The Pressbox Powertrip

Reluctant and bad news

2008-05-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

I've been putting this post off for a few days because I do it with much reluctance and a heavy heart. I'm not sure how to say this gently, so I'll just say it -- I'm shutting down The Pressbox Powertrip.

I've thought long and hard about this decision, and while I love doing this blog, the time I put into it is starting to negatively affect my performance of my other, paying pursuits. I have commitments to other publications -- ones that pay me and allow me to pay my rent -- and this blog is starting to prevent me from adequately fulfilling those commitments.

It was my hope this this blog could become a revenue-producing venture, but it hasn't, and at this point I just don't have the time it would take to aggressively and adequately pursue that goal.

I'm leaving the blog up until the end of next week so people can read this post, and them I'm going to delete the blog. So, unless something happens over the next nine days that would help this blog become a money-maker, I'm afraid this will be the end of the Powertrip.

Like I said, I do this with a heavy heart. I have enjoyed running this blog, and I remain extremely grateful for all of my readers and all of the people who have posted comments and e-mailed or called me with tips and information. Thank you all for your support and readership.

I want to extend a special thank-you to my friend and mentor Bruno Sniders, whose support and assistance has been absolutely crucial to the success of this blog.

So, I suppose, I must say farewell. Thank you all again.

PAETEC almost DID drop naming rights

2008-05-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

A source tells me that, for what it's worth, PAETEC Communications WAS actually considering withdrawing from its naming-rights agreement for the soccer stadium during the height of the Rhinos' recent financial crisis.

The company even took steps to notify the team that it was preparing to drop its name from the stadium. That could explain why the company's PR rep was a little surly with me when I talked to him a few weeks ago.

Rhinos: Slow start won't affect attendance

2008-05-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Will the Rhinos' winless, and scoreless, start to the season hurt the team in the stands when the home opener comes around this Saturday?

The team's front office doesn't think so.

"I don't think it will affect the opener," team VP Sam Fantauzzo told me this morning. "I think a lot of our fans understand that this team was put together late. Other teams had several games under their belts before we even started training camp."

Fantauzzo said ticket sales "are through the roof right now. It's fantastic." He said the team has sold roughly 4,000 season tickets so far.

He also said the team's 0-3-1 start hasn't scared away sponsors and advertisers.

"Advertising and sponsors are amazing," he said. "The phone is ringing off the hook here. We're feeling the buzz that's going around town. The whole town is buzzing."

Management is now focused on the home opener this Saturday against Charleston, an event that will include a concert by American Idol star Bo Bice.

"Bo Bice is bigger than we ever thought he would be," Fantauzzo said. "This guy is huge. It's amazing how many people are into him."

Fantauzzo also said the team is excited about its new broadcasting agreement with Clear Channel, which gives the Rhinos exposure on several local stations. For example, he said, Bice will appear on multiple channels this week leading up to the game and concert Saturday.

"(Clear Channel's) affiliation is amazing," Fantauzzo said. "We'll be doing a lot with them."

Donner and the Walk of Fame?

2008-05-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to get your thoughts about Bob Matthews' column last week in which he argued for Steve Donner receiving a spot in the Frontier Walk of Fame.

Bob's arguments are very good ones, and certainly very legitimate. Donner has indeed done a lot for the Rochester sports scene over the years. But does all the recent nastiness overshadow all that?

A trio of tax warrants

2008-05-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the state Department of Taxation and Finance issued a trio of tax warrants totaling nearly $72,000 in unpaid taxes against current and former Rochester Sports Group companies.

Empire Professional Soccer LLC — the company DDE used to operate the Rhinos team — got whacked the hardest, with a warrant for $40,036.75.

Rochester Amerks Inc. owes $31,787.71.

Last but not least, Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the company that supposedly was used to own and build PAETEC Park (but which, as we've found, might have been a mere shell corporation) — owes a measly $105.68. (Why even bother with an amount that small?)

These three new warrants are in addition to several other ones issued to various RSG teams over the last year or so.

Perhaps the question to ask now is whether the government — by virtue of being, you know, the government — jumps to the head of the line when it comes to unpaid RSG creditors lining up.

Official: City always owned stadium

2008-05-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken me a couple days to write a follow-up to my Thursday post about PAETEC Park. Thank you, by the way, for all your comments and all your thoughts. Keep them coming. This is your blog as much as it is mine.

Anyway ... we found the deed! Actually, we found many deeds. My research associate talked with Mark Carden of the city of Rochester's Maps and Surveys Division, who located more than a dozen deeds for the property listed as 524 Oak St., which includes the soccer stadium. All of the deeds are owned by the city.

And here's the key part: Carden says that according to the deeds, that property on Oak Street has never been owned by anybody except the city of Rochester, at least not since PAETEC Park even bagan to come into the picture. That includes PAETEC Park itself.

The city owned everything, then leased the property — the land AND the stadium — to DDE's corporation Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC. When the previously Rhinos ownership went belly up, the city simply pulled the lease to everything.

So when we were all told several years ago that PAETEC Park would be a private venture (albeit largely publicly funded) owned by DDE, that simply wasn't true. The soccer stadium has been a city-owned project all along.

In addition, this confirms that NBT Bank never had any claim to the stadium through the mortgages they gave to DDE because DDE never owned the stadium anyway. That's why the bank didn't put up a fight when the city "seized" the stadium from DDE. That's why NBT was able to foreclose on the corporation (Rhinos Stadium LLC) but NOT the asset (the stadium) — because the corporation never HAD the asset to begin with.

This all raises a few key questions, including the big one: Where exactly did all that $32 million go? What path did it take, and where did it end up?

DDE received $10.6 million in loans from NBT (and Adirondack Bank). But if DDE never owned the stadium, where did that $10.6 million go? The same question can be asked about the $19 million in state funding for the project.

Did all that money simply go to the city directly, which would mean that Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC might have been just a shell corporation designed to give the appearance that the stadium was a privately-owned project?

You also have to wonder how much NBT Bank knew. Did they dish out all that loan money in the belief — the now mistaken belief — that it would go to DDE to allow them to build the soccer stadium? If that was the case, does it mean that, essentially, the bank was duped? Is the president of the bank walking around with a big, "Kick Me" sign on his (or her) back?

I should note, by the way, that I e-mailed Frank DuRoss on Wednesday to see if he wanted to comment on the fact that his company apparently never owned the stadium, but I haven't heard back.

I also asked him his thoughts on how a soccer stadium that was built for $32 million has an assessed value of $12 million.

The truth about soccer stadium ownership?

2008-05-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

No one but the city of Rochester ever owned, possessed or sold PAETEC Park. Not DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE), not their company (Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC), not NBT Bank, no one.

At least, not according to the city’s own Tax Assessor’s office.

Know what the Assessor’s office also says? That PAETEC Park, which allegedly took $32 million to build, is only worth just over $12 million. That’s nearly a $20 million difference. So why the difference?

But wait, there’s even more: the city Assessor’s office can’t even find an actual deed for the stadium. Either one has never existed, or someone is hiding it.

E-mails and phone calls by my research associate to city officials regarding the stadium situation have not been returned.

But back to the first point. Remember how several players in the whole Rhinos/PAETEC Park fiasco, including the city and DDE, said it was DDE – or their company, Rochester Rhinos Stadium – that owned the stadium when it was first built?

They also said that the city only owned the land the stadium sits on and that DDE’s corporation – which included its biggest asset, the stadium – leased just the land from the city and operated the stadium themselves.

These players said the city didn’t assume control of the stadium until DDE defaulted on their lease agreement with the city, which had the legal right to seize property as a result.

All not true, at least from what we have learned from our extensive research.

Either that, or the people in the Assessor’s office have been kept out of the loop.

Because, as my research associate discovered, the Assessor’s office has absolutely NO RECORD of a sale or transfer of the deed to the stadium property. But even that’s moot, because the Assessor’s people CAN’T EVEN FIND EVIDENCE OF A DEED to begin with.

That’s why there was never any formal foreclosure, sale or transfer of property. There was nothing to transfer because the city had the stadium all along.

Hey, maybe the city folks who dealt with the stadium just forgot to file a deed and a record of transfer. Oops! We all make mistakes.

But I doubt that was the case. It it’s NOT the case, then I challenge city officials to produce a deed and an official, legal notice of sale or transfer.

OK, you might ask, what does it matter now? Even if the city didn’t own the stadium to begin with, it would have owned it by now anyway because of the seizure clause in the lease agreement. So either way the city would have ended up owning the stadium at this point in time.

But it DOES matter. Because DDE secured $10.6 million in loans from NBT Bank on the premise that DDE would be building and owning the stadium. On top of that, DDE secured $19 million in state grants to help construct the facility.

In addition, the fact that the city has always owned the stadium means that the much-ballyhooed ground lease between the city and Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC was meaningless, just for show.

Again, maybe this has all been a misunderstanding. Maybe the very accommodating staff in Assessor’s office is not fully informed, or maybe city officials never got around to filing the deed and proof of the transfer. Or heck, maybe the stadium doesn’t even HAVE a deed because it’s an item, not actual land. Maybe it doesn’t need a deed. Any of those explanations might be the case.

But if there’s a real-estate assessment, then there HAS to be a deed.

And again, you might say, what’s the big deal? So there’s a few pieces of paper missing, it’s all just technicalities.

But technicalities matter. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

OK, now for the second point — that PAETEC Park is only worth $12 million but cost $32 million to build. According to the official city assessment, the 4.75-acre property at 524 Oak St., including the stadium, is worth $12 million.

How do we know that includes the stadium? Because the assessment sheet – which is publicly available on the Internet — states, “Property Class: Stadium.”

Of course, that’s just the value of the stadium itself. When you throw in the two other addresses associated with the property, 480 Smith St. ($80,000) and 900 W. Broad St. ($400,000), the grand total assessment is $12,480,00.

That’s still A LOT less than $32 million. That’s a lot of depreciation in two years. Or is it something else?

Styres' timing is perfect

2008-05-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

The American Hockey League's approval of Curt Styres' purchase of 60 percent of the Amerks (and Knighthawks) was impeccably timed, because on Monday the Amerks' credit rating continued to plummet.

According to Dun & Bradstreet, the financial stress score of Rochester Amerks, Inc. increased from 3 to 4. A company's financial stress score measures its risk of failure, with a score of 5 being the highest risk and 1 being the lowest.

According to D&B, only 3 percent of the country's companies have a higher financial stress score, which means that only 3 percent of those firms have a higher likelihood of collapse than the Amerks.

D&B also says that Rochester Amerks, Inc. carries an extremely high risk of late payments. In addition, the company rates a 15 on D&B's Paydex scale, which measures a firm's payment performance, with 100 being the best and 1 being the worst.

It will be very interesting to now see if the Amerks' credit rating improves with the sale to Styres.

Big stuff on the way

2008-05-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

Good evening, folks. I probably won't have anything new tonight or tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, but I'm working on something big for Thursday morning. And I mean BIG.

In the meantime, send some positive vibes to both the Red Wings and the Rhinos. They each need all the extra mojo they can get.

Don't gloat, Wings fans

2008-05-06T04:10:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm as optimistic as the next guy, but ...

OK, I can't finish that sentence with a straight face. We all know I'm a pessimist, almost to an unhealthy extreme.

That's why I'm not surprised at all that the Rhinos have started the 2008 season 0-2. I'm not really even surprised that they haven't even scored a goal yet.

What could you expect? This year's squad was almost literally thrown together and shoved on the field at the last minute. With just a few weeks to go before their 2008 season-opener, most of the players weren't even sure there would BE a 2008 a season-opener.

When they FINALLY got the OK to practice, they had only that said few weeks to prepare, while most other USL First Division teams had the chance to start getting ready, both physically and mentally, long before the Rhinos did.

Then, on top of worrying about the future of the franchise and having precious little time to prepare, the players are now being tossed out on a five-game road trip to start the season.

Frankly, I think a lot of people got a little too excited about the Rhinos' undefeated preseason record. The Charleston Battery and the Minnesota Thunder are just a WEE bit better than St. Bonaventure or whatever else other scrub teams the Rhinos beat up on in the preseason.

This is all not to say, however, that the rest of the 2008 campaign will go as poorly as the first two games did. The Rhinos are a talented bunch with a very able and talented coach, so their fortunes are bound to turn around just a little bit. Give them some time.

And yes, I can hear you Red Wings fans snickering in the background. Admit it: a lot of you baseball people are loving that the Rhinos have laid an egg — actually, TWO eggs — so far. Do NOT try to deny that there's more than a little Schadenfreude going on at 1 Morrie Silver Way.

But before you Wings fans start to do a Mr. Burns impression — "Excellent!" — keep in mind that, umm, YOUR team is also stinking up the joint right now. The Wings have dropped five of their last six games, including last night's disaster, in which they blew a 6-1 lead in a loss to Columbus. The Wings are now a depressing four games under .500. Weren't these guys supposed to challenge for a league title?

In fact, when you toss in the fact that the Knighthawks just missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, the last couple weeks have been downright rotten for the Flour City's sports teams.

So to ALL of you, I say, "Welcome to the world of pessimism. You'll find it's nice and comfy in this little corner of existence. Sit down, grab a beer (although it's probably stale) and revel in the negativity. After a while, it'll just come naturally."

Former CFO enjoyed his time with RSG

2008-05-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

Good morning, folks. I'm writing this a little before 7 a.m., which is mind-blowing to me, because usually at 7 a.m. I'm either unconscious or functionally brain dead. I actually didn't believe people when they told me there's part of a day that exists before, like, 9 a.m. But I stand corrected.

Anyway ... yesterday afternoon, I spoke with Ronald Steinmiller, the most recent chief financial officer to leave the Rochester Sports Group. He's now working as the vice president of finance and administration for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and he says he parted ways with the RSG on good terms.

"I left on my own," he told me. "I enjoyed my time at the Rochester Sports Group."

He said he didn't so much leave the RSG as he did join the RPO. He said his family has always been involved in music, and the position with the orchestra gave him a chance to pursue that passion again.

"This was a great opportunity to get back into music and give back to the community," he said.

I quickly then asked him the question I've been waiting to ask him (and all the other CFOs who have left the Rochester Sports Group): Was he aware of any financial mismanagement at the RSG?

He respectfully declined to comment.

"With any company I work for, I don't discuss the finances with anybody because it's a privately-held company," he said. "I don't feel it's prudent on any person's part (to comment). It's a confidentiality I have with any company I work for."

And that was that. We shouldn't read anything into his comments (although it's really, REALLY tempting to do so) ...

Lots of stuff to react to

2008-05-05T16:34:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be a long night here at the Webster Herald — I might even miss all of tonight's Adult Swim, and I need my Harvey Birdman fix — which is bad because there's a lot of stuff to talk about.

First and foremost is Chenango County Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth A. Garry's ruling this afternoon that yes, in fact, the three former Rhinos owners are liable for all those PAETEC Park loans. That's not unexpected, of course — despite all the other possible scenarios I raised, that was still the most likely outcome.

I will do my best to absorb and react to Garry's ruling over the next 24 hours or so. In the meantime, I'd love to get your thoughts. The big question, of course, is whether the Amerks and Knighthawks are in jeopardy.

Secondly, there was D&C reporter Jill Terreri's big story on Sunday about Frontier Field's murky finances. I have to admit that I haven't had a chance to read the article in depth (I hope to tonight), but at first glance it looks really good and thorough.

I would like to note, however, that I've been writing about the situation at Frontier Field — Jim LeBeau's role, the Sports Authority and GROSFC, the annual debt, the taxpayer money subsidizing the stadium's operation — for many months now.

I've always maintained that the situation at Frontier Field isn't squeaky clean, that there's definitely some political wheels being greased, and that the Red Wings have a pretty sweet deal going at the stadium.

The D&C article, of course, diverts attention away from PAETEC Park, and the paper might have done that deliberately to "balance off" all the negative coverage of the Rhinos and make it seem like the paper is being "fair."

However, even if that WAS the paper's motivation, the fact that the D&C is finally scrutinizing the Frontier Field situation is a welcome development, and Terreri should be applauded for her efforts.

Finally, I WILL have something new tonight, but it'll probably be later, after midnight — I talked to former Rochester Sports Group CFO Ronald Steinmiller today, and I'll discuss our conversation in a few hours (although, unfortunately, there's not much to discuss).

Working on stuff

2008-05-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

Howdy all,

I don't have anything for Monday morning, but I'll be working diligently during the day Monday and will hopefully have some good stuff up Monday night and Tuesday morning.

As usual, feel free to contact me anytime at rwhirty218@yahoo.com or (315) 690-6551.

Minarik's fingers in the ESL Centre pie

2008-05-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Documents recently obtained through Freedom of Information requests show that the ESL Centre has always had Monroe County Republican overlord Steve Minarik's fingerprints all over it.

Ever since I began covering the financial troubles at the ESL Centre in November, centre officials have frequently rebuffed my inquiries about attending meetings of the board of directors of the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation (MCSCC), the publicly appointed entity created to operate the centre.

I have been told that such meetings are NOT open to the public and that minutes from the meetings are NOT public record. After receiving those negative reactions, I never even bothered to ask about the corporation's certificate of incorporation, by-laws or any other related document.

However, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated reader — who was forced to file a Freedom of Information request with the state Attorney General's office to get the stuff — I've obtained those founding documents, and they're confirmed what I've suspected all along — the ESL Centre began as and always has been an unofficial arm of Monroe County's Republican Party.

The Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation is one of several local development corporations (LDCs) formed in recent years by the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA). COMIDA has long been criticized as a tool of the Republican-led county administration designed to benefit political patrons.

For public officials who want to keep government business under wraps, LDCs are the perfect vehicle. Even though the members of LDC boards of directors are appointed by elected officials, they are technically private, not-for-profit entities, which makes the issue of whether or not LDCs are subject to sunshine laws and other public-right-to-know regulations very slippery and clouded.

Quite simply, their private status allows LDC officials to claim that the corporation's meetings and documents are not open to the public, thereby blocking governmental business from public oversight and accountability.

(I've also written about the Greater Rochester Outdoor Sports Facility Corporation, the LDC formed by the county to operate Frontier Field. GROSFC officials have told me that while the corporation's meeting and minutes are open to the public, documents like its by-laws are not.)

This is what's been happening in my attempts to learn more about the board that oversees the ESL Centre. But, against thanks to a reader, we're able to shine a little more light on the origins and existence of the MCSCC.

And its origins trace directly back to Minarik, the long-time head of the county GOP that has taken political patronage and political influence to a whole new level.

I mean, it LITERALLY traces back to him — in the MCSCC's registration submitted to the state Attorney General's Charities Bureau dated June 30, 2000, Minarik is listed as the corporation's first secretary.

Listed as president is Daniel Doyle, a former general counsel to the county's GOP-led administration and current Supreme Court justice. The general manager is listed as former Amerk, Ray Maluta, who still works for the centre, while the corporation's counsel is listed as Michael Townsend, another high-profile county attorney.

In addition, in the MCSCC's certificate of incorporation dated November 1997, the initial directors of the corporation are Doyle; Joe Rulison, former COMIDA chairman and current board member of the scandal-plagued Monroe County Water Authority; and long-time Republican operative Bill Nojay, former chairman of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority and current radio talk-show host. Townsend is listed as the corporation's incorporator.

It's no surprise, then, that the ESL Centre was constructed by Christa Construction, a MAJOR donor to local Republican candidates, including the county executive campaigns of Jack Doyle and Maggie Brooks. On top of that, Christa was heavily involved in the initial management of the facility, and he currently co-owns the facility with Illinois businessman Leon Lekai.

Finally, a look at the MCSCC by-laws shows WHY the corporation is so GOP-dominated. The members of the seven-member corporation board are appointed thusly: one by Monroe Community College (on whose campus the centre sits); four by the Monroe County executive (formerly Jack Doyle, currently Maggie Brooks, both Republicans); one by the County Legislature's majority party (which has been the GOP for many years now); and one by the County Lej's minority party, currently the lowly Democrats.

So what about the MCSCC's board meeting? The by-laws say that "(r)egular meetings of the Board of Directors may be held without notice at such times as may be fixed from time to time by resoultion of the Board of Directors." The by-laws do not address whether or not the meetings are open to the public.

Businessmen in process of buying out ESL Centre

2008-05-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Should a community asset like the ESL Centre be completely owned by two businessmen whose long-term goal is profit?

Like it or not, hat's precisely what's in the process of happening to the ice rink and recreation centre located on the MCC campus.

Jack Driscoll, who serves as president of the board that oversees the operation of the centre, confirmed recently that local contractor David Christa and Illinois businessman Leon Lekai are currently buying up all the bank bonds that were floated to construct the ESL Centre.

Because of severe financial difficulties caused by poor management in the years after the centre's construction, the entity that oversees the ESL Centre — officially called the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation — has not been able to start paying back any of those bonds. Even though the centre's fiscal outlook has become brighter in recent years, the MCSCC board has still been unable to make payments.

Along the way, Christa and Lekai formed a corporation called Empire Ice LLC to start purchasing the bonds. As of January, Empire Ice owned about 70 percent of them.

But Driscoll says that in recent months, the trustee of the bank that floated the bonds has been pressuring the MCSCC board about the non-payment issue.

As a result, he says, Christa and Lekai are in the process of buying up the remaining 30 percent of the bonds. That allows the bonds' original investors to recoup some of their investment and gets the bank off the centre's back.

So, very soon, the ESL Centre will be completely owned by Christa and Lekai.

However, remember that both Christa and Lekai are connected to the centre in other ways. Christa's construction firm built the facility, and Christa himself was initially involved in the centre's management.

Meanwhile, one of Lekai's Illinois-based companies, Advanced Arenas, currently contracts with the MCSCC board to manage the centre.

(Driscoll has previously asserted that the two businessmen's multiple interests in the ESL Centre are not conflicts of interests but instead are logical, routine business arrangements.)

So, as they buy up the rest of the bonds, what's Christa and Lekai's motivation for doing so, especially given that the MCSCC board is still unable to make payments on the bonds? Indeed, Driscoll acknowledges that at least for the time being, Christa and Lekai "are taking a hit, a big hit."

Driscoll says, however, that buying the bonds is a good long-term investment because the bonds carry a tax-exempt interest rate of 6 percent. On top of that, Driscoll says, Christa and Lekai simply believe in the centre's future.

"Dave and Leon are buying the bonds because they believe that eventually the sports centre will generate enough income to pay the bonds," Driscoll told me via e-mail. "It is a risk they are willing to take that most current bond holders aren't."

But how does this all benefit the community and the public that uses the ESL Centre on a daily basis? Is it a good thing that the centre will be controlled by two private businessmen?

Yes, Driscoll says, because with their investment, Christa and Lekai are, quite simply, guaranteeing the present and future viability of the facility.

"These two guys literally saved the ESL Centre," Driscoll told me by phone. "There's nothing sinister about it. They're really heroes in this case. We had two guys come in and save the place, and for that, they should be applauded."

If they are heroes, then they're ones who don't like being in the public spotlight. About a month ago, I asked Driscoll if it would be possible for me to interview Christa and Lekai themselves about their plans for the centre.

Driscoll proceeded to ask the pair if that would be possible, but they responded that they don't want to talk to the media. As a result, Driscoll remains the sole spokesperson for the centre.

Wilmot wins, Rhinos lose and DDE receive a draw

2008-05-02T18:59:00.001-07:00

Over the last few days, the world of the Rochester Rhinos, both past and present, saw three different outcomes — a win, a loss and a draw (more or less).

Let's start with the loss — the Rhinos' on-field defeat tonight at the hands of the Charleston Battery in Rochester's season opener. The Rhinos, therefore, start their series of five straight road games with a 2-0 loss. A single defeat doesn't mean anything, of course, especially won that comes on the road.

Then there's the win — Chris Wilmot's win. On Wednesday, a judge ordered Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the corporation used by DuRoss/Donner Economides (DDE) to fund and build PAETEC Park — to pay Wilmot's company, Endless Wave Productions LLC, $17,709.06 in overdue bills, interest and court fees. Endless Wave had sued DDE for $15,000 in March.

With the judicial order, Endless Wave becomes at least the second local company to receive such a judgment against Rhinos Stadium LLC. On March 24, Justice Kenneth Fisher ordered DDE to pay LeChase Construction more than $633,000 in unpaid bills and interest.

Wilmot previously told this blog that the chances of him actually collecting his money from DDE is slim. LeChase attorney Richard Bell offered similar comments to this blog about his client's judgment.

Now for the draw. OK, it really isn't a draw per se, but it's the equivalent of "let's wait and see."

I reported Thursday night that there wasn't going to be a hearing today (Friday) regarding NBT Bank's motion for summary judgment against DDE/Rhinos Stadium LLC because no one was going to show up to make arguments and the judge was going to issue her ruling at a later time.

Today, Devo picked up the ball and ran with it, reporting on his blog that Steve Donner's attorney requested an adjournment in the case, which essentially means the whole thing was put off for, well, sometime later. So we'll have to wait and see what happens next week.

That will make for a long, edgy weekend, at least for me. I like closure, gosh durn it. It's a good thing I just bought "American Dad, Volume 3" on DVD, which will soothe my anxiety and help me through my impatient weekend.

Behind closed doors after all

2008-05-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to Norwich Friday. I'm not going to the Chenango County Courthouse to cover the motion hearing between NBT Bank and Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides.

Why not?

Because, apparently, the deal has already been done and the decision is being made behind closed doors. I'm not going to Norwich because there's not going to be a hearing Friday.

This afternoon, I called the Chenango County Courthouse to find out if the hearing was still slated for tomorrow (Friday) and what time it would take place.

"Do you mean NBT Bank versus Rhinos?" the clerk asked me, as if she knew ahead of time what I was talking about.

After I answered in the affirmative, she told me that "there won't be any appearances tomorrow." That means none of the involved parties would be showing up to make arguments or state their cases.

Instead, the clerk said, Justice Elizabeth A. Garry will produce a written decision "at a later time" based on information the various parties have already submitted.

So, in essence, the clerk said, there won't be a hearing Friday, and Garry's decision — in which she'll supposedly rule whether DDE must pay back millions of dollars in loans from NBT that they used to build PAETEC Park — will be issued quietly and not in open court.

That's, of course, how I understand it. Maybe I misinterpreted. I'm certainly not Perry Mason or Jack McCoy.

But if this IS what's going to happen Friday — or, rather, what's NOT going to happen — then, quite frankly, the whole thing stinks.

This means that all the parties involved — DDE, NBT and the city of Rochester — are trying their absolute best to keep the public out of the loop on this. They don't want us to know what's happening, so they're trying to sweep everything under the rug. It's behind-closed-doors collusion at its worst.

I know, I know, that sounds REALLY paranoid. I'll acknowledge that.

But I've seen and experienced enough as both a sports writer and a political reporter to justify a little bit of paranoia.

I'm not saying we should all start checking our phones for bugs or wearing hats made of tin foil. (Well, you can if you want. It would be a bold fashion statement.)

But we need to be open to the very real possibility that something's amiss or askew. Even if Justice Garry rules as expected — that DDE are, in fact, liable — then the public should know that, and know that immediately, because there's still a chance, no matter how slim, that the city and its taxpayers could be charged with paying at least some of those loans back.

We should also be informed immediately because we're talking about a stadium that was built with $19 million in taxpayer dollars already. In addition, the decision could very well affect the future of the Amerks and Knighthawks, which are among Donner's personal assets and could be targeted by NBT if Garry rules in the bank's favor and against DDE.

Of course, Garry's decision will be public record and available to anyone who asks for it. But, I'm guessing, there's not going to be an announcement of the decision. It'll just be issued quietly, with no fanfare at all.

On top of that, none of this will happen in open court. It'll all be done behind the scenes, out of the public eye. And that should make us very, very uncomfortable.

Thoughts on the Amerks deal

2008-04-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just reacting to the D&C's article today about the imminent completion of Curt Styres' bid to buy the majority of the Amerks and Knighthawks ... actually, I have no reaction at this point, because there's not much to react to. However, if any of you have thoughts on the subject or any nifty angles to pursue, the floor is yours.

'Liars and thieves'

2008-04-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

I talked briefly with former Rhinos investor Chris Wilmot tonight because there was a motion filed today in his lawsuit against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC. A couple weeks ago, Wilmot's company, Endless Waves Productions, sued the company once used to build and own PAETEC Park for $15,000 in unpaid consulting services.

It looks like Wilmot's attorney, Peter Weishaar, filed a motion in the case today in Monroe County Supreme Court, so I called Wilmot to see what it was about. He said he really couldn't talk to me until he talked to Weishaar first, but we chatted a bit about the former Rhinos ownership of DuRoss/Donner/Economides.

During our conversation, I realized again how bitter Wilmot's falling out with DDE has been.

"They're liars and thieves," he told me tonight, "and they should be punished."

You can't get blunter than that.

Liriano blah blah blah

2008-04-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

Liriano. Liriano. Liriano. Every reporter at the Wings game today wanted to talk about Francisco Liriano's rehab start today. Here's the bottom line: He's never going to be the pitcher he used to be. He'll never be able to throw his fastball effectively again. Period. I actually feel kinda bad for the guy.

The only reason Wings fans should care about Liriano is that he's losing games for Rochester. He looked poopy today in the Wings' 4-2 loss to Pawtucket this afternoon. The defeat dropped the Wings under .500 again, to 12-13, and here's an actual quote from manager Stan Cliburn: "We're very fortunate to be only one game under .500."

I guess "fortunate" is a relative term. I suppose Rochester is fortunate compared to Lehigh Valley.

"This team is going to be fine," Cliburn also said.

I'm glad HE'S optimistic ...

Is Kleen Brite really out of the picture?

2008-04-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, RNews reported that Rhinos new VP Sam Fantauzzo declared that Kleen Brite is completely out of the picture in terms of possible parking for PAETEC Park. However, I wouldn't count it out yet.

First of all, the owner of the property, A.J. Carafos, told me recently that he's actually since been in contact with team GM Matthew Ford, who still wanted to keep the Kleen Brite possibility open.

"I want to make a deal," Carafos told me. "I don't want to make (the team) look bad."

Carafos says Fantauzzo offered him $12,000 a year to open the lot up for game parking. He says that would be a HUGE drop from the $100,000 a year the old ownership was paying. He also says that the Rhinos still owe him about $100,000 for its share in the demolition costs. That's in addition to unpaid rent charges that could total another $100,000.

Carafos believes that although a deal might not happen right now, he says it might be inevitable that the Kleen Brite property will, in fact, be used by the Rhinos.

"It has to be for (the stadium) to be successful," he says.

On top of that, the city of Rochester might believe that as well. Carafos says that when he talked to a city official about using the Kleen Brite location for a construction debris transfer station, the official told him that the city would never allow the property to be used for that or any other purpose besides Rhinos parking.

Wiped out tonight

2008-04-29T20:57:00.001-07:00

Hi folks, I'm sorry I don't have anything new for Tuesday night or Wednesday morning — the first half of this week got strangely busy for some reason. However, I should have some new stuff throughout Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. Thanks, as always, for your readership. And remember, feel free to contact me anytime at rwhirty218@yahoo.com or (315) 690-6551.

NBT releases the mortgage

2008-04-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

One reader got ahead of me a little bit over the weekend (actually, I was probably a little behind them) when they mentioned that the three previous owners of the Rhinos — Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides, collectively referred to hereafter as DDE — no longer have a connection to the mortgage NBT Bank has on PAETEC Park.

What the reader was referring to was the fact that last month, without anyone realizing it, NBT Bank actually released DDE's company, Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, from the $10.6 million in loans the company took out to build the soccer stadium.

That's right — as of March 19, Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC no longer has to pay back all those loans to NBT Bank. The debt disappeared. Poof. Gone.

The release of mortgaged premises was filed with the Monroe County Clerk's office April 1. It was signed by NBT Vice President John Carpenter. (I'm assuming he's not the same guy as the legendary horror-film director. I love "Escape from New York." Isaac Hayes as the bad guy! How can you go wrong?)

This happened, then, while NBT Bank was still going full-steam ahead with its lawsuit against the stadium corporation as a whole and DDE individually. The bank has filed a motion for summary judgment against the defendants, with a hearing slated for this Friday in Chenango County Supreme Court.

This could throw a wrench in the works — if there's no longer a mortgage against the stadium corporation for NBT to pursue, then what's going to happen this Friday? At the very least, it means that someone else besides Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC now MUST repay those millions. Or it now means that no one has to pay it back at all.

On the other hand, it could very well be nothing. After all, by March NBT Bank had actually seized Rhinos Stadium LLC because the corporation had defaulted on the loans. So, technically, the bank might simply just have released itself from the mortgage. That seems a bit weird — a bank forgiving itself — but it also might have just been a formality.

In addition, it's been reported that NBT plans to go after DDE individually for the money, a quest that might not be affected by the fate of the trio's corporation. The company might be dead, but perhaps its three previous owners are still on the hook.

However, the assertion that the bank intends to pursue DDE individually hasn't come directly from the bank itself, as far as I know. While the city and even DDE themselves have stated on the record that they're personally liable for the loans, the bank hasn't said anything publicly, at least from what I've seen. So we don't REALLY know what the bank is thinking. (The one time I tried contacting NBT's attorneys, I got a swift and certain "no comment.")

On top of that, I STILL haven't seen a document, filed in Monroe County, in which each of the three owners — DuRoss, Donner and Economides — explicitely put up their own personal assets as collateral, nor have I seen a document that's signed by each of the three individually (and I'm assuming each of them would have to sign for themselves if they put up their own personal assets). I'm not saying a document like that doesn't exist. I'm just can't find in the Monroe County Clerk's files.

Back-tracking a bit, the dates of the mortgage release — written March 19, filed April 1 — correspond exactly to the dates of the document releasing Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC of its lease with the city of Rochester. That can't simply be a coincidence.

Such concurrent timing seems to indicate that three parties parties involved here — DDE, NBT Bank and the city — worked this out among themselves ahead of time. I'm not saying it's evidence of collusion, per se, but it definitely seems like these developments were a team effort.

Of course, that's probably not to be unexpected. All three parties have (or had) a great deal invested in the whole stadium deal, and it would make sense for them to commiserate before moving forward with such delicate legal matters.

So it's not unexpected. However, at least in my mind, it's a little unsettling that the powers that be apparently decided the fate of a largely publicly-funding soccer stadium behind closed doors.

And on a final note ... one thing that's bugged me about the entire stadium fiasco is NBT Bank's mindset. Their motivation has always mystified me a little. Specifically, I'm wondering why in the world the bank would accept DDE's personal guarantees on the loan (assuming that's what they did).

First off, is that standing operating procedure in a case like this, for a lender to accept — and a borrower to offer — personal assets as collateral? That seems needlessly risky for both sides of the equation.

