The Bills and Sabres are already heavily tied to Rochester, but that link is likely about to get even stronger: A Rochester native is now in their front office.

Pete Guelli is back in Western New York. He grew up here and went to Aquinas and Brockport, and is well connected with the area. He will be the chief operating officer (COO) of both teams.

Guelli was with the New York Giants the last five years. Before that, he spent some time with the Charlotte Hornets and helped transition the ownership of the team to Michael Jordan at the time, so he has some NBA experience too.

And it’s not going to be his first rodeo with the Bills. He was with them for 11 years back in the early 2000s. He spearheaded their move from SUNY Fredonia to St. John Fisher for training camp.

And now he’s back again and can’t wait.

“It’s a surreal moment, I think, from the minute I left,” Guelli said. “There’s always a little bit of me that wanted to come back and you just never expect things are going to work out like this. But it’s almost like a gravitational pull in some ways where you come from the area and you take a lot of pride in growing up there and representing your hometown teams. And you’re right. I think there was an incredible foundation built then, and that’s carried over. And all Terry (Pegula, owner of the Sabres and co-owner of the Bills) and his family has done is improve upon it.”

Guelli is coming aboard at a busy time for both teams on the business side. The Bills continue work on their new stadium, set to open in 2026, and the Sabres are going to be making some upgrades to their arena too.