Pittsford, N.Y. (WBEN/WGR Sports Radio 550) - Back in March, the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres named Rochester native Pete Guelli as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for both organizations, replacing John Roth, who had been fired in October 2023.
Guelli returned to Buffalo after serving previously with the Bills as the team’s Senior Vice President of Business Ventures from 1998-2009. Just before re-joining the Bills and Sabres, he held the role of Chief Business Officer of the New York Giants for five years.
Driving down the New York State Thruway on his way to St. John Fisher University, Guelli admits it was a little hard to believe that he'd be returning to his home roots while working with his hometown team once again.
"People are just as excited, the camp's in a great place, it's great for football ops. It's just fun to be back," said Guelli in an interview with WBEN.
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Years prior to training camp being held at St. John Fisher University in Pittsford, a suburb of the City of Rochester, the Bills had partnered with SUNY Fredonia to hold training camp on their campus in the Village of Fredonia. After 19 years in Chautauqua County, training camp received a change of scenery, moving down Interstate 90 and to the 585 area code.
For Guelli, the move to St. John Fisher was one of the first projects he worked on with the Bills.
It was a competitive process, we were looking for the best location to have camp. As you can see, this is an incredible place, and Fisher jumped up on the map pretty quickly as the destination," Guelli said. "Started working with the college, started working with people in the town, and we we're able to put something together. Even that Year 1, we knew it was going to be a success, the way people turned out, the way they reacted to it. And Rochester is a critical market for us, so it's always going to be important. To put a stake in the ground in the city with an event like training camp is very important."
2024 marks the 23rd training camp to be held in Rochester at St. John Fisher, and while Guelli admits a lot of things are still the same, he loves the way it has all evolved since.
"Obviously they've built on the foundation, and it's even better, I think, than it was," he said. "The fans are a little bit closer to the action, it's a great experience. It's even better for football operations than it was when we built it. But it's just really exciting to know that we created a foundation that the current group was able to evolve, and then you come back and you see it even better than you left it."
One of the evolutions with training camp that Guelli is amazed by is how accessible it is for fans to get an up-close look at the team as they get ready for the upcoming football season.
"You can see right behind us, the fans are lined up, they have access to the players, great vantage point for viewing. I mean, you're getting an opportunity to see how a NFL team develops before the season starts. That's a special opportunity," Guelli noted. "There's a lot for the kids to do here, and so we've been proud that it's stood up. But again, it's even better than it was. I think the fan experience here is incredible."
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Over the last few training camps, the Bills and St. John Fisher have agreed to partner for training camps on a year-by-year basis. That's compared to years past with both sides coming together on multi-year agreements to host camp in Rochester.
While Guelli doesn't know if that was necessarily intentional, he believes it's just the way the partnership has evolved, and it continues to flourish.
"I had breakfast with Sean McDermott this morning, he loves camp. I think this is a great opportunity to get the players together, especially when you have a lot of new faces," Guelli said. "We talked specifically about how it works for him and for his staff, and he was very high on everything that's going on here. With Rochester continuing to be important to us, I would anticipate us being here for a while."
Back in 2001 when training camp launched in Rochester, Guelli remembers the amount of questions about the long-term viability of the Bills in the league. Upon returning to the Bills, he's no longer hearing those questions, especially with the new Highmark Stadium's that currently under construction in Orchard Park.
"To have a state-of-the-art facility like that in Buffalo is pretty amazing to come back to. Obviously we're two years out, but everything's on track and on schedule, and it's exciting to see it go up," Guelli noted. "And the vision for what it's supposed to be is kind of coming into focus now."
While the future in Buffalo is looking bright for the Bills, the Sabres continue to struggle with a large 13-season playoff drought looming over the organization's head. While Guelli has had his focus on the current renovations with a new roof and state-of-the-art videoboard, he does believe the team is ready to take the next step in the 2024-25 hockey season.
"We brought Lindy Ruff in, which has been exciting to the fans, and hopefully will get us on track on the ice as well," Guelli said. "The Pegula family is as committed to these teams as they've ever been, so it's a perfect time to be here for both franchises. A lot of aspirational-type things happening, and it's fun to be a part of."
Guelli adds the organization wants to take a hard look at the arena in the coming years, and see where that takes them in the long-term.