Second, it's hard to believe that NBT Bank actually thought that DDE had a total of nearly $11 million in personal assets between them. It just seems like the bank was setting itself up for failure by doing so. When all this is said and done, I wouldn't be surprised if NBT, quite simply, ends up getting played.

Of course, if DDE included their stakes in the various Rochester Sports Group teams among their personal assets, that would make a little more sense. And let's look at what happened. NBT apparently ended up seizing Empire Professional Soccer LLC — the corporation with which DDE operated the Rhinos team itself — when DDE/Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC defaulted on the loans.

The bank then seems to have dissolved Empire Soccer and proceeded to sell the rights to the Rhinos team to Rob Clark's Adirondack Sports Club LLC, which probably helped NBT recoup at least some of the loan money.

That also would mean that Donner would have — as many observers fear — collateralized his stake in the Amerks and Knighthawks as part of the PAETEC Park deal. Which, then, could mean NBT could seize the two indoor teams and sell them off, Curt Styres notwithstanding.

Naming-rights tango

2008-04-25T19:29:00.001-07:00

I had a, shall we say, less-than-pleasant conversation with PAETEC's corporate communications manager, David Mihalyov, today. You know what? It wasn't even really a conversation. It was more like an awkward exchange of (non) pleasantries.

I was just trying to find out if the giant communications corporation was still committed to providing the naming rights for the soccer stadium. In January, a very friendly PAETEC media-relations person very courteously told me that, yes indeed, her company was still on board.

So, now that both the Rhinos and the stadium have changed hands, I wanted to follow up to see if that was still the case. However, this time, the person I spoke with was decidedly less friendly.

"We're still committed," Mihalyov said somewhat grumpily. "It's business as usual with the Rhinos."

That was about it. He did add, however, that he wasn't sure if PAETEC CEO Arunis Chesonis has talked with any executives of the new Rhinos regime. However, I would have to assume, though, that PAETEC and the Rhinos would need to work out a new contract because the Rhinos are now owned by a different corporation.

Actually, wait a minute — PAETEC might actually need to negotiatie with the city of Rochester, which now owns the stadium. So if PAETEC does agree to a new naming-rights deal — and details of the previous deal aren't known precisely — would that mean the city would reap the benefit? That could be a decent windfall for the city administration.

Yes, they can afford it — they already paid

2008-04-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

New Rhinos owner Rob Clark told me today that yes, the team can financially afford to start the season with five long-distance road games. That's because, he said, he paid all the travel costs out of his own pocket about a month ago.

"That's already been taken care of a long time ago," he said.

He said his personal investment in the road trips is "pretty substantial, but hey, that's part of the business."

I also got a chance to ask Clark about something that cropped up on my radar earlier this week — an active lawsuit that Clark's Adirondack Bank is pursuing against former Rhinos majority owner Frank DuRoss in Oneida County Supreme Court. I found out about the personal suit when a request for judicial intervention in the case was filed April 15. A court date is scheduled for May 7 in front of Justice Anthony F. Shaheen.

That's just five days after a big hearing in NBT Bank's case against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, the corporation that DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides (DDE) used to build and own PAETEC Park. NBT Bank has asked Chenango County Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth A. Garry to hold DDE personal liable for more than $10 million in defaulted loans take out by the stadium corporation.

However, Adirondack Bank plays a part in that case, too — it floated about $2.1 million of the loans taken out by the stadium corporation. Clark was a vice president with Adirondack Bank (his father, Harold T. Clark, is the bank's chairman) when he purchased the Rhinos from NBT Bank, which had seized control of the team when the stadium corporation defaulted on its loans.

Rob Clark has stated publicly in the past that part of his motivation for buying the Rhinos is to recoup some of that $2.1 million Adirondack Bank invested in the stadium. (As a side note, it looks like that Rob Clark has given up his post as a bank VP since he bought the Rhinos — he's no longer listed on the Adirondack Web site. He still is, howver, on the board of directors.)

It's somewhat confusing, which is why I found the fact that Clark's former employer, Adirondack Bank, is suing former Rhinos owner DuRoss in a separate action from NBT's lawsuit against the stadium corporation.

So today I asked Rob Clark about the Adirondack v. DuRoss suit. He told me that the bank has purposely tried to keep him out of the loop on the lawsuit to avoid any conflict of interest. However, he said that in general, the Adirondack v. DuRoss lawsuit isn't directly connected the Rhinos situation, but he added that lawsuit is sort of a "trickle down effect" from the Rhinos mess.

With that said, it might be interest to see what happens in Oneida Supreme Court May 7 once the Chenango hearing has taken place five days earlier.

ESL Centre no good for Amerks

2008-04-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

With the city and Steve Donner playing hardball over the Amerks' lease at Blue Cross Arena, it's pretty much known that Donner is already investigating other possible venues for the hockey team's 2008-09 season.

There's one facility Donner can scratch off his list right now — the ESL Centre.

Jack Driscoll, the chairman of the board that operates the ESL Centre, says neither he nor any other centre official has been contacted by Donner or potential new Amerks owner Curt Styres about the Amerks possibly using the facility. Although the Amerks practice and play exhibition games at ESL, Driscoll said that in order for the team to play regular-season games at the MCC facility, a lot would have to happen first.

At the top of that list is a guarantee that the centre will get paid by the Amerks. Driscoll said Donner's word by itself is no good, and the only guarantee the centre board would accept is a personal guarantee from Styres, if and when he buys the team.

"We don't do business with Steve Donner without a guarantee of payment," Driscoll said.

In addition, Driscoll says that in order for the facility to handle regular-season Amerks games, "it would take a lot of modifications" to the centre. What's more, ESL board officials would have to seriously evaluate the potential impact on the youth programs and other activities that already take place at the facility.

Besides, Driscoll says, his main concern is the fate of Blue Cross Arena, which simply couldn't continue without the Amerks as its main tenant. That's why he hopes "the new owner (Styres) and the city can reach an agreement."

Donner already has a history with the ESL Centre, though. Several years ago, he waas heavily involved in its construction and early management before being forced out. In addition, since Donner's ouster, ESL officials have said that the Donner-owned Amerks fell very behind in their rental payments — owed for practice time and exhibitions — to the facility.

Driscoll has said that the centre's board essentially forgave the Amerks for those back payments because the board realized Donner and the Amerks didn't and wouldn't have the money. In addition, Driscoll has previously stated his dislike and distrust of Donner on this blog.

NLL: No comment on Styres buyout

2008-04-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen any comments from the National Lacrosse League lately about the Knighthawks' possible buyout by Canadian cigarette tycoon Curt Styres, so I decided to call the NLL league offices in New York. The result?

"We don't have a comment on the matter at this point," NLL Vice President of Communications Doug Fritts told me this afternoon.

It's difficult to read into that, but I'll try anyway:

• One, Fritts might just be giving me, a lowly blogger, a stock "no comment" to get rid of me. If someone from the D&C called the NLL, they might get more than idea. Actually, the D&C would probably get to talk to league Commissioner Jim Jennings.

• Two, it could mean that the league has some concerns about Styres' possible takeover. Like, for example, the possibility that Styres could move the franchise to the Six Nations or some other Canadian locale.

• Three, it could mean that the league — rather wisely, I'd say — doesn't want to wade into the controversial muck surrounding Steve Donner and the Rochester Sports Group.

• Or four, maybe it just means the league doesn't have a comment right now.

Will there be a surprise on May 2?

2008-04-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

The big day is only nine days away.

What big day, you ask? Why, May 2, when NBT Bank and the former owners of the Rhinos will appear in Chenango County Supreme Court, where Justice Elizabeth A. Garry is expected to rule on the bank's motion for summary judgment demanding that Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the company Steve Donner, Frank DuRoss and Chris Economides used to build PAETEC Park — repay millions in defaulted loans.

But, for all intents and purposes, Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC is defunct, and the city of Rochester now owns the stadium. As a result, the general consensus is that DDE are personally liable for the loans. In fact, both DuRoss and Economides have told this blog as much.

But I think everyone just might be in for a surprise when May 2 comes.

Let's look at this. If Judge Garry does rule that DDE must repay the loans, how will DDE's lawyers respond? While the former Rhinos owners have stated publicly that they are personally liable, it's hard to imagine their lawyers will go down without a fight. When Garry rules against the trio, expect their attorneys to possibly offer one of two defenses:

* One, they'll assert that DDE have no personal assets and therefore have no ability to repay the loan. Aside from Donner's stake in the Amerks and Knighthawks, that very well might be true. An attorney for LeChase Construction told me last week that it appeared that DDE have nothing.

However, NBT Bank wants its money, and it probably doesn't care where it gets it. So, if DDE argue that they're broke, Judge Garry will say, "OK, then who can pay the bank back?" At that point, there would really be only one option: the city of Rochester.

* Or two, DDE could simply say, "Well, Your Honor, we no longer own the stadium, so we're not liable." Again, this argument might not work, but DDE's attorneys certainly could try it.

So then Garry asks, "Well, who owns the stadium now?" The answer: the city of Rochester.

So, with either defense, DDE could very well put the onus back on the city, which will then have a major decision on its collective hands.

Now, it's true that city attorney Tom Richards has stated publicly and on the record at a City Council committee meeting that, according to the ground lease between the city and Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, the city is not liable for the loans even though it now owns the stadium.

But that argument seems to fly against common business and real estate law, where it's generally accepted that whenever a property changes hands, its debts go with it. Quite simply, whoever owns the property, owns the debt.

That's a principle that could also be raised in court May 2 by one or more of the involved parties.

The bottom line is that the hearing in Chenango County court might not go down as expected. It could be very, very interesting.

Or it may not. Judges can be extremely unpredictable, which means there might be a myriad of possible outcomes May 2.

Can they afford it?

2008-04-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Rhinos begin 2008 with a five-game road slate that literally criss-crosses the country, and I have to wonder ... how are they going to pay for it all?

The team goes to Charleston, S.C., for its May 2 opener, then flies all the way up to Minnesota to play the Thunder May 4. I'm assuming they then fly back to Rochester for a four-day respite.

After that, they haul themselves all the way to the West Coast for three games from May 8-14, when, I'm assuming they'll all stay in hotels for six days. They then fly all the way BACK to Rochester for their May 17 home opener.

That's a lot of airline miles and a lot of hotel charges. And, I have to ponder, can the team afford all that to start the season, especially without the benefit of any revenue from home games?

True, the team has sold a lot of season tickets so far. But enough to fund such a massive series or road trips?

And true, the Rhinos now have a $500,000 line of credit as part of their lease with the city. They could use that, but really, that's just more debt! And the last thing a team with a history of debt problems needs is, well, more debt.

It just seems like their schedule will put the Rhinos in a financial hole right away, and is that a good idea?

The WYSL showdown

2008-04-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Up until this point, I haven't written anything about the Rhinos/WYSL issue because I wanted to make sure I talked to both sides of the argument. And I'll just say that I'm VERY glad I waited to do that, because I ended up having, well, interesting conversations with the two primary figures in the brouhaha — WYSL owner Bob Savage and Rhinos VP Sam Fantauzzo.

Now, before I continue, I issue a warning: There's a bit of somewhat explicit language in this post, and all of it is in direct quotes of sources, not from me. I will also warn that this post is very long, because it necessarily delves into the details of both sides' arguments.

OK, first, let's just review the basics. Late Friday afternoon, Rhinos president and general manager Matthew Ford called WYSL to inform the radio station that the Rhinos were not going to sign a broadcast agreement with WYSL — which has broadcast Rhinos' games for the majority of the team's existence — for 2008 and were instead going with the local Clear Channel network.

However, while it was Ford who officially made the call, the decision to opt for Clear Channel fell mainly to Fantauzzo, who has assumed all of the Rhinos' marketing duties.

So, essentially, what has evolved from Ford's call is a colorful "he said, he said" between Savage and Fantauzzo. The crux of the disagreement is simple: What, exactly, constitutes "a deal"?

Savage says that WYSL and the Rhinos — through weeks of negotiations via phone and e-mail — had already agreed on a deal for the 2008. All that remained, Savage argues, was the perfunctory (and, Savage says, the expected) signing of the contract.

"The whole deal was agreed upon," Savage told me. "We agreed on all the salient points. Everybody was happy with it. ... We were told repeatedly that we had a deal."

But it goes beyond that, Savage says. It's also about doing business professionally.

"If (the Rhinos) don't want to be on WYSL, I don't have a problem with that," he adds, "but don't jerk me off and waste my time. We tried to help them, and this is how they treat us."

Savage accuses Fantauzzo of taking the proposed contract WYSL and the team had drawn up and shopping it around to other broadcast outlets in order to solicit a better deal. Savage also charges that, for various reasons, Fantauzzo has had a personal ax to grind with WYSL.

"He's never liked our radio station," Savage says. "He's always put us down publicly. ... Fantauzzo's got this big boner for us."

Savage also notes that WYSL had already signed a two-year broadcast agreement for 2008 and 2009 with the Rhinos' previous owners, Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Economides. He says his station stuck by the Rhinos through the team's subsequent financial and legal troubles and the team's eventually purchase by Utica banker Rob Clark.

"We have always provided (the Rhinos) with great support," he says, adding that the new Rhinos regime were the ones who approached the station, not the other way around. "There's no question of our support for the Rhinos. I negotiated with them when no one would talk to them."

Following Ford's call on Friday, Savage posted a scathing article on his station's Web site, blasting the Rhinos for the decision. Savage has also aired his grievances in other local media. Those efforts have included suggesting that WYSL might take legal action against the Rhinos.

OK, now for Fantauzzo's side. While the Rhinos VP acknowledges that the decision to choose Clear Channel over WYSL was made somewhat late in the game after the two sides had extensive discussions about a new contract, he says that, quite simply, the Rhinos and WYSL never had an official deal because the contract had yet to be signed.

Fantauzzo says that as soon as he was hired by the Rhinos a few weeks ago, he immediately started shopping around for possible broadcast deals. He says several outlets in addition to WYSL expressed interest and made offers, including Clear Channel. As it turns out, Clear Channel offered an incredible proposal, and the Rhinos and the radio network began negotiations.

Fantauzzo says, however, that Clear Channel didn't confirm its interest and its proposal until mid-afternoon Friday. That's why, he says, the decision to choose Clear Channel over WYSL came so late in the game.

Fantauzzo also denies Savage's charge that the Rhinos took WYSL's proposal and shopped it around to other broadcast outlets. "That's not true," he says.

The Rhinos exec says the process he used to select a broadcast partner was largely similar to the way the Rhinos select vendors for other services, which means that the team receives hundreds of various business proposals, of which WYSL's proposal was simply one.

And, at the end of the day, Fantauzzo says, "A proposal is not a contract. ... That's just business."

So why did the Rhinos select Clear Channel over WYSL? The primary reason has always been public knowledge — the Rhinos say WYSL's broadcast signal has spotty reception in certain areas. That includes, Fantauzzo says, near PAETEC Park, where he says interference often blocks WYSL's signal.

That's crucial, he says, because many fans who attend Rhinos games are unable to pick up the game's post-game show as they leave the stadium and drive home.,
Now, Fantauzzo says the team had been in talks to have an FM station, WBER, augment WYSL's receptionm which would have allowed departing fans to pick up the signal. However, he says, WBER's official proposal was unsatisfactory for the team, largely because the FM station wouldn't allow commercials and would charge exorbitant broadcast fees.

That, in turn, pretty much nixed the WYSL deal, Fantauzzo says, adding that numerous Rhinos fans have made complaints about WYSL's signal in the past.

"The Rhinos brought me in to make changes and listen to the fan base, and (WYSL's signal) was in the top five of their concerns," he says.

However, in addition to the strength-of-signal issue, Fantauzzo says the Clear Channel network gives the Rhinos many more marketing opportunities — the network includes six local stations, which would all broadcast Rhinos plugs all week long.

"We're going from one station to six stations that would market our product," Fantauzzo says. "How can I pass that up?"

Fantauzzo says he has nothing against WYSL. "I have never, ever wanted to hurt WYSL," he says.

In fact, Fantauzzo says he greatly respects Savage as a successful and savvy businessman.

The Rhinos exec acknolwedges the possibility that Savage might sue the team, but, he says, "he has absolutely nothing to sue us on. He's just trying to intimidate us."

Fantauzzo adds that he doesn't understand the vehemence of Savage's objections.

"I don't know why he's doing this," he says. "He's being very petty."

Back to Savage's side. First off, he dismisses the Rhinos' argument that hisstation has a weak signal. "Every station has weak signals in some places," he says. "It was a fine signal for (the Rhinos) for nine years."

However, Savage says he's just standing up for his station's rights and its place in the community. He says the Rhinos' decision shows a fundamental disrespect for the WYSL operation.

And, Savage says, "we're not a bunch of schlumps."

He adds that the team's decision is an ominous sign of things to come with the new Rhinos regime. "It's business as usual for the Rhinos," he says.

When asked directly if he plans to sue the team, Savage demurred. However, he did say this battle isn't over.

"I'm not going to go away quietly," he says. "They can't pull this crap on me and expect no reaction. This is just going to rebound on them. If this is the way the Rhinos are going to be, if they're not going to run things respectfully and professionally, people should know about it."

Economides: "Of course I'm upset"

2008-04-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Chris Economides is angry. He's VERY angry, and not just because he's one of the guys being sued for $10.8 million by NBT Bank.

He's also ticked off at his former Rhinos partners, Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss, for ruining the once-great Rhinos franchise that Economides helped build in Rochester. Since he left to found the Carolina RailHawks, Economides says, DuRoss and Donner drove the Rhinos into the ground.

