Paul Snyder obit

Paul Snyder, Buffalo businessman and former Buffalo Braves owner, dies at 94

 

He was not on the list.

Paul Snyder was a businessman through and through — an entrepreneur whose impact could be seen across Western New York, from the food industry and amusement parks to downtown Buffalo and professional sports.

Snyder co-founded Freezer Queen, a frozen-food packaging company, in the 1950s. He later purchased property that would become Darien Lake, transforming it into a campground and amusement park before selling it in the 1980s. Snyder died Monday at the age of 94.

His influence also extended into downtown Buffalo. Snyder played a key role in bringing the Hyatt Regency to the city.

Former Sabres partner Larry Quinn recalled meeting Snyder after Hyatt representatives asked him to find a local developer who could take on the project.

"No question that it is. I mean, Hyatt had been worried about the strength of local developers," Quinn said. "They asked me to go out and find somebody. I didn't know Paul, but somebody had recommended him."

Quinn said the two met over breakfast at the old Howard Johnson's on North End Delaware Avenue. Snyder agreed to take on the project.

"Paul was one of those giants," Quinn said. "There was nothing that was too big for him, nothing that he had to wait on. He was a guy that would grab something quickly and do it."

Snyder was also an accomplished athlete.

He owned the Buffalo Braves, Buffalo's last NBA franchise, during the 1970s. The team featured stars including Moses Malone, Bob McAdoo and Randy Smith, a Buffalo-area favorite.

Quinn remembered Snyder as someone who wasn't afraid to think big.

"He didn't go about it in a shy way. He went for it," Quinn said. "I think just ultimately Buffalo wasn't big enough to support two professional sports teams in the winter in one arena. Back then there was no suite revenue. There was not a lot of television money in the NBA back then. Probably would work today, but back then it didn't have those sources of outside income."

Snyder sold the Braves in 1978.

For Quinn, Snyder's lasting legacy is defined not simply by the businesses and teams he owned, but by his willingness to pursue ambitious ideas.

"As somebody that did things and had great courage and great vision," Quinn said. "And I think if you think of those three qualities, we need a lot more of that."

Snyder may be best known in Buffalo for his ownership of the former Buffalo Braves pro basketball franchise for most of its existence. The team entered the National Basketball Association in 1970 as an expansion team. In very short time its original owners, a hedge fund group from New York City, ran into problems and the league assumed control of the franchise. Snyder, who had recently sold off his ownership of Freezer Queen, stepped in and bought the Braves.

Pete Weber, now the play-by-play voice for the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators, worked in Buffalo radio sports for many years, first arriving at the former WEBR in 1976. He remembers Snyder as a fiery owner.

“I mean, how many times did he threaten to move the team or to totally get rid of some of his better players, such as Bob McAdoo," Weber recalled. "I'll never forget the press conference he had talking about Bob McAdoo's agent and what he was concerned with, and he just blatantly said, 'Well, I told his agent to just go to hell.' And next thing we know, John Gianelli is no longer a New York Knick. He's a Buffalo Brave. The trade was made.” The Braves, though popular, struggled to secure prime game dates and times while sharing Memorial Auditorium with the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres and local college basketball. The Braves were third in the pecking order, behind the Sabres and Canisius College. Snyder blamed Canisius for much of his scheduling woes, but Weber suggests that's not fair.

"I think it's a misunderstanding of the facts when people think that he was burned by Canisius," he said. "Canisius had, I think, eight dates on the weekends, which left many more on the calendar that the Buffalo Braves could have had. So I believe that, and I'm not trying to paint Paul Snyder as a total black hat in this story, but I think he has done a little bit of what we know now from politicians trying to paint a pretty picture about his ownership, his time with the Buffalo Braves."

Snyder sold the team to John Y. Brown in 1978. Brown, in turn, agreed to an odd exchange of franchises with Ira Lewin, who owned the Boston Celtics. Brown took over the Celtics, while Lewin assumed control of the Braves. But Lewin then relocated the team to San Diego, where they were renamed the Clippers. The team later moved again to become the current Los Angeles Clippers.