Mark Hamister (October 18, 1951 – August 20, 2021) was an American businessman and the Chairman and CEO of the Hamister Group, a Buffalo-based company specializing in hotels and assisted living residences with more than 500 employees and $80 million in annual revenues.

Career

Hamister was the founder and owner of three professional indoor football teams: the

Buffalo Destroyers Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

(1998–2003), and the

Rochester Brigade The Rochester Brigade was a professional arena football team based in Rochester, New York. The team was a member of af2, the minor league of the Arena Football League, and played their home games at the Blue Cross Arena. The Brigade began play i ...

(2001–03) and

Cincinnati Swarm The Cincinnati Swarm was a professional arena football franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were members of the Midwest Division of the National Conference of the af2. The Swarm joined the af2 as an expansion franchise in 2003 along with t ...

(2003) of the minor-league

arenafootball2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

. He had purchased the franchise rights to bring an

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

team to Buffalo in 2000, but was unable to secure a venue. Upon the arrest of Buffalo Sabres CEO/Owner

John Rigas John James Rigas (November 14, 1924 – September 30, 2021) was an American businessman who was one of the founders of Adelphia Communications Corporation, which at its peak was one of the largest cable TV companies in the United States. He was ...

and his sons for fraud in May 2002, and the subsequent bankruptcy of the Adelphia Corporation, Hamister and fellow investor Todd Berman submitted a bid to the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

to purchase the Sabres franchise. Although their bid was initially approved by the league in November 2002, Berman subsequently withdrew his financial support and Hamister suspended the asset purchase agreement that would have completed the sale of the team. The Sabres were eventually purchased by Thomas Golisano, founder and CEO of Paychex Inc. In his later years, Hamister was instrumental in a $300 million private and public development project in the suburban Town of Amherst, New York. He died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

on August 20, 2021, aged 69.

References

1951 births 2021 deaths Arena Football League executives Businesspeople from New York (state) Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state) {{US-business-bio-1950s-stub