"Of course I'm upset," says Economides, who now serves as the president and general manager of the two-year-old RailHawks. "I have a lot of ill will. I'm perturbed, and I'm angry. We built a wonderful franchise (in Rochester), and now it's dead. It's a sad, sad situation, and it makes me angry."

Economides was a minority partner in both the Rhinos and PAETEC Park. The stadium was built with a corporation called Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC (RRS), which is now being sued by NBT Bank for millions in overdue loans used to construct the stadium.

NBT Bank, which is headquartered in the Chenango County town of Norwich, N.Y., has filed a motion for summary judgment in the case, asking that a judge order the three members of RRS — Donner, DuRoss and Economides (DDE) — to repay the loans. A hearing has been slated for May 2 in Chenango County Supreme Court.

However, now that RRS has been dissolved and the trio no longer owns the Rhinos or the stadium, NBT Bank has apparently decided to go after the personal assets of DDE as payment. The bank argues that the Rhinos trio personally guaranteed the loans, which makes them all liable.

Economides confirmed that situation, saying that "we all signed personally, so we're all personally liable." As a result, he says, he's very concerned about the eventual disposition of NBT's suit.

"Of course I'm worried," he says, then adds, "but I can't do anything about it."

Now, as his RailHawks prepare for the second season in the United Soccer Leagues' First Division — where they have a burgeoning on-the-field rivalry with the Rhinos — Economides says he had nothing to do with the downfall and near-demise of the Rhinos because he has been completely divested from the operation of the Rochester franchise and hasn't had anything to do with it for several years.

"I've had nothing to do with them for three years," he says.

Donner and DuRoss helped found the RailHawks franchise in Cary, N.C., but both of them sold their shares of the new team in October, according to a Feb. 5 article in the Cary News.

The NBT lawsuit and Economides' connection to it has created a mild stir among RailHawks supporters. The Web site for the Triangle Soccer Fanatics, www.trisoccerfan.com, a RailHawks booster club, recently expressed concern over the situation.

"At a time when we want (Economides) focused fully on building the RailHawks for their second season and launching the W-League team on their inaugural season," the Web site stated, "the distraction of a pending lawsuit is particularly unwelcome. The best RailHawks fans can hope, both for the RailHawks' sake and the sake of our sister franchise in Rochester, is that these suits are resolved expediently and Mr. Economides can turn his attention from his past club to the present and future of his current endeavor."

But, in fact, Economides says he's trying to do just that — put Rochester and the Rhinos behind him and focus squarely on the RailHawks.

"We're looking very good," he says of his new team. "We're in a great market, and we have a great facility. I'm involved with really good, honest people down here."

Dead ducks on the pond

2008-04-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

What's worse for a baseball team than loading the bases with no outs and failing to score a run?

Doing it two frickin' times in a row!

The Red Wings somehow managed that feat tonight, in the fifth AND sixth innings.

Just for that that Wings should have lost to Richmond tonight, but fortunately the Rochester pitching staff was collectively brilliant tonight: Four pitchers collaborated on a shutout, and the offense scraped up enough offense to score a run — single run — in the Wings' 1-0 win over the Braves.

The Rochester offense stranded 11 runners on base and went a miserable 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. I'm still waiting for this "powerhouse" lineup to live up to its billing.

Of course, that's glass-half-full talk. However, I was also bummed because one of my main reasons for covering the game tonight wasn't there tonight. Hopefully they'll be next week.

Otherwise, it was a gorgeous night tonight, and I was fortunate to leave just as the stupid fireworks were starting. I hate fireworks. Brings up bad memories of a Fourth of July 1982 gone horribly wrong. You don't ever completely move past that sort of trauma. Fortunately, they were able to find and re-attach my toe, allowing the healing, both physical and mental, to begin.

"At this point, who knows?"

2008-04-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

Attorney Richard T. Bell Jr., who represents LeChase Construction in the company's lawsuit against former Rhions owners DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE), admittedly wonders if his client will ever get the money it's owed by DDE.

"I don't know," Bell told me today. "We always hope, but at this point, who knows?"

On March 24, Monroe County Supreme Court Justice Kenneth R. Fisher ordered Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the now-dissolved corporation DDE used to build PAETEC Park — to pay LeChase a total of $633,865.12, which includes more than $580,000 in unpaid construction services and nearly $52,000 in interest.

But Bell said today that the judgment has yet to be satisfied, which leaves Bell and LeChase "contemplating our next move at this point."

"We'll try to enforce the judgment however we can and see what assets they have, if they have anything to attach," Bell said. "We haven't gone down that road at this point, but there are indications that they don't have any assets."

That last statement confirms what many observers have been assuming for months — that DDE simply have nothing left with which to pay all their creditors. Some are worried that creditors like NBT Bank and LeChase might be able to raid Steve Donner's share of the Amerks and Knighthawks to get their money.

However, new Rhinos owner Rob Clark said last week that several hundred thousand dollars that remain from a state grant used to construct the soccer stadium will probably be used to pay off some of the old owners' debts.

Bell said no deadline has been imposed on DDE to satisfy Fisher's judgment. "We haven't made any demands specifically to enforce the judgment," he said.

Sorry for the late Hrywnak update

2008-04-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

I'm VERY sorry I haven't been able to give an update of the Orest Hrywnak situation all week. TOTALLY my bad. Other stuff just kind of snowballed this week. Plus I was trying to get comments from the RazorSharks and/or Hrywnak himself, but to no avail, as usual.

As you might know by now, Hrywnak, the general manager and part owner of the Rochester RazorSharks, was sentenced by Wayne County Court Judge John Nesbitt to 10 weekends in jail and five years probation. Hrywnak pleaded guilty April 10 to felony DWI and speeding charges following his arrest in September in Sodus, Wayne County.

The DWI charge was a felony because Hrywnak already had a prior DWI conviction. His case in Wayne County Court had been delayed several times, presumably until the RazorShark's debut season in the Premier Basketball League had concluded. The 'Sharks won the PBL title on March 30.

I'm trying to get comments from the Wayne County DA's office, just to see if Hrywnak's sentence is in line with the average felony DWI sentence. However, assistant DA Christopher Bokelman, who prosecuted the case, referred me today to District Attorney Richard Healy for comment. I left a message with Healy.

Incidentally, the RazorSharks Web site includes no mention whatsoever of Hrywnak's case or his sentence. It does, however, have photos of him holding the PBL championship trophy and celebrating with players and fans after the title game. But, I suppose, the best way to deal with such a potential PR disaster is to pretend it never happened.

The question now might be whether or not the team itself will take a PR hit because of Hrywnak's legal problems. My guess is that it won't at all, because the local media really didn't cover his case at all after the initial arrest, so no one knows about it.

However, imagine if it was certain other pro sports team owners in Rochester who were busted for felony DWI -- the case would be all over the news, unlike Hrywnak's case, which was virtually ignored.

I think that the lack of coverage of Hrywnak's case -- while on the surface seemingly benefitting the RazorSharks' organization -- is actually a bad sign for the RazorSharks, because it could mean that, well, no one cares enough about the basketball team to cover a general manager and co-owner's legal issues. The lack of coverage could reflect a general disinterest and apathy in the Rochester community toward the RazorSharks.

Look for stuff over the weekend

2008-04-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry I don't have anything new for Thursday night or Friday morning -- been a bit of a rough week. But I will definitely be posting some fun stuff during the weekend and by Monday morning. Thanks, as usual, for your patience.

And again, feel free to contact me anytime at rwhirty218@yahoo.com or (315) 690-6551. And yes, we DO have phone service in Wayne County.

On second thought ...

2008-04-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

You know, I've been thinking about my post from this morning criticizing Devo for claiming a scoop that I already covered, and in hindsight, I shouldn't have written that post.

It was unprofessional and prideful, and it insulted both Devo's efforts and my readers' intelligence. Devo got some additional information that I didn't have, and readers of this blog don't need to be reminded of what they've already read.

And in all honesty, I was still somewhat sore over the way Devo raked me out publicly for reporting about Rob Clark's legal and financial issues, and a good journalist can't afford to be driven by spite and other petty emotions.

At times, every journalist is overcome by competition and the desire to beat the other guys (or girls) in town to the story. At the right level, competition can be healthy, if it pushes each journalist to do a better job, and I think Devo and I have done that for each other, to positive results.

Quite simply, our competition has served to better inform our readers, and that is the essence of a journalist's job — to inform his or her readers.

But problems develop when that competition starts to be driven by jealousy and bitterness and other negative emotions.

So instead of lashing back at Devo for allegedly stealing my scoop, I should have used his report as motivation to do a better job myself, to give readers even more new information.

The fact is that I do my thing, and Devo does his thing, and we should let our readers figure things out and form opinions for themselves. I do things well, and Devo does things well, and both of us have plenty of room for improvement. That's where healthy competition comes in.

So, at least for my part, I need to just let the readers decide, and hopefully I'll continue to do that.

You think you've had a bad day?

2008-04-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

I checked out the Red Wings game tonight and was duly disappointed by the result — a 5-4 loss to Richmond, which drops Rochester to 5-9 and continues to make a case that the Wings have been massively overrated at the start of the season.

And tonight we might have seen something that symbolizes the Wings' fortunes. Apparently Wings reliever Carmen Cali had been feeling queasy all game, but he sucked it up for eight innings and didn't tell anyone because he wanted to be ready if the team needed him.

After maybe six or seven innings, the call came into the bullpen telling Cali to start warming up. Still, he apparently told no one about his nausea. He warmed up for quite a while, and at the start of the ninth inning and the score tied 4-4, Cali got the call to take the mound. Still, he told no one about his illness.

He walked out of the bullpen and began to head to the mound. But he stopped and ended up ralphing in right field. At that point, obviously, people finally found out how he felt, and he was brought off the field.

Talk about taking one for the team. That is commitment. That is dedication. That is awesome. You gotta like a guy who's willing to risk his own health to help the team win.

How many of us would have done what Cali did? How many of us would push ourselves to the point of yacking, all to help the team? Probably not me, that's for sure.

Oh, for the record, closer Bobby Korecky came into the game in Cali's place and promptly gave up the game-winning home run to Richmond's Barbaro Canizares.

An impact beyond the mat

2008-04-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

I know I said I'd have a bunch of good, new stuff tonight (Wednesday), but I don't really have anything substantially juicy. However, I think I just might go off script tonight and talk about a little good news.

As the sports editor at the Wayne County Mail, I cover the teams at Wayne Central High School, including the wrestling team.

Because of this, I've been able to work with Wayne wrestling head coach Scott Freischlag, who has built the Wayne program into a powerhouse — six Section V team titles in the last eight years, 58 individual sectional champs, three state champs, ranked in the state top 20 for the last 13 years, etc.

For a small-town sports writer, Freischlag is a dream coach — he either e-mails or calls with weekly match reports, and he's extremely quotable. But above all, he's just a cool guy.

He's especially cool with his wrestlers, who almost to a man develop a fierce dedication and loyalty to Freischlag and the wrestling program.

And Freischlag has been able to create such an atmosphere by working closely with each and every wrestler, giving each of them time, attention and wisdom, regardless of whether the kids are state champions or B team regulars.

Well, Freischlag is stepping down as Wayne's head wrestling coach after 18 years at the helm to pursue a career in school administration. Last week after he made his decision and informed the team, he sent me a long e-mail reflecting on the last 18 years.

In the e-mail, he cited numerous Wayne grapplers who had excelled on the court and became sectional or state champions. But then he wrote this:

"I have mentioned several outstanding individuals, but the real story is also how many kids were willing to toil in obscurity without getting to the top of the podium. The kids who came into the room every day and worked just as hard (or harder) than the champions were just as important to our success and too numerous to mention.

"I attribute this to the atmosphere that we created in the room. As long as a kid was willing to put in the work, he had a place on the team and was treated like everybody else."

That, in a nutshell, is why his team members loved him so much, and why the whole community loved him as well. And you know, it's this type of integrity and devotion that, for me, balances off all the dirty stuff like bankrupt sports teams and state audits of stadium projects.

Not to be corny or cliché, but it's such positive energy that allows me to keep doing what I do. For that, I am grateful to high school coaches like Scott Freischlag and student-athletes like Wayne's wrestlers.

So I wish Freischlag good luck, say thanks and hope he realizes that his impact goes well beyond the wrestling mat and the workout room.

Wonder where he heard it?

2008-04-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

I hope you all saw Devo's big "scoop" today about the May 2 court date for NBT Bank's lawsuit against DuRoss/Donner/Economides.

In his blog today, Devo says he first heard about the court date on Friday. Hmm. Coincidentally, I reported about the request for judicial intervention more than a week ago.

But hey, if Devo wants to believe he got a big scoop, whatever. We know the truth.

What do the Panthers think?

2008-04-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

OK, I know I said I wouldn't have anything until Wednesday night, but I do have a couple quick things about the Amerks.

First, I've left two messages with a Florida Panthers' media-relations staffer to find out if the Amerks' soon-to-be sole parent team has any comment about the Amerks' situation and the possible buyout of the team by Curt Styres.

It would seem that the Panthers' viewpoint would be absolutely crucial to the current drama unfolding at Blue Cross Arena. Even if the Amerks (i.e. Steve Donner), the city and whoever gets the new arena management contract can work out a new lease agreement, and even if the Styres deal does go through, it all wouldn't mean anything with an absolute, unwavering affiliation commitment.

But the Panthers guy hasn't gotten back to me, which is either because: A) he doesn't want to be worried by a dumb Rochester blog, or B) the Panthers don't really have a comment yet for various, perhaps unsettling, reasons. (My vote, however, would go for choice A.)

Second, does anyone know if Curt Styres himself is actually Native-American? Well, I guess technically he'd be Native-Canadian. Anyway, having a Native-American sports team owner in Rochester would, I think, be incredible and, at the very least, interesting.

If Styres IS native, I would love to find out how he became interested in an upstate New York hockey and lacrosse franchise. How do hockey and lacrosse fit into Indian society and culture. Actually, we know that lacrosse is an intimate part of Native-American culture — they invented the sport, after all — but what about hockey?

I don't know, Native-American culture and history has just always fascinated me, and to be able to speak to someone like Styres (assuming he IS Indian) would be a big deal for me.

I also know that Styres has a group of, shall we say, colorful business partners, and eventually I want to write about them in the context of their culture.

Wings vs. Rhinos

2008-04-15T19:22:00.001-07:00

Hi folks, I'm not really going to have anything new until tomorrow (Wednesday) night. However, I have a query for you to ponder in the meantime: Why do Red Wings fans hate the Rhinos so much, and why do Rhinos fans hate the Wings so much?

I know hate is a strong word, but at times the level of vitriol between the two camps reaches that level. Why?

Oh yeah? Your mama's so ugly ...

2008-04-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

A lot has been made about new Rhinos owner Rob Clark's pugilistic comments about Steve Donner in Devo's article in Sunday's D&C.

But remember that Donner and city of Rochester corporation counsel Tom Richards have made equally nasty public statements about a whole bunch of things — the buyout of the Rhinos, ownership of PAETEC Park, the Amerks' financial woes, etc.

Essentially, what we have here is a testosterone-fueled, three-way spitting contest. All three of these guys are acting like 14-year-olds on a school playground cracking wise about each other's mamas.

Frankly, the sports fans of Rochester can't afford for their leaders to be blustering and boasting about such a delicate, pressing situation. There's too much at stake for them to be so juvenile. Nothing will get solved if they keep doing what they're doing.

Instead of calling each other out publicly, wouldn't it be neat if everyone would, you know, sit down and work things out together?

Because if they don't, the consequences might be dire — including, but not limited to, the Amerks and Knighthawks going dark next season.

However, on the other hand, braggadocio makes for awesome copy, and I have to give kudos to Devo for getting Clark to make such comments on the record. Deep down, whether we like to admit it or not, all journalists live for stuff like that.

Assorted Rhinos legalities

2008-04-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple Rhinos notes that really didn't fit into any of my other posts the last few days:

• When I talked to Rob Clark last week and asked him about the $4 million in state money that the city is holding to build the luxury suites at PAETEC Park, he corrected me a bit.

"It's actually around $4.7 million that's left," he said.

It seems that in addition to the $4 mil for the suites, about $600,000 or $700,000 remains from a previous state grant. So how will that extra cash be used?

"It'll probably pay off some of the people who are owed money," Clark said. In other words, those hundreds of thousands of dollars will go toward repaying all the local companies that sued the Rhinos when the team was owned by DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE).

As it turns out, a couple weeks ago a judge ordered Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the company used by DDE to build the stadium — to pay LeChase Construction more than $633,000 in past due bills and interest.

• A Cheektowaga, N.Y., company named Advanced Facilities Services International has sued Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, i.e. DDE, in Erie County Supreme Court. AFSI provides maintenance, construction and repair services for various companies.

Unfortunately, I don't have any details of AFSI's lawsuit. I need to go to Buffalo and look at the file. But it just adds to the amazing array of companies that have been stiffed by the Rhinos and subsequently sued the team.

For the record, I've left two messages with an AFSI executive seeking comment.

• A May 2 court date has been scheduled in NBT Bank's lawsuit against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC. If you recall, NBT sued Rochester Rhinos Stadium earlier this year for more than $10 million in past due loans and interest.

A request for judicial intervention was filed March 24, and arguments are now scheduled to be heard May 2 in Chenango County Supreme Court before Justice Elizabeth A. Garry.

