Buffalo Sabres
Rink: KeyBank Center
Capacity: 19,070
Built: 1996
League: NHL
City: Buffalo, New York
Home Of: Buffalo Sabres
Games Attended: 5
First Game: January 18, 2011 vs Montreal
Most Recent Game: January 28, 2025 vs Boston
Unique Arena: #29
NHL Arena: #4
KeyBank Center in Buffalo sits just south of the downtown core on the far east shores of Lake Erie, about a block from where the old famous Aud used to sit. It was built in the middle of the 90s building boom for the NHL and in many ways is a lot what the Aud wasn’t. In more recent years a massive structure was built attached to KeyBank Center that houses a giant parking garage, a restaurant and a secondary rink which is used for Sabres practice, minor hockey and even home to NCAA hockey. That alone is an impressive building, with ice level on the 6th floor. There are also lots of parking lots around KeyBank and thankfully it’s now a stop on the Buffalo Metro Rail which can take you to much cheaper parking for free.
Despite KeyBank quickly approaching its 30th birthday it’s a building that to me feels just as new as the day it opened in 1996 and has been upgraded to try and keep up with the times. When you first enter there is a giant lobby that you can thankfully congregate in before having your tickets scanned for those particularly cold nights. You are then whisked up escalators to the main lower bowl concourse level, which is very wide and offers all usual fare you would expect. One thing I thought was neat as of my last visit was there are digital signs telling you how long a wait in bathroom lines would be.
One of the coolest features however is the fact they managed to bring the bar from the old Pour Man’s Aud club at the old building and incorporate it into the concourse of KeyBank. Major bonus points to the Sabres on that one.
KeyBank Center is like many NHL buildings with two giant bowls of seats that are all comfortable and have great views of the ice. The upper bowl feels particularly steep but is nothing compared to the upper bowl at the old Aud (based on pictures I’ve seen, I wasn’t lucky enough to go). I would say the biggest flaw of KeyBank is how cavernous it feels. Even with a packed house, the roof is so high up and arched that the building feels like an aircraft hangar. Despite that the atmosphere at Sabres games can still be a great one. It is often used as a beacon for fans across the border in Canada to come to NHL games as the tickets are much more affordable than Canadian counterparts in Toronto and Montreal.
