Background and career
Terrence Michael Pegula (born March 27, 1951) is an American billionaire businessman, sports team owner, and petroleum engineer. He first developed his wealth by creating the company East Resources, which pioneered fracking in the Marcellus Formation. The majority of his wealth comes from sales of parts of the business to Royal Dutch Shell and American Energy Partners, LP. Pegula mantains interests in natural gas development, real estate, entertainment, and professional sports. His net worth is over US$7 billion. He is most well known as the owner of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL) and, with a consortium of private equity firms and athletes, the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He is also the president of both franchises, alongside several smaller regional teams. He has also donated significant money to the sports programs at Pennsylvania State University and Houghton College. Other public donation records include political campaigns in Pennsylvania and New York.
Pegula was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. His father, Myron Pegula, worked as a truck driver for a coal mining company, while his mother was from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is of Carpatho-Rusyn descent through his paternal grandparents, Andrew and Ana (Cheko) Pegula, who emigrated from Hanigovce, in present-day Slovakia. He attended high school at Scranton Preparatory School. From there, he attended Penn State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. Beginning in 1985, he was based in Allegany, New York.
After working for a time for Getty Oil and Felmont Oil Co., Pegula founded East Resources, a natural gas drilling company, with $7,500 from family and friends in 1983. It profited heavily upon discovery of deep layers of natural gas in the Marcellus Formation and application of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") recovery process. Pegula eventually sold the Pennsylvania, New York, and Rocky Mountain assets of the company to Royal Dutch Shell for approximately $4.7 billion. He sold the Ohio and West Virginia assets of the company to American Energy Partners, LP for $1.75 billion in 2014. Pegula also owns Greater Rocky Mountain Regional Oil & Gas in Colorado and Wyoming, and JKLM Energy in Pennsylvania.
In February 2011, Pegula purchased Hockey Western New York LLC (the holding company that owns the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League) from previous owners Tom Golisano, Larry Quinn, and Dan DiPofi for $189 million. Pegula's purchase made an immediate positive impact, with players, fans and alumni invigorated by his investment in the team, the then First Niagara Center and the building of Harborcenter across the street. Pegula was quoted as saying, "Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence, will be to win a Stanley Cup." However, in the decade that followed, the Buffalo Sabres posted a 281–354–94 record and held the longest active NHL post-season drought. Pegula and his wife have been heavily criticized for meddling in the Sabres' hockey operations. Many fans and critics alike have attributed the team's firing of six head coaches and four general managers since 2013 to this, as well as other controversial moves such as the trades of Ryan O'Reilly, Jack Eichel, and Sam Reinhart, who would each go on to win a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, and Florida Panthers, respectively.
Included in the Sabres purchase was their National Lacrosse League (NLL) counterpart, the Buffalo Bandits, which have won seven NLL championships. The Bandits won the NLL championship in 2023, giving Pegula his first championship under his ownership of the team. The Bandits would repeat as NLL champions in 2024, and would win a third consecutive league championship in 2025 which was the franchise's 7th overall championship.
In May 2011, Pegula began negotiations on behalf of the Sabres to re-purchase the Rochester Americans, which had served as the Sabres' American Hockey League affiliate from 1979 to 2008 (and had been owned by the Sabres from 1979 to 1996); the deal was completed in late June 2011. As part of the deal the Americans had to be split off from its NLL counterpart the Rochester Knighthawks since Pegula owned the Bandits due to ownership rules at the time. Along with the purchase of the Americans came upgrades to the team's arena, the Blue Cross Arena.