With Clark's purchase of the Rhinos and the apparent dissolution of Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, the question of exactly whom NBT will go after for the money was up in the air, with the new Clark Rhinos, DDE and the city of Rochester (which now owns the stadium) all as possible targets.

However, it now looks like the bank is pursuing DDE as individuals for the cash, at least according to city attorney Tom Richards and DuRoss himself. At the very least, it'll be interesting to see who shows up in court May 2.

Good to be back

2008-04-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

I took my usual seat in the second row and debated whether I should get some of the fried chicken. I normally don't eat fried chicken, but I hadn't eaten all day and, and, come on, a free meal is one of the perks of being an alleged sports journalist.

I looked out through the plate glass windows at the stadium's brand-new field, and I was duly impressed. A few brown patches here and there, but pretty nice overall. It was a fairly gorgeous afternoon, albeit a little chilly — mostly blue skies, a few clouds but plenty of sun.

I again pondered about partaking of the fried chicken. To be truthful, I was hoping for burgers or ziti with meatlballs, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

I had a general feeling that today was going to be relatively uneventful in my first Red Wings game of the 2008 season. Just sort of a fried chicken kind of a day, you know?

I moseyed over to the food counter and took a gander at the chicken. I was still resisting, but the poultry was slowly turning the tide. By the end of the day, it had won — I ended up stuffing my gullet with several artery-clogging pieces of chicken. My pangs of guilt went away after a while.

The usual crew started to filter into the press box — Wings PR director Chuck Hinkel, Sports & Leisure's Shawn Krest, the D&C's Jim Mandelaro — and I remembered what a motley crew we all are.

As for the game itself, well, it kinda stunk. The Wings lost to Syracuse 3-2 after managing just four hits, continuing their recent trend of punchless offense. Over the last five games, Rochester has batted 2-for-29 with runners in scoring position. That's .069. Yeah. Ouch.

Oh yeah, and don't forget the International League-high 19 errors after two more today.

The Wings are now 3-7 to open the season for the first time since 2001 and are nowhere the Governors Cup-caliber team many people were calling them. Today, well, they were awful.

"We're played 10 games, and the seven losses in those 10 games have not been pretty," said Wings manager Stan Cliburn. "We're losing ugly."

All in all, it was, as I predicted, a fairly uneventful day. The game was dull, the air was cold and the fried chicken was ... well, it was OK.

Definitely a dull day, but it was still good to be back at Frontier Field, good to see the guys again, good to see some baseball again, good to scarf some free food again.

As I've stated numerous time on this blog, there really is nothing like minor-league baseball. It w as good to be back.

"This team is exploding"

2008-04-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

When I spoke to Rob Clark and Sam Fantauzzo last Thursday about their plans for the 2008 season — specifically, what they're going to do differently to attract fans — I got a few main themes:

• Construction on the luxury suites is slated to FINALLY begin in June.

• They're really optimistic about the team's on-field potential.

• Attendance-wise, they're shooting for the moon — they're hoping to notch a few sellouts.

• Their goal is to provide fans not just a soccer game, but a complete experience for families.

• And, perhaps most tellingly, they're eager to prove all the skeptics wrong.

First things first. When it comes to generating needed revenue, Clark understands the reality of the situation.

"We just can't make it without the suites," he said.

He said that's why he insisted that the completion of the suites be included in the Rhinos' new lease with the city, with the city being solely responsible for building them.

"I wanted those suites done," Clark said.

Clark said the $4 million state grant that the city has been holding up won't even go to the Rhinos. The city will itself use the cash to construct the suites; the Rhinos. including Clark will have no authority whatsoever over the project. With those ground rules established, Clark hopes construction can begin in June and be completed by opening day 2009 at the very latest. He said it might even be possible to put them into use late this season.

With that crucial project on track, Clark and Sam said they've spent the last few weeks focused squarely on ways to attract more fans to the stadium. Their goal: To provide game-goers with an experience for an entire evening.

The evening they plan will start with dinner — the gates will open at 6 p.m. to allow fans to take advantage of the (hopefully) better eats provided by the new concessionaire, Famous Dave's BBQ.

Clark and Sam are also planning extravagent halftime shows. OK, maybe not extravagant, but at least exciting enough to keep people in their seats at the break.

The post-game atmosphere will be centered around what Sam called "block parties," with new concessions under the scoreboard and concerts by local, regional and national acts. (Clark said they've already booked a fairly popular national name act for opening night).

Throw in some fireworks, a kids play area, heightened security, possible valet parking and open-air trolleys to transport fans from the Kodak lots near Frontier Field, and you've got what the Rhinos hope will be a winning formula.

"Things will not be perfect at the first game," Clark said, "but they will be better than the past."

The team will also honor the 1998 A-League championship team all season long as a way of both marking the 10th anniversary of the franchise's first title team and connecting back to the Rhinos' storied past.

Of course, that still leaves the on-field product — if the team stinks, no amount of bells and whistles will draw fans to the stadium. But, Sam said, not to worry.

"This will be the greatest team in the history of the franchise," he said simply.

That's a pretty big statement, but the Rhinos are shooting for nothing less than a championship. Almost as soon as his buyout of the team was completed, Clark began signing a slew of new players and coaches, including new head coach Darren Tilley, whose youth, enthusiasm and history with the franchise already has many observers excited about the possibilities.

"Darren is all business," Clark said. "I don't think there will be a problem on the field."

When all said, Clark and Sam are pretty happy with how their new efforts are panning out — 3,300 season tickets already sold toward a goal of 5,000, and only 3,000 tickets left for the May 17 home opener against Charleston.

"This team is exploding," Clark said.

"I just can't wait until after opening night," he added. "At the end of the season, we're going to laugh at all the people who said we're going to be here for a year, that we're only trying to extract money for the bank. We'll see."

So take all that for what you will. It's hard for me to overcome my skeptical nature, but if Clark can actually pull all this off, he might indeed prove to critics like me that he's in it for the long haul, that he's serious about owning the Rhinos and making them successful. Only time, as they say, will tell.

No smoke and mirrors

2008-04-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

I had scheduled an appointment with Sam Fantauzzo for Thursday afternoon at the Rhinos' new offices (they moved out of those lame trailers into a new building maybe 50 yards away) to talk about his efforts to attract people to Rhinos games this season.

I wasn't expecting, however, to also talk with the team's new head guy, Rob Clark. But Sam brought him into the conference room to join us. Sam said with a laugh that Clark was coming after me, which raised my anxiety level just a tad, but the 45-minute interview turned out really well. That means, basically, that I didn't cry.

But as promised, here's the first of my two-part rundown from the interview. This post will discuss Clark's response to criticism — much of it admittedly leveled by me — about the deal that bought him Rochester's pro soccer team. The second installment, talking about Sam and Clark's plans to boost attendance this season, will be posted tomorrow (Sunday), probably in the evening.

But, for today ... Clark said Thursday that his takeover of the Rhinos was not some sort of planned power play by the Clarks, Adirondack Bank, NBT Bank and Frank DuRoss.

"This isn't smoke and mirrors," he told me. "I literally came in four weeks ago, and it was all above board."

Clark said it's just coincidence that that he, Adirondack Bank and Frank DuRoss are all from Utica. The fact that they share a hometown had no impact on the sale of the Rhinos.

"That had absolutely nothing to do with it," he said.

Clark added that he wasn't simply given the Rhinos as part of a supposed plot.

"I had to pay the banks to buy the team," he said. "I didn't get this for free."

He noted that the purchase was examined and approved by federal banking regulators as well.

I asked him if he understands that some people are still skeptical about his intentions and his ability to turn the franchise around. I noted that the Rochester community has been burned before when it comes to the Rhinos.

But, he said, "We got burned, too. We're all taking a loss on this. NBT took a loss on this.

"People are skeptical this year, and that's fine," he said. "We'll do our best to win them over."

Part of that process will be convincing people that the DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE) era is completely over.

"We're getting out of the whole Donner and DuRoss shadow," Clark said. "We're not affiliated in any way with their group. We completely broke away."

That means, he added, that he is not responsible for the previous ownership's debts, included the repayment of $8-plus million in loans to NBT Bank

"I'm not liable for anything," he said.

In essence, Clark said, his takeover of the Rhinos was not the end product of a nefarious plot, and he and the Rhinos are going to prove that this year.

"We'll put the critics to bed," he said. "We're going to show the community that we're here to do business. We're not just here to squelch money out of the team."

Confirmed: DDE on the hook

2008-04-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I got it straight from the defendant's mouth — NBT Bank IS, in fact, going after Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides (DDE) personally for the millions in stadium lone money.

In an e-mail to me, Duross himself confirmed that he and his former partners are on the hook and in NBT's sights. I wrote him Thursday night to let him know about City of Rochester Corporation Counsel Tom Richards' comment at Thursday's City Council finance committee meeting that as far as Richards knows, NBT is going after DDE for the money. I also asked DuRoss if he was concerned about the situation. Here is his e-mailed answer:

"NBT has served Steve, Chris and myself papers demanding full payment, based on our personal guarantees, of the difference in what they sold the note for to (Adirondack) Sports (Club LLC, Rob Clark's company) and the total due NBT. I have not heard anything contrary to NBT continuing to pursue us for the difference, and yes I am very concerned about it."

Many of you were right — the bank can and is pursuing DDE for the loans, which, by my math, total around $8.5 million after you take out Adirondack Bank's cut.

On one hand, this is good news, because it means the taxpaayers of the city of Rochester won't be forced to repay someone else's private loans. It's also apparently good for Rob Clark and the new-look Rhinos, who won't be burdened with other people's problems.

However, this is also bad news for the Amerks and Knighthawks, Steve Donner's other primary assets. Now it would only make sense for the bank to go after the finances of the Blue Cross Arena teams — which, unfortunately, aren't exactly swimming in cash at the current moment.

That, of course, could change if and when the Curt Styres deal goes through to buy the Amerks and Knighthawks. Actually, you almost have to hope that the Styres deal goes through quickly — the longer Donner owns 40 percent of the teams, the more chance there is that NBT will raid his chunk of the teams.

You also have to wonder if Styres knows about the whole Rochester Sports Group drama, Rhinos included. Well, I'd imagine he HAS to know, but does he care?

Missing from this equation is the perspective of NBT Bank, which is headquartered in Norwich, N.Y., the Chenango County seat. NBT Bank sued Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the corporation DDE used to build PAETEC Park — for the unpaid loans in January in Chenango County Supreme Court, and on March 24 a request for judicial intervention (RJI) was filed in the case.

I'm planning on heading to Norwich sometime next week to find out more about the bank's position.

OK, who owns the frickin' stadium?

2008-04-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

That's the big question at this point, because nobody really knows for certain. The issue who owns the Rhinos team has apparently been settled — Rob Clark now owns it, and that's that.

But the ownership of PAETEC Park ... that's another story altogether. None of the media reports about the purchase of the Rhinos has directly and sufficiently addressed the issue of the stadium's ownership.

It's been reported by some media outlets that the bank seized the stadium, other reports assume the city now possesses it, while others have hinted that Clark does.

So which is it? The question is that simple. Who currently possesses the deed to PAETEC Park?

But there's another question tangential to the ownership one ... Who now is responsible for the millions of dollars in loans NBT floated Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss to build the stadium? I'll address that question on Friday.

Bu today, at a meeting of the Rochester City Council's Finance Committee, Councilman Adam McFadden asked those questions. He asked them directly. And he got corporation counsel Tom Richards on the public record with his answers.

So who does own the stadium? The city does. So sayeth Richards. According to the city's top attorney, the city of Rochester — not Rob Clark, not NBT Bank, not Adirondack Bank — owns PAETEC Park.

So, the question becomes, does that mean the city and the taxpayers are liable for the loans that were taken out to build the stadium? Absolutely not, Richards said. The city and the taxpayers, Richards said, "have no obligation" to repay the debts. But again, I'll talk about that tomorrow.

When I talked to Rob Clark today, I asked him directly who owns the stadium. And when it came down to it, Clark didn't know. The owner of the stadium's primary tenant didn't know who owns PAETEC Park. He said that in function, he operates the stadium completely, and he makes all the decisions about it.

But as to the issue of who owns the deed, he didn't know. At first, I was a little taken aback by that. How can he NOT know who owns the stadium?

But after I thought about it, I started to realize that it's not surprising at all that Clark wouldn't know that. Why?

Because NO ONE knew for absolute certain who owned the stadium. Adam McFadden, a city councilman, had to ask the city attorney in order to get a definitive, on-the-record answer. A city councilman! And I will guarantee you that he wasn't the only councilperson in the room who didn't know, either.

At one point last week, I thought that NBT Bank owned PAETEC Park, because, on the recent memorandum of lease termination between the city and Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — the company DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE) used to build and own the stadium — NBT Bank was listed as the 97-percent owner of the stadium company.

So, I thought, that means NBT Bank seized the stadium from DDE because DDE had put it up as collateral on the loans.

Then, Clark told me today that NBT had seized the assets of both of DDE's companies — the stadium one and Empire Professional Soccer, the company that owned the Rhinos team itself — and then dissolved the two companies.

(For the record, Clark said that he actually bought the team and the franchise from the bank — he was not just given the team by the banks as part of a huge conspiracy. But more on that this weekend.)

But if that's the case — if NBT Bank dissolved Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — then what happened to that company's primary asset, the stadium?

But then Richards comes along this afternoon and apparently makes all such pondering moot, because according to him, the city owns the stadium.

OK, fine. Then tell us how, exactly, the city took control. And don't simply wave us off by saying, "Oh, we did it under the ground lease agreement."

No. That's not good enough. Tell us PRECISELY what happened to make the city the owner. If there was a transfer of the stadium from either DDE or NBT Bank to the city, then there has to be some legal document, some public record somewhere saying that happened. A transfer of a deed, a judicial order, something. The transaction MUST be documented and recorded somewhere.

The city didn't just say to DDE — or NBT, whoever it was — "OK, we're just gonna take the stadium now cuz, uh, the lease says we can. That OK with you? Great then. Have a nice day. Are the mints in this bowl for everyone?"

So I suppose I'm directly challenging the city administration to produce such a document. SHOW me the deed. SHOW me the transfer papers. SHOW me the judicial orders. SHOW me any proof you have that the city does, in fact, own the stadium, and how you got it.

But the city WON'T produce such a document, either because they can't or because they simply don't want to.

However, until I see the documentation with me own eyes, I don't believe a single word Tom Richards — or Rob Clark or Frank DuRoss or NBT — says.

Why is all this important? Because PAETEC Park is a large, valuable piece of property — and a very valuable asset AND responsibility. It's also one that we ALL, as New York taxpayers, sank $19 million into.

The stadium also has a HUGE mortgage — in the form of all those loans NBT gave DDE to build it — that SOMEONE has to pay off.

And exactly who is that someone? That's another huge question that McFadden asked today. He asked Richards if the city and the taxpayers are the hook for that $8.6 million or whatever.

Richards answer? Absolutely not, he said. There are protections and safeguards built into the proposed new lease (the one with Clark that the council was reviewing today) that will prevent the city and the taxpayers from becoming liable.

So who IS liable, McFadden asked? Who WILL NBT go after for their millions?

Answered Richards. DuRoss and Donner. "The bank intends to pursue them for that money," Richards said.

But more on that tomorrow.

A big afternoon

2008-04-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have had one HECK of an afternoon. First, I talked with Sam Fantauzzo and -- this was a surprise -- Rob Clark himself, and they gave me A LOT to write about, which I will do over the next few days.

But then I attended the Rochester City Council's committee meetings, where the proposed new Rhinos' lease was on the agenda. Councilman Adam McFadden asked Tom Richards a bunch of questions just to get the city administration on the record for a few things, and Richards unloaded some doozies.

Sooo ... I'm going to write about everything I learned today in three parts. In my next post tonight, I'll discuss the City Council meeting and the questions of just who the heck owns PAETEC Park and who's on the hook for the $8-plus million NBT loans.

Tomorrow, I'll report on Clark's responses to the suggestions (many by me) that his purchase of the Rhinos was the result of a big bank conspiracy.

Then, over the weekend, I'll write about Clark and Sam's plans to attract people to Rhinos games this summer.

So that's what's coming up. Let's have some fun.

Hrywnak's day in court finally comes

2008-04-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

It looks like the criminal case against Rochester RazorSharks co-owner and GM Orest Hrywnak will FINALLY move forward in Wayne County court.

On Nov. 14, a Wayne County grand jury indicted Hrywnak on charges of felony DWI, speeding and reckless driving. He was arrested in the town of Sodus Sept. 3 as he was driving along Route 104. Hrywnak faces a felony DWI count because he already has a DUI mark on his record.

His case has been adjourned several times since his arraignment, possibly to delay the trial until after the Premier Basketball League's debut season. The RazorSharks won the inaugural PBL title March 30.

The most recent adjournment placed Hrywnak's trial date as this Thursday. The Wayne County court clerk's office confirmed today that the case is still on the docket for Thursday, so more than seven months after his arrest, it seems as if Hrywnak will finally get his day in court.

For the record, I've left numerous requests for comment with Hrywnak's attorney, Norman Palmiere, as well as with the RazorSharks and Hrywnak himself. I've gotten no responses.

"Donner is a walking disaster"

2008-04-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

Chris Wilmot may be out of the Rhinos' picture, but he's definitely not going quietly.

Wilmot told me this afternoon that his investments of $250,000 each in the Rhinos, Rattlers and PAETEC Park have officially gone up in smoke and that he was never offered a buyout of his shares by Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss, the former owners of all three entities.

