Brandon said he had been considering leaving his position for some time and felt the timing was right after the conclusion of the NFL Draft.

“My goal when the Pegulas purchased the franchise was to reach 20 years with the Bills, which I achieved last November,” Brandon wrote.

“As grateful as I am for the incredible experience and incredible people I have had the privilege of working with over the past two decades, I am equally anxious about the professional opportunities that lie ahead,” he said. he adds.

Brandon did not respond to follow-up questions about his relationship.

Brandon’s departure comes after the Bills made a splash in the first round of the draft by selecting Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen with the seventh pick and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds with the 16th pick. The newcomers join a Bills team that went 9-7 and ended a 17-year playoff drought last season.

On Saturday, the last-place Sabers got a boost by winning the NHL draft and the right to the top pick for the third time in franchise history.

“We have tremendous confidence in the strong management team we have built at each of these entities over the past several years,” the Pegulas said in a statement.

“We are excited about the direction our teams are headed, especially following the NFL Draft and the results of the NHL Draft Lottery this past weekend. Our focus remains on building championship teams on and off the field for our fans and our community.”

Brandon most recently served as Managing Partner of the Bills, was an alternate for the Sabres on the NHL Board of Governors and a member of the NFL Business Enterprise Committee.

Brandon’s departure comes at a time when he was supposed to oversee the Bills’ next big move to determine their future home. Brandon was to lead the team’s stadium search committee to decide whether the Bills should continue playing in their current home or develop a new facility in downtown Buffalo.

He held various positions with the Bills, involving both marketing and football decisions during a two-year tenure as general manager from 2008 to 2009.

He also took the lead in negotiating the Bills’ most recent lease five years ago, which was instrumental in securing the franchise’s long-term future in Buffalo, especially after the death of Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson in March 2014.

The lease included a strict no-relocation clause that included a $400 million penalty the team would be forced to pay if it considered moving before 2020.

Brandon also oversaw the eventual sale of the Bills to the Pegulas, who completed the purchase of the franchise for $1.4 billion in October 2014.

The Pegulas retained Brandon and elevated him to managing partner. The Pegulas thought so highly of Brandon that the Sabres were added to his responsibilities after the team reached a mutual agreement to part ways with Ted Black in July 2015.

Brandon’s resignation marks the end of a major turnover of Bills executives who served under Wilson. Bruce Popko is the primary replacement and now becomes the top executive as chief operating officer of Buffalo-based Pegula Sports and Entertainment, which oversees the Pegulas’ many holdings.

Brandon grew up in nearby Syracuse, New York, and began making his mark in Buffalo shortly after being hired by the Bills in 1997 to serve as the team’s director of business development and marketing.

He began by leading a campaign to turn them into a regional team by expanding the franchise’s fan base to compensate for Buffalo’s declining population.

That process began in 2000, when the team moved training camp to Brandon’s alma mater, St. John Fisher College in suburban Rochester, to capitalize on the community’s larger business and population base.

The Bills later expanded their presence in southern Ontario by negotiating a deal to begin playing annual regular season games in Toronto beginning in 2008. The “Bills In Toronto” series lasted until 2013 before the deal was suspended the following year and then terminated by the Pegulas.

Toronto-based media giant Rogers Communications paid the Bills $78 million to rent eight games (five regular season and three preseason) during the initial five-year deal. The price was almost double what the Bills were expected to generate if those games were played at home.

The series also led to a surge in season ticket purchases across the border. In 2015, the Bills estimated that southern Ontario fans accounted for approximately 18% of their season ticket sales, surpassing their support from Rochester.

Not everything has been successful under Brandon, who has drawn criticism for a number of decisions, including his failure to produce a winner during his two-year tenure as Bills general manager when Wilson chose to promote from within the organization after Marv Levy resigned after a two-year tenure.

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The third paragraph of this article has been corrected to note that the relationship first became apparent when the Sabres visited New York for a game against the Rangers on Jan. 18.

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