Wilmot became a part-owner of the franchises and the stadium in November 2006, but several months ago be publicly split with the Rhinos organization, claiming that Donner never kept him in the loop with the teams' management and finances.

Wilmot now says that because the three entities he invested in — Empire Professional Soccer, Empire Professional Lacrosse and Rochester Rhinos Stadium, LLC, all majority owned by DuRoss and Donner — have become pretty much worthless with the sale of the Rhinos to Rob Clark and the seizing of the stadium by NBT Bank, his ownership has disappeared, as has his $250,000.

Through his consulting firm, Endless Wave Productions, Wilmot recently sued Donner and DuRoss for $15,000 in unpaid consulting services. However, Wilmot said today that the chances of him actually recovering any money from the pair are slim.

"Everybody is standing in front of me asking for their money," he said. "It will be tough to collect from (Donner and DuRoss)."

While Wilmot said he is "certainly glad that we'll have one more season of professional soccer in Rochester" thanks to Clark's purchase of the Rhinos, he added that he is still "definitely a little bitter."

That's thanks to the disillusionment he experienced when the full depth of Donner's alleged mismanagement and deception became apparent to him.

"It kind of crushed my heart and spirit," he said.

A good deal of those ill feelings came out last week, when Wilmot penned an in-depth article about his divorce from the Rhinos and his view of the team's current situation for his new Web site, smugtownbeacon.com.

In the commentary, Wilmot asserts that the old bosses are still in cahoots with the new ones.

"What really sticks in my craw is the distinct possibility that the architects of this disaster, Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss, are still somehow involved in the 'new Rhinos,'" Wilmot wrote on April 2.

As evidence of the alleged on-going collusion, Wilmot notes that DuRoss and Clark's father, Harold "Tom" Clark, are longtime friends, and that the Clarks' business, Adirondack Bank, is headquartered in Utica, which also serves as DuRoss' "home base."

However, both in the article and talking to me today, Wilmot expressed sympathy for DuRoss, who Wilmot believes was "burned" by Donner. Wilmot wrote that he believes DuRoss did earnestly do his best to make the Rhinos and PAETEC Park succeed, even investing more than $2 million in personal funds to support the team and stadium.

In the article, Wilmot ponders whether Adirondack and NBT banks will "go a little easier on DuRoss as the $10.6-million (NBT) lawsuit settles out." However, he added, "Frank could lose everything."

While he feels bad for DuRoss, Wilmot quickly added that "Donner is a different story. He has a penchant for separating wealthy businessmen from their money."

Wilmot echoed his those thoughts when speaking with me.

"Donner is a walking disaster," he said. "A lot needs to come out so people can see how corrupt Steve Donner is and how he's ruining Rochester sports."

Wilmot went even further in his Smugtown Beacon article by alleging what many observers have been quietly suggesting — that laws were broken by the Rochester Sports Group, including chronic co-mingling of funds to keep all four teams afloat.

"A court of law," Wilmot wrote, "will likely make a final determination as to whether these practices were legal."

Now that he's no longer part of the Rhinos' family, Wilmot truly hopes Rob Clark can turn the Rhinos and PAETEC Park into successes. However, he doubts that's possible, largely because the stadium is located in a bad neighborhood.

"I don't see (Clark) coming up with some magic formula to bring white suburban fans to the stadium," Wilmot told me. He believes the only way the stadium can be a success is if the city of Rochester demolishes several blocks surrounding the stadium to create parking space that can act as "a buffer for suburban fans."

Wilmot said, however, that he is in the initial planning stages of creating his own regional soccer league that could challenge the Rhinos and the United Soccer Leagues First Division, which he said is underfunded and rapidly shrinking.

Wilmot's new league would be based in the Northeast U.S. and southern Canada and would include teams at mid-size cities that can play at relatively smaller facilities than PAETEC Park.

Stuff should be coming later

2008-04-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't have anything for you yesterday. I should, however, have a fair amount of stuff later today (Wednesday) in the afternoon and evening, as well as tomorrow.

Wings to FINALLY get waterproof dugouts

2008-04-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

After putting up with years of leaky walls and flooding floors, the Red Wings are finally going to be able to stay dry in their dugout this season.

Monroe County officials are in the process of selecting a contractor to renovate the dugouts at Frontier Field sometime this month. In the past, heavy rain has caused the dugouts to flood, drain poorly and drip water through the walls.

"There's always been kind of a water problem there," Red Wings GM Dan Mason said of the dugouts. "Hopefully this project will remedy that."

Mason hopes the work can be completed by the end of this month. The Wings' 2008 home opener is slated for Friday at 7:05 p.m. against the Syracuse Chiefs.

The dugout repairs are part of an extensive capital improvement project at Frontier Field. The main features of the effort are a brand new field, which was installed during the off-season, and a new scoreboard.

The cost of the entire project was tabbed at $2.4 million, with the state contributing $1.6 million and the Red Wings kicking in much of the balance. The dugout renovations are expected to cost roughly $85,000.

According to the minutes of the March 4 meeting of the Greater Rochester Sports Authority — the public body that oversees the operation of Frontier Field — there is still $120,000 remaining out of the $2.4 million, plus $32,000 in contingency costs. Stadium officials are planning to use the leftover funds to undertake various painting projects at the ballpark.

However, the news from Frontier Field isn't completely bright. Stadium manager Jim LeBeau told the GRSA board at its march meeting that Kodak and Coca-Cola are not renewing their luxury suite rentals for the 2008 season. Luxury suites are often a big source of revenue for stadiums and their tenant teams.

LeBeau and the Wings are currently working on filling those now-empty suites for the rest of the season.

"We'll hopefully find somebody else to take (the companies') place," Mason said.

The Sports Authority made some other big changes at Frontier this year. At its March meeting, the board selected awarded four-year contracts for parking services and security work. Mapco Auto Parks now holds the parking contract, while the security contract was awarded to Joseph Security, Inc.

Mapco currently holds the parking contract at the Greater Rochester International Airport, while Joseph Security provides services to events like the Rochester City Music Fest and Rochester Rhinos games at PAETEC Park. Both are Rochester-based companies.

I'm not totally sure why the contract changes were made, i.e. were the GRSA, LeBeau and the Wings unhappy with the previous contract holders, or did they believe it was just time for a change?

Regardless, we'll see how the new guys work out this year.

NBT lawsuit apparently still going forward

2008-04-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

Despite speculation about the status of NBT Bank's loans to the Rhinos, NBT's lawsuit against the team is apparently still going forward.

At least it was two weeks ago, when a request for judicial intervention (RJI) was filed March 24 by one of the parties in Chenango County Supreme Court.

However, that's all I've been able to find out. The Chenango County Clerk's Office doesn't have files on line, and apparently you have to actually go to the office to search for records. That's at least a three-hour drive (but then again, people tell me that I drive like their grandmothers, so maybe other people could get their quicker).

Although she couldn't help me over the phone, the woman who answered at the Clerk's Office was funny. When I identified myself as a journalist in the Rochester area, she said, "Oh, is this about the Rhinos or whatever they're called out there?" I like how Rochester is "out there" in the boondocks or something.

But her comment also indicates that the lawsuit is somewhat big news in Chenango County and in Norwich, the county seat and the location of NBT's headquarters.

I tried to call the lawyer listed as NBT's attorney, Mitchell Katz of Syracuse, and let's just say it wasn't exactly a productive call. I again identified myself as a Rochester journalist calling about the NBT/Rhinos lawsuit, but the receptionist immediately cut me off.

"No one is going to speak to you about that," she said tersely. "I can assure you of that. Maybe call back in a couple weeks."

She then pretty much hung up on me. So I tried calling the attorney listed as the Rhinos' legal counsel, Richard Weber, also of Syracuse. His receptionist was a little more friendly, but she said Weber wasn't available and took my name and number. I'm not expecting a call back anytime soon.

I wasn't calling these people just to find out the RJI. I wanted to find out the status of the bank's loans to the Rhinos — if the lawsuit is still moving forward, does that mean NBT stills wants someone to pay back those loans?

I also want to talk to them, especially Katz, about who exactly is now liable for all those multi-million-dollar loans. NBT's lawsuit is technically against Rochester Rhinos Stadium, LLC, the corporation used by Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides (DDE) to build PAETEC Park.

However, that corporation no longer owns the stadium and, as far as I can tell, has no more real assets the bank could go after. So whom does the bank target? Does it press the new owners of the Rhinos — Clark and Adirondack Sports Club LLC — or does it chase down DDE's personal assets?

Please disagree with me!

2008-04-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add a couple things. First, as usual, feel free to call me anytime at (315) 690-6551 or e-mail me at rwhirty218@yahoo.com. I can't guarantee that I can talk to you or write you back right away, but I will eventually write you or call you back.

Also, and I can't stress this enough: Please please please disagree with me. Please continue to poke holes in my theories and give your own opinions on what I'm writing. I love disagreement -- it would be a boring world if everyone agreed on everything.

I do this blog to generate discussion. I try to raise issues to get people to think about them and then react to them. If you can't stand something I've written, then tell me that! If I make you angry, tell me that! If I didn't make people angry sometimes, I'd be worried about you AND me, because anger and dissension are a spice of life. They're part of what makes us human.

Above all, keep reading and keep THINKING. That's one of my most fundamental goals -- to get people thinking and talking. The beauty of our country is that everyone is allowed to voice their opinions, and one person's opinions are just as valid as the next person's. We all need to take advantage of that freedom.

Getting the full picture

2008-04-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

I know I said on Friday that I'd write about my "grand theory" of the Rhinos' situation sometime this weekend. However, I decided not to do so. There's just too much there, and I broke my brain trying to sort it all out.

However, I do want to rattle off a few thoughts about my coverage of the Rhinos and about the purpose of this blog.

My goal with this thing is simply to provide readers with content they can't get anywhere else, and unfortunately that often means that what I write might seem "too negative," because a lot of what you find in the local "mainstream media" is positive bordering on saccharine.

I also don't want to simply repeat what the mainstream media are saying. There's no point in me asking Darren Tilley or Rob Clark about the recent managerial moves made by the Rhinos or the team's outlook for the future, because they're not going to tell me anything different than what they've already told the D&C or any of the local TV stations.

For example, there's no point in me reporting on the big press event they had a couple weeks ago when they introduced Clark to the public, because so many other media also reported on it. I stopped covering every single Rhinos game — or Amerks or Knighthawks or Red Wings game — because if a reader wants to find out how the game went, they can just read the D&C or watch the 11 p.m. news. Why should I write the same thing Devo — or Kevin Oklobzija or Sal Maiorana or Jim Mandelaro — has already written?

And that's not a slam against the D&C beat writers at all. They report the positive news and viewpoints — at least compared to my news — because that news and those viewpoints need to be reported. I have consistently lauded them for the job they do. They are absolutely EXCELLENT beat writers, especially given that most of them cover multiple beats. I could NEVER do what they do, and for that I have the utmost respect for them.

Now, having said that, I do want to do a better job of writing positive news — or at least "neutral" news — than I have in the past, and hopefully you'll see more of that on this blog from now on. But even with that, my goal is to write stuff that you won't read anywhere else. I look for different angles, plain and simple.

If all that makes my blog seem "negative," well, then so be it. And malcontents have a bad name. Without malcontents we wouldn't have civil rights or labor standards or the freedom of speech. Heck, without malcontents, we wouldn't even have this country.

And that's certainly not to compare myself to Thomas Jefferson or Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez. However, I derive inspiration from them and many other "malcontents."

Now, do I think Rob Clark will be a good Rhinos owner? Do I think he's done a good job so far?

Honestly, I don't know. And truthfully, the vast majority of us don't know. Because we have no idea what it's like to own a professional sports franchise. We've never RUN a professional sports franchise. And Rob Clark has never run a sports franchise, either.

Will Darren Tilley lead the Rhinos to on-field success? Was it a good idea to retain Matthew Ford? Is Bill Gray's a good choice for the new concessions? Will Rob Clark be a good owner?

None of us know at this point. So whatever anybody says about those moves, positive or negative, right now is pure speculation, speculation based on our own individual opinions. I suppose time will tell.

But, as I've said multiple times before, I hope the Rhinos DO start to succeed again. I hope Clark and Tilley and Ford DO turn things around. That's because I love the Rhinos, just like most of us do.

And it's because of that love for the Rhinos that I do what I do and I report what I report. I'm deeply concerned about the team and its future, and, as a result, I want to see the FULL picture, positive and negative. I want to know exactly what we have and what we're being given. I want to see reality as it is.

We as fans all DESERVE that. And if that means some of our reality is ugly, there's not much we can do about that.

How the Rhinos' situation affects "the little guy"

2008-04-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

We all know how the Rhinos — or at least the former Rhinos ownership, DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE) — ended up stiffing local companies by failing to pay their bills.

The list is fairly lengthy of the businesses — LeChase Construction, LaBella Associates engineering, Admar Supply, Spatola Party Rental — that are owed money by these guys.

However, it’s not just sizable local companies that are getting hosed — individual businesspeople and “little guys” are as well.

Bouaketh Chanthavisouk is one of those “little guys.” For months, she provided IT and networking consulting services to the Rhinos, first as a salaried employee, then as an independent contractor. (She also did work for the other Rochester Sports Group teams as well.)

After a while, Chanthavisouk was forced to part ways with the Rhinos and the Rochester Sports Group, not only because the teams weren’t paying her, but also because the teams simply didn’t have the financial means to implement her IT and networking recommendations.

“It became a constant struggle,” she says.

However, months later, the Rhinos still owe Chanthavisouk roughly $2,000. While she said that might not seem like a lot in comparison to, say, the $630,000 the Rhinos were just ordered by a court to pay LeChase, to a small, individual businessperson like her, $2,000 is a pretty big deal, especially when she has her own bills to pay.

“It’s been cutting it pretty tight,” she says.

(For the record, the teams haven’t sent her a W-2 for her work yet, either.)

While working for the Rhinos, Chanthavisouk worked closely with the director of facility operations for PAETEC Park, who did his absolute best to work with her given the team’s financial limitations. That included making sure she got paid. Still, even his best efforts weren’t enough.

“He was a nice guy doing all he can,” she says, “but it wouldn’t surprise me if I never get paid.”

(As a side note, Chanthavisouk took notice when Ron Steinmiller resigned as the Rochester Sports Group’s chief executive officer to take a similar position with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra last month. She says Steinmiller was frequently given the tall task of making sense out of the RSG’s financial books. “I’m surprised he stayed as long as he did,” she says.)

Now Chanthavisouk is left wondering if she’ll EVER see that $2,000, especially now that the Rhinos franchise is in the process of changing hands from DDE to Rob Clark. At the very least, she says, “it’s an uphill battle.”

However, she adds, “Donner owes me money, not Clark.”

And it’s not hard for her to feel angry.

“Some part of me wants revenge,” she says. “I sold them services, not something I can just take back.”

However, even though it might be DDE who owe Chanthavisouk (not to mention the other creditors) money, it’s now Clark who faces the challenge of rebuilding the Rhinos’ reputation in the Rochester community — especially local business. That task is especially crucial, she says, because the team can save money by working with local vendors.

“I know a lot of people who are upset about what’s happened,” Chanthavisouk says. “It’s going to take a lot of work to build up trust in the business community.”

The city asks for arena help

2008-04-05T19:01:00.001-07:00

I’m forced to give kudos to a — gasp! — TV reporter for picking up on something months ago on the Blue Cross Arena lease situation that might have been overlooked by other media.

As 13WHAM’s Rachel Barnhart reported in February, the city of Rochester in February hired a consulting firm to help city officials figure out what they should do when the Amerks’ lease with the Philadelphia-based SMG company, as well as SMG’s arena management contract with the city, expire in June.

On Feb. 12, the Rochester City Council unanimously approved Mayor Bob Duffy’s proposal to pay New Jersey-based Stafford Sports, LLC no more than $50,000 for, as Duffy’s communication to the council stated, “evaluation and advise (sic) regarding various agreements relating to the Blue Cross Arena at the war Memorial.”

Stafford Sports seems to be a top-flight operation. It was founded in 1994 and now works with dozens of professional sports teams, privately-owned facilities and public entities that own and run stadiums and arenas. Clients range from Madison Square Garden, the San Antonio Spurs, the city of Houston and the University of Utah.

According to the company’s Web site, Stafford provides clients with help regarding business plans, financing, strategic planning, marketing, facility planning and design, and negotiations. That last service no doubt is what attracted the city of Rochester.

That’s because the next few months are going to be contentious ones between the city, SMG and the Amerks/Knighthawks. The Duffy administration desperately wants to run Amerks’ co-owner Steve Donner out of town, and apparently the news that Donner has a new investor, cigarette tycoon Curt Styres, hasn’t really softened the city’s stance that much.

There’s also word that the city is seriously considering dumping SMG as the BCA’s management firm, and it’s anybody’s guess whom the Duffy administration might hire to fill the void.

Looming over everything is the fact that the arena loses money hand over fist; the city seriously wants to stop that financial bleeding, and my guess is that most city officials don’t really have much of a clue about how to do that.

Given the complexity of the task ahead, it actually seems somewhat reasonable that Duffy and the city would want to spend $50,000 on a consultant to sort the whole mess out.

“This process of dealing with these agreements has been delayed by the financial difficulties of the Amerks,” Duffy wrote in his February recommendation to the council, “but cannot wait any longer. …

“These agreements represent unique business arrangements that require relevant industry experience not present in the City or locally. The expertise of an experienced consultant will greatly facilitate the structuring and negotiation of new agreements.”

Stafford Sports is expected to complete its Rochester work by late spring. Hopefully that won’t be cutting things too close.

It's not just me

2008-04-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

I've been criticized for looking into Rob Clark's background in Utica and at Adirondack Bank — or for what I call doing my due diligence.

But regardless of one's view of my journalistic practices, I'm not the only one who's deeply interested in Clark's background.

Yesterday, out of the clear blue, I got a call from a Rochester attorney — one who has no connection to the city of Rochester, the Rhinos or either of the banks involved — who was VERY interested in my post about Rob Clark's legal issues.

I also had an interesting experience when I went to the Oneida County Clerk's office in Utica last Friday. I eventually asked a staffer there to see a file about Rob Clark.

"Hmmm, Clark," she responded with a smile. "That's been a popular name here this week."

However, as soon as she said it, the clerk's countenance changed, and she got an "oops, I shouldn't have said that" look on her face.

True, that interest theoretically could have been from city of Rochester officials doing THEIR "due diligence." However, presumably they would have already done that weeks, if not months ago.

Make no mistake: The Clarks — Rob and his father Harold "Tom" Clark Jr., the chairman of the board at Adirondack Bank — are very, very powerful people, especially in Utica.

They both have donated thousands, if not tens of thousands, to various political campaigns, and Tom Clark owns a big chain of McDonalds restaurants in central New York. They have college scholarships named after them, and they and their bank have intimate connections to multiple prominent central New York political figures. There have even been reports that Tom Clark has considered running for state Senate himself.

All this might very well be a good thing. It could help that the new Rhinos owners — and I say owners, not owner, because in reality Tom Clark is just as much in charge of the Rhinos as his son is — are well-connected and powerful businessmen. The Clarks might turn out to be wonderful soccer-team owners (although I believe Dan Williams would have been a better one).

But that's what we all used to think of Frank DuRoss. He gave tens of thousands of dollars to various political candidates, and he had founded and built a pretty large business empire of his own.

But look where that got him, and look where it got the Rhinos, and look where it got us.

We have to know with who we're getting into bed with, that's all I'm saying.

Did NBT Bank write off its loans to the Rhinos?

2008-04-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

I realized that I've been referring to the NBT Bank report that Erik Rhodes alerted me to without actually writing about the report first. So, here it is ...

On Jan. 16, bizjournals.com reported on NBT Bancorp's publicly-released reported for the fourth quarter of 2007. NBT Bancorp is the parent company of NBT Bank.

According to the bizjournals.com article, NBT said it plans to report net income of $8.9 million for the fourth quarter, a $4.7-million drop from the fourth quarter of 2006.

Those preliminary numbers include a provision for $13.4 million in loan losses. But here's the key: Of those $13.4M in losses, $8.6 million is "related to one large commercial loan."

The report adds: "During the quarter, $6 million of the loan was charged off. The loan had been current as of Sept. 30 (2007), but then became 30 days past due and was closely monitored."

All that seems to correspond, at least generally, with the contents of NBT's Jan. 15, 2008, lawsuit against the Rhinos — the bank did give the Rhinos a large, $6-million loan, and the Rhinos stopped paying in the middle of 2007.

In addition, if you subtract $8.6 million from $10.8 million — the total amount NBT loaned the Rhinos, with help from Adirondack Bank — you get $2.2 million, which is roughly the amount Adirondack Bank kicked in.

So it seems very possible that NBT might have just written off their loans to the Rhinos altogether, which means the Rhinos — DuRoss/Donner/Economides or Rob Clark or whoever legally constitutes "the Rhinos" at this point — might not have to pay back $8.6 million after all, thanks to NBT's largesse.

That would just leave the $2.1 million Adirondack Bank loaned the team, and with an Adirondack Bank exec now running the Rhinos, that appears to be taken care of, too. So the Rhinos might be in the clear, at least regarding their bank loans.

However, nowhere in the report does it specifically state that the loans written off by NBT were its loans to the Rhinos. In addition, NBT released its quarterly report on Jan. 15, 2008, the same day it filed its lawsuit against the Rhinos in Chenango County.

If the bank was discharging the Rhinos loans, why would it sue the team to get the money back at the same time?

Thoughts?

Finally, a new parking lot at the ESL Centre

2008-04-03T11:13:00.001-07:00

The ESL Sports Centre's finances continue to look pretty good, centre board chairman Jack Driscoll said yesterday — so good, in fact, that the pothole-filled parking lot is scheduled to be repaved and a brand-new Zamboni has been ordered.

The ESL Centre, a multi-use ice facility on the MCC campus, is governed by the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation (MCSCC), which Driscoll chairs.

Last week I reported on how, early last month, several documents relating to the bonds the MCSCC took out to finance the construction of the centre were filed with the Monroe County Clerk.

The filings — involving the MCSCC, the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) and M&T Bank — appeared to be some sort of refinancing or restructuring of the centre's debt, especially because the maturity date of one of the bonds was Monday.

However, in an e-mail to Driscoll that was forwarded to me, MCSCC attorney Michael Townsend said the filings were issued "to update (the) Bank's security interest," adding that they were "routine filings."

So, Driscoll said, the documents weren't filed as a way to drum up quick cash to pay overdue bills or anything like that. In fact, Driscoll said, all the centre's bills are still being paid on time, a development that has only occurred recently after years of mismanagement and financial troubles.

"Things look reasonable," Driscoll said. "Business is building."

That means that the cracked, pothole-marked parking lot might finally actually get repaved. Driscoll said the MCSCC board has tentatively scheduled the job for May 26. The process will cost roughly $150,000, but Driscoll said the centre finally has the money to pay for it. The centre is in the process of soliciting bids for the job.

In addition, the centre already has a new Zamboni on order. Driscoll said it will probably take a couple more months of the machine to arrive at the centre because each Zamboni is specially-made for each customer.

However, even with all this positive financial news, Driscoll added that the centre remains in arrears on all the bonds that were issued to build the facility; the centre's board still is not able to repay any of that debt. He said the bond holders continue to waive payment for the present.

You'll remember that the majority of the bonds are held by Illinois businessman Leon Lekai and local construction magnate David Christa, who formed the company Empire Ice LLC to purchase the bonds. In effect, Lekai and Christa pretty much own the ESL Centre.

In addition, one of Lekai's companies, Advanced Arenas, has the management contract to operate the centre on a day-to-day basis. In fact, while the MCSCC board is technically in charge, Lekai and Christa pretty much have the final say at the centre.

However, things aren't completely going Lekai's way. Driscoll said that the centre's pro shop, which is currently managed by one of Lekai's companies, will soon change hands. Driscoll said the MCSCC is in talks to bring in a an independent local company that would run the centre's shop as a satellite of the firm's main store.

Driscoll noted that the centre's pro shop has never made any money regardless of who owned or managed it, but the MCSCC board hopes that will change with the shift in management.

But, back on the bright side, Driscoll says the MCSCC board has FINALLY filed all of its income tax audits with the IRS, something the board had been struggling for years to do.

"As of now," Driscoll said, "we are up-to-date and current with the IRS. It's one more step in the progress toward straightening out our business."

He added that centre officials are in talks with IRS people in the hope that the centre won't get fined too severely for its past lateness.

And, finally, the centre has hired a new general manager — former Amerk Craig Charron — while Ray Maluta has been bumped up from GM to executive general manager.

Are DuRoss and Donner now off the hook?

2008-04-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

According to Monroe County Clerk papers filed Tuesday, it looks like Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides (DDE) are now officially off the hook for the $10.8 million in loans they took out to build PAETEC Park.

However, those same documents give rise to a few additional questions.

The first step: On March 19, a memorandum of lease surrender between the city of Rochester and Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, the company DDE created to construct the soccer stadium, was issued, officially releasing Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC from its $1-per-year lease for the land on which the stadium sits.

However, DDE were NOT listed as the owners of Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC on the March 19 memorandum. Instead, the document states that NBT Bank owned the corporation — officially, the bank is the "holder of 97% of the membership voting interests" of the LLC.

That confirms what has been widely reported — NBT Bank did, in fact, become the owner of PAETEC Park some time ago and DDE were removed from the picture.

But a question: If NBT owns 97 percent of PAETEC Park, who owns the remaining 3 percent?

Then, in another document dated March 19 and filed with the County Clerk yesterday, NBT Bank officially releases Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC from the mortgages on the soccer stadium.

But remember that Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC is now apparently owned by NBT itself. So, in quirky little effect, NBT Bank released itself from a mortgage with itself. I'm not sure if that's like Billy Idol dancing with himself, but I'd rather not know.

So the question remains: Who's now going to repay that $10.8 million mortgage? Will Rob Clark and his company, Adirondack Sports Club, take over that debt? Or will NBT Bank simply let that money go and take the hit? Or — gulp! — will the city and its taxpayers end up eating those millions?

The bottom line is that until all the papers are signed assigning the mortgage to someone, until everything's official, in my mind ANYONE can end up paying back that $10.8 million. And if the necessary paperwork has already been signed, then please let us know.

Another question: If NBT Bank owned the soccer stadium as of march 19, do they STILL own it, and will they continue to own it? It's never really been made clear who exactly will end up owning the stadium itself when all the dust settles.

And who owns the stadium will probably answer the question of who ends up paying back the $10.8 million.

And yet ANOTHER question: Most of the lawsuits and liens filed by local companies demanding payment of overdue stadium-related bills — LeChase, LaBella, Admar, Spatola, etc. — have been issued against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, not against DDE personally.

So now that NBT Bank owns Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, does that mean the bank legally takes on all those other debts as well? Does that mean, for example, that when a judge last week ordered Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC to repay LeChase Construction more than $630,000, NBT Bank is now the one who has to repay LeChase?

And, tangentially, does that mean DDE are off the hook completely? Are they now totally out of the picture?

But here's yet another twist: In the March 19 memo of lease surrender, while NBT Bank is listed as the majority owner of Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, the LLC's address is still listed as DuRoss' office at 116 Business Park Drive in Utica.

So what the heck is going on here?

Did Rob Clark have the inside track all along?

2008-04-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

I talked to Dan Williams this afternoon — yes, THAT Dan Williams — about his attempted takeover of the Rhinos and why it failed.

In particular, I've been wondering whether NBT Bank and Adirondack Bank ever even took his bid seriously given the eventual outcome, i.e. had the banks already made up their mind months ago that Rob Clark would take over the team?

In essence, was Clark's takeover a done deal regardless of Williams' interest? And did the rejection of Williams come as a result of Williams' unwillingness to take over the loans from NBT and Adirondack?

When talking with me today, while he didn't come right and say that his offer was doomed from the beginning, Williams indicated that the deck was definitely stacked against him and that Rob Clark — or some other bank representative — had the inside track.

"It's hard to negotiate to buy somebody's debt when they're buying it off themselves," he said.

In fact, Williams said he never even really submitted a formal buyout bid — he and the banks never reached that point. The banks, he said, were definitely looking for someone to take over the liens that had been placed against PAETEC Park and the Rhinos.

In past posts, I've suggested that the whole Rob Clark deal has been orchestrated by NBT Bank. However, after speaking with Williams today, I'm more inclined to believe that it was actually Adirondack Bank that has been calling the shots.

Specifically, Williams got the impression that it was Rob Clark's father, Adirondack Chairman of the Board Harold "Tom" Clark Jr., who maneuvered everything.

"I think NBT Bank had to take into account what Adirondack Bank wanted," Williams told me.

I also asked Williams about his plans for the future. He said he's definitely still interested in owning an American soccer team, if not this year, then next year.

"I'll have a USL team at some point," he said.

He also said he has no hard feelings about the way things went down in Rochester, although he added that many of the moves Clark has made with the Rhinos were ones Williams was planning anyway. Above all, however, Williams is happy that there will apparently be pro soccer in Rochester this year.

"It's great to see soccer played, so I'm not bitter," he said. "It is what it is. I hope the guys have a great season."

An explanation

2008-04-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

OK, some thoughts on the recent criticism of my work, including my failure to contact Rob Clark to get his side of the story before I posted a report about his debts and legal issues this past weekend.

Yes, ideally I should have tried to contact Clark to get his explanation of the situation, and in the future I will attempt to do so. However, in this case, I didn't contact him for three reasons:

1) Even if I talked to Clark, anything he told me wouldn't necessarily be "the truth." People can spin anything — that includes businessmen, newspaper reporters AND bloggers. However, court and legal documents do not lie. They tell the story as it really is, without any excuses or explanations.

2) It's not my job to parrot the party line. I'll leave that to other local journalists.

3) I'm working on additional sensitive research about Clark's background, and I was planning on trying to speak with him all at once. And, I might add, if and when I did speak with him, I would publish the answer as a Q&A, which would present his side WITHOUT my filtering it.

Also, I totally understand that his divorce might have made it difficult to keep up with his financial obligations. Many people, at some point in their lives, experience personal crises that can affect such things.

I know how devastating divorces can be — my parents went through an ugly divorce when I was five, and to be honest, my parents, my brother and I are STILL suffering the effects of it 30 years later. So, in that respect, I do not doubt that a divorce could have heavily impacted Clark and his financial situation.

However, the case I cited wasn't just a matter of not repaying a loan. Clark was also cited for contempt of court for not answering a subpoena. Even if you can't pay your bills, you've GOT to answer subpoenas regardless. You simply DO what the court tells you to do.

If you're having trouble meeting your financial obligations for legitimate reasons — like, for example, a divorce — then you work something out with the courts and your creditors. You don't let things slide until the court is forced to take a drastic step like garnishing your wages.

The bottom line is that journalists are supposed to be skeptical. Our job is not to just accept everything people tell them. It's to ask the hard questions. We need to question what we are told and investigate the truth.

And in this case, that's what I did. I reported the facts, plain and simple, because court documents do not lie. They do not shade the truth, they do not offer spin.

Rob Clark might turn out to a GREAT sports team owner. He could very well end up saving the Rhinos franchise and turning things around. I certainly hope he does, because I love the Rhinos, too.

I just have some concerns about his ability to do so. Remember that five years ago, when the Rhinos were flying high at Frontier Field, everything believed Frank DuRoss and Steve Donner were stupendous and wonderful. At the time, very few people questioned what they were doing.

That's why, when everything started to unravel for them and the Rhinos, it was a big shock to everyone. People were surprised to learn that DuRoss and Donner weren't all they had claimed to be.

People were surprised because no one asked the hard questions five years ago. No one doubted what they asserted. We all just accepted their word as truth.

And we got burned. We got burned bad.

We can't afford to make the same mistake again. While we should hope that everything turns out well with Clark, we shouldn't just ASSUME that it will.

Remember what the Who said: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The Rhinos and their fans deserve more than the empty promises they were fed for years and years. Maybe everything Rob Clark and the city are promising now will turn out to be truth.

But what if it's not? We've been down that road before, and we shouldn't have to go down it again.

Stuff coming, including a response to criticism

2008-04-02T07:35:00.001-07:00

Sorry I didn't get anything posted yesterday — I'll definitely have some stuff later today, tonight and tomorrow morning.

That'll include a response to criticism over my coverage of Rob Clark and his background. I wasn't planning on responding to criticism from Devo and his readers — unlike other local sportswriters, I try to have thick skin and not get all defensive — but I guess I need to explain my coverage.

Just a thought on Curt Styres

2008-03-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

You know, we're all just ASSUMING that Curt Styres will keep the Amerks and Knighthawks in Rochester ...

Styres is based in an area that's big on both lacrosse and hockey, and if the Duffy administration hassles him over a lease at Blue Cross Arena, who knows what Cigarette Man might do ...

Not to be overly pessimistic or anything ...

Rhinos' lease NOT on council agenda yet

2008-03-31T20:49:00.001-07:00

Is this potentially unsettling news? ...

The agenda for the Rochester City Council's slate of April 10 committee meetings has been posted, and as of yet the Rhinos' new lease isn't on it, which, I believe, means that unless a special meeting is called, the lease won't be adopted at the monthly meeting of the full council April 15 and probably won't be until the council's May meeting.

So we're looking at the very real possibility that the Rhinos could start the 2008 USL First Division season without an official home.

So, after blustering about the council's adoption of the lease pretty much being a done deal, the Duffy administration has yet to officially submit the proposed lease for the council's consideration.

So if everything is allegedly already all locked up, what's taking so long? Is this a sign that the lease's trip through City Council might not go so smoothly after all?

The council is scheduled to hold an agenda-review meeting this Thursday, so perhaps the lease will be added at that point. Let's hope so.

The audit has begun

2008-03-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Office of the State Comptroller has officially begun an audit of PAETEC Park's finances, office spokesman William P. Reynolds told me today. He said the audit will take "several months" to complete.

Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy had asked the Comptroller's Office to conduct an audit of the stadium project after the full scale of the Rhinos' financial problems became known. The Comptroller has jurisdiction on the subject because lots of state money has been used to build the still-incomplete soccer stadium.

This news comes just as Utica banker Rob Clark completes his purchase of the Rhinos from Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides (DDE). A key question, then, is if and how much the audit will impact Clark's management of the team and his ability to move the franchise forward.

But one thing is for sure: This is bad, bad news for DDE. The courts have already ordered them to pay LeChase Construction more than $630,000 in overdue bills, interests and fees. Now they're under a state investigation of their management of the millions of state money they used to construct PAETEC Park.

Amerks' new mascot: Joe Camel

2008-03-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

A couple quick thoughts on the reported arrival of new Amerks investor Curt Styres:

* The Amerks and Knighthawks are saved by a cigarette tycoon! Hooray! I'm thrilled that our hockey and lacrosse teams will be owned by someone who made his millions peddling cancer!

* So Styres is willing to invest millions of dollars into the teams AND let Steve Donner remain in charge of day-to-day operations? A question for Mr. Styres: Are you completely nuts?

* I loved some of the comments Donner made in Kevin Oklobzija's article in the D&C yesterday: "I'll accept the blame for mistakes I've made," Donner told Kevin. "But I'm not going to step aside now and let people not remember the good I've done." Feel free to insert your own snarky comment.

* Kevin's article on Saturday focused on whether Styres' impending buyout of the indoor teams will result in a new lease to play at Blue Cross Arena.

However, the article leaves out a HUGE piece of the puzzle: SMG, the Philadelphia-based management firm that runs the arena for the city. Technically, the teams' lease is with SMG, NOT the city.

But here's the thing: SMG's management contract with the city expires in a few months as well, and word is that the city is eager to give SMG the ol' heave-ho. With that factored in, the arena situation will probably get VERY complicated very quickly.

Let's also consider that Jeff Calkins, SMG's general manager at the arena, and Steve Donner reportedly LOATHE each other. Or, at least, they have in the past.

But what if Donner and Calkins bury the hatchet and team up to preserve their own joint fates at the area? That could make life difficult for Bob Duffy and the city.

Courts slam Clark

2008-03-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Just months before he moved to purchase the Rochester Rhinos, Utica banker Rob Clark was so delinquent repaying a $100,000 loan to M&T Bank that his wages were garnished and he was cited for contempt of court.

In July 2007, an Oneida County Supreme Court justice ordered Clark to repay M&T Bank a $100,055.20 overdue loan, interest and fees for a total judgment of $101,894.69.

Clark still failed to make payments, which resulted in a judicial order to dock Clark's salary in August. Just a couple weeks later, the court issued a notice to garnishee Clark's wages at Adirondack Bank, where he serves as a vice president.

By October, Clark was still recalcitrant and failing to fulfill the payment judgment. On Oct. 29, he was cited for contempt of court and fined $870 for failing to responded to a plaintiff subpoena.

However, just six week later, Clark suddenly paid the overdue bill and satisfied the court's judgment on Dec. 3.

Just three months later, Clark emerged to purchase the Rhinos. But if he can't repay a $100,000 loan without being slapped for contempt of court and having his wages garnished, how can he support a pro soccer team?

But that's not the only time in the last year that Clark has been slammed by the legal system. In September 2007, the Utica City Court ordered Clark pay Keybank $15,819.16 for an overdue loan, interest and fees.

What does all that tell us?

DuRoss, Donner ordered to pay up

2008-03-28T02:06:00.001-07:00

It looks like the misery has officially begun for Frank DuRoss, Steve Donner and Chris Economides.

Earlier this week, Monroe County Supreme Court Justice Kenneth R. Fisher ordered Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC to pay LeChase Construction a total of $633,865.12.

That's the $580,138.27 overdue bill LeChase sued Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC for, plus interest and legal fees. Now the owners of Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC — DuRoss, Donner and Economides — somehow gotta scrape up more than $630,000 to pay the people who built their albatross, PAETEC Park.

Fisher's judgment was entered this past Monday in response to a request for summary judgment by LeChase, which had sued Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC last month.

This might set a legal precedent for all the other local companies suing Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC for overdue bills, because now all the other companies who have either already sued DDE or been stiffed by them will legally be able to go after DDE, not Rob Clark, for their cash.

So does this mean that Clark is now legally off the hook for all those overdue bills?

But an even bigger question: Where do DDE find that kind of money? Or, more importantly, where does DONNER find that kind of money, and quick? Maybe if he owned another large asset and source of revenue that he could draw from ...

Oh wait, he already has that! So what does this mean for the Amerks and Knighthawks? Hey, the "imminent arrival" of that new Amerks investor is timed PERFECTLY!

Meanwhile, at the ESL Centre ...

2008-03-28T00:19:00.001-07:00

While everything with the Rhinos has been happening, something's definitely also going down at the ESL Centre.

How do I know? Because I've sent two e-mails to the centre's board chairman, Jack Driscoll, and I haven't heard back all week, and he usually gets right back to me.

It might be because of what I asked him about: On March 3, the Monroe County Clerk's office filed two sets of liens involving the ESL Centre.

In the first lien, the debtors against whom the lien is placed are the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) and the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation (MCSCC), the agency that oversees the ESL Centre. The secured party listed is M&T Bank.

The second lien, which was filed five minutes after the first one, lists the debtor as MCSCC, while the secured party is COMIDA.

Random occurrence? Maybe not. One of the several bond sales issued by MCSCC to build the ESL Centre was a loan from COMIDA totaling $1,105,000. The maturity date on the loan? March 31, 2008, this Monday.

I'm not a lawyer — if anyone reading this IS a lawyer, or a real-estate person, jump in — but maybe the March 3 filings were simply a sort of restructuring on the centre's mortgage. Maybe the MCSCC board couldn't make the necessary payments, so it asked COMIDA to refinance.

Or maybe the ESL Centre just needed some quick cash because they were having problems paying other bills or having a drop in revenue. Like, for example, the pro shop isn't making money.

But several months ago, Driscoll said the centre was actually making money again — about $300,000 worth in 2007.

However, keep in mind that the centre is still millions of dollars in debt. And remember the existence of several other facts, including:

* COMIDA has come under fire recently with accusations of political patronage and corporate welfare, and that COMIDA is GOP-dominated and pretty much just a tool of the Minarik/Doyle/Brooks Monroe County machine.

* The owners of the majority of the ESL Centre's bonds — and, therefore, the centre itself — are Illinois businessman Leon Lekai and local developer David Christa, a fave of the Minarik machine.

* The ESL Centre is managed by Advanced Arenas, an Illinois firm owned by ... Leon Lekai. So, essentially, as the owner of the centre itself AND the centre's management firm, Lekai basically pays himself to run the centre.

And you also have to wonder how M&T Bank figures into the recent filings, i.e. why are COMIDA and MCSCC taking out a lien from M&T?

Can anyone out there make sense of this?

The future of the Rattlers ... and more questions

2008-03-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

Someone on The Rhino Pit asked about the status of the Rattlers now that the Clark deal is apparently going through with the Rhinos.

I've got a little info on the outdoor lacrosse team, but it only raises further questions that I haven't been able to get the answers to. I hadn't posted this earlier because I wanted to try to get those answers, but they haven't been forthcoming. So, here we go ...

Rochester Sports Group communications director Craig Rybczynski told me Wednesday night that the management of the Rattlers is being taking over by the Knighthawks' staff. That apparently means that the Rattlers will move their base of operation to Blue Cross Arena. That seems to make sense that Amerks and Knighthawks GM Jody Gage is already the Rattlers' GM as well.

In addition, Craig told me that the Rattlers' ownership will still consist of "Body by Jake" Steinfeld and local investor Peter Bourne — who also owns (or owned?) part of the Rhinos — among others. He did not mention Frank DuRoss or Steve Donner, and I was too dumb not to ask at the time. My bad.

Anyway ... So, I suppose the bottom line is that the Rattlers are alive and more or less well, and the 2008 lacrosse season will go ahead as planned (the team's home opener is May 31).

However, a whole lot of questions remain open. Like, for example, does this mean definitively that Frank DuRoss and Steve Donner are no longer part-owners of the Rattlers? And if Donner is no longer involved, are the Rattlers no longer part of the Rochester Sports Group?

But if the Rattlers are being folded into the Knighthawks operation, wouldn't that imply that they ARE still part of the RSG?

And what's the deal with Bourne? He apparently has retained his share of the Rattlers ... but what about his share of the Rhinos? Has that officially been bought out by Rob Clark?

And what about Chris Wilmot, who owns, or used to own, a part of the Rhinos and Rattlers? Has he been bought out of both?

I know these are relatively minor details, but the devil is often in the details.

I've been trying to reach Wilmot for a few days, and I e-mailed a bunch of these queries to Craig but have not heard back.

But I will say this — I almost don't care who owns the Rattlers at this point, as long as they're still in existence and playing. In fact — and Rhinos fans might pillory me for this — I think I actually cared MORE about the fate of the Rattlers than I did the Rhinos.

That's how much I love outdoor lacrosse, and that's how much I love the Rattlers. I know, it's weird, I admit it. But I've always rooted for the little guy, the underdog, the red-headed step-child. Well, for one, I AM literally a red-headed step-child, although my step-mother is great. She'd go to the ends of the earth for me, and she makes awesome pierogies. Did I spell that right?

Anyway, the Rattlers have always seemed like the little brother of the Rochester Sports Group teams, and I'm glad they're hanging around.

Ken and Barbie report on the Amerks

2008-03-26T22:09:00.001-07:00

You might have realized that I've so far failed to address the news that the Amerks are reportedly close to officially landing, and then introducing, their new mystery investor.

That's because that news was reported last week on multiple local TV stations, and because I never watch TV news — I find it more mentally stimulating to pick lint out of my navel — I hadn't heard about.

But, apparently, both WHEC and WHAM reported on Friday that a deal that would "save" the Amerks was close. WHEC quoted Donner himself as saying it. I guess you need to style your hair and look pretty to land an interview with Steve Donner.

Anyways, thoughts on the news?

City Council leaning toward lease approval

2008-03-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight I talked with Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden, who said the City Council has already taken a straw poll regarding the proposed new Rhinos lease, and the preliminary, informal vote indicates that the majority of the councilpeople are in favor of approval and allowing the Duffy administration go forward with new Rhinos owner Rob Clark on the lease.

McFadden told me that as far as he knew, the council had not yet scheduled a special meeting to discuss the lease, meaning the council wouldn't take it up until the council's first regular April meeting.

While McFadden said that he has not yet personally seen a copy of the proposed lease, during a briefing on the Clark deal he made sure to directly ask administration officials about the possibility of the city — and its taxpayers — somehow taking over repayment of the de facto mortgage with NBT Bank.

McFadden said that the city's lead attorney, Tom Richards, responded that there is, in fact, no possibility that will happen. The city, Richards responded, will in no way end up repaying those millions of dollars in loans.

I note here that Richards won't talk to me, so I have to get his thoughts second-hand. However, I actually trust his comments more if they come through a councilman rather than from Richards' mouth directly, because a city attorney is less likely to fudge the truth with a city councilman than with some kooky blogger.

That, however, doesn't mean that I believe Richards himself specifically has been lying in this specific case. It just means that in general, the consequences for ANY city attorney are much more dire if he/she fudges the truth to a city councilman rather than to a kooky blogger, and, therefore, ANY city attorney would be less likely to lie to a city councilman like McFadden than to, say, a nut like me.

However, I will also note that it isn't impossible that some city attorney might lie about something. In my illustrious experience as a political reporter — way back when my hairline was just STARTING to recede — I witnessed city attorneys lying on several occasions, so it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility in any case.

(As this little stroll down memory lane indicates, my extreme cynicism has been bred directly from past experiences, experiences that I might share someday. But not now.)

Anyway, bottom line, is Richards telling the truth? That's entirely up to you to decide.

Lots of stuff forthcoming

2008-03-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

Howdy all, hope everyone is having a good hump day. Well, it HAS to be a good day cuz there's a new South Park tonight, and it's gonna focus on Kenny, who is my favorite of the four boys. I wish I had a big orange jacket like him.

Anyway, I probably won't have anything new up today until late tonight, i.e. after 10 p.m. If I can't get anything posted today, then I'll have a slew of stuff by tomorrow (Thursday) night. If I DO have something up tonight, it might be a little different than my usual doom and gloom ...

I did want to note quickly that the Red Wings' annual media day is this coming Monday. I definitely plan on going, because I enjoy covering a local pro sports team that's actually managed well and not racked with dysfunction. So hopefully I'll have something on the Wings Monday night.

Republican official calls for more oversight

2008-03-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

I just want to really quickly note that state Sen. James Alesi, a Perinton Republican, has submitted legislation that would provide more open access to the documents and goings-on of local development corporations, which are frequently employed by municipalities to conduct official town, city or county business.

The legislation would, I believe, apply to three development corporations that involve the local sports scene: The Greater Rochester Sports Authority (GRSA) and the Greater Rochester Outdoor Sports Facility Corporation (GROSFC), both of which govern the operation of Frontier Field; and the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation (MCSCC), which oversees the ESL Centre.

According to an article by Gannett's Dan Osburn published in Monday's Democrat & Chronicle, Alesi's bill "would increase access to documents of local development corporations under state Freedom of Information Laws."

Osburn's article also refers to a study by the Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research that identified at least 16 local development corporations in this area and asserted that such companies need greater public oversight.

Governments create and use development corporations ostensibly to streamline operations, increase efficiency and reduce costs. Or at least that's what they tell you.

But, in reality, governments create development corporations to hide government business from the public, and officials know they can do that because, as Alesi points out in the Gannett article, Freedom of Information laws are ambiguous and vague when it comes to development corporations. That allows government officials to dodge FOI laws and deny the public access to their documents and meetings.

That's already happened a couple times with me. Jack Driscoll, the chair of the MCSCC board that governs the ESL Centre, told me I can't attend their board meetings or have access to their minutes. And the secretary of the GROSFC board said I can't have access to that board's bylaws. (On the other hand, GROSFC's minutes and other documents are available to the public online, and we'll have to see what happens when I try to attend the next GROSFC board meeting.)

As a final note, I have to admit surprise that Alesi, a Republican, has apparently had the cohones to break away from the tightly-controlled (by Steve "Worship me!" Minarik) Monroe County GOP machine, which adamantly supports the use of development corporations and, as a result, loathes petty, stupid civil liberties like public access to government. The Monroe County government has for many years been controlled by Republicans who have fostered the creation of various development corporations.

I've heard talk that Minarik's little kingdom has been slowly crumbling, partially because local GOP officials have gotten tired of his strong-arming and bullying. So maybe Alesi's action is just a reflection of that.

As I've said before, local Republicans aren't inherently bad. They just act badly because Minarik orders them to. Maybe Alesi got sick of that (either that or he was eyeing re-election or higher office).

Duffy withholding lease from City Council?

2008-03-25T12:19:00.001-07:00

When local politicians and United Soccer Leagues officials introduced new Rhinos owner Rob Clark to the public last week, they all said one more hurdle was left to clear — the City Council's approval of the Rhinos' new 15-year lease with the city. At the press conference, Council President Gladys Santiago said, "I'm not projecting any problems with City Council."

That statement would seem to imply that council members had already been given a draft of the lease for review. Mayor Bob Duffy and city attorney Tom Richards also spoke as if the council was prepared to rubber stamp the lease, implying that the councilors had already seen the proposed lease.

But they HADN'T seen the lease. As of earlier this afternoon, the councilors STILL hadn't been given a copy of the lease for perusal, despite Duffy's and Richards' implications to the contrary.

Council Vice President Bill Pritchard told me a couple hours ago that the lease had yet to be submitted to the council and that he, for one, hasn't read it yet.

So what is Duffy waiting for? If he's so confident the council would OK the lease, why hasn't he already given it to the them? And why did everyone at last week's press conference imply that the council already had the lease, when it clearly hadn't?

Today, Pritchard told me that Richards and others in the Duffy administration had BRIEFED council members about the lease's details. Pritchard said that, "based on conversations I've had with the administration," he supports the lease — even though he hadn't actually SEEN it yet.

"They described the lease for us, and everything I've heard seems reasonable," Pritchard said.

He also said that he backs Clark's takeover of the Rhinos.

"I'm inclined to support it, yes," he said.

I don't blame Pritchard at all given his situation. If the administration hasn't actually produced the lease yet, it's certainly reasonable for council members to tentatively support it if Richards et al had described it to them. That's assuming, of course, that Pritchard and the rest of the council will go over the lease with a fine-toothed comb once Duffy does produce it, and then cast their votes accordingly.

What I have a problem with is that Duffy still hasn't produce the lease for the council — that body that's designed to provide checks and balances to the mayoral administration. Until they DO submit it to council, Duffy and Richards shouldn't be bragging as if the council will definitely approve the lease.

The fact that they haven't yet produced the lease is unsettling, because it reveals an administration that might be getting too big for its britches. It's also unsettling that Santiago, the council president, would agree to publicly parrot Duffy's bravado before all of the councilors had actually read the lease.

And if the Duffy administration has been withholding the lease from elected officials like City Council members, then you can almost bet that the administration wouldn't let the public see it at this point.

Of course, by the time many of you read this, the administration might have finally given the lease to the council. But even so, the damage has already been done.

Maybe some in the public have actually see the lease itself. If anyone has, I invite them to share the intimate details of the document. And if that is the case — that privileged (and politically connected) members of the public have seen the lease before the council has, that reflects an unbelievable arrogance on the part of Duffy to just assume he can bulldoze the lease through the council.

Who's on the hook for the NBT loans?

2008-03-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

I have to give credit where credit is due — in one of its editorials on Friday, the Democrat & Chronicle took a fairly firm stand about public access and accountability regarding the Rob Clark Rhinos deal.

"This time, all the finances should be on the table from the get-go and there should be no doubt that the (new) ownership is capable of meeting its requirements regarding the team and the stadium without leaning on the taxpayer. Again," the editorial stated.

It was pleasantly surprising to see the local daily have some spine and take such an aggressive stand on this matter. However, the editorial did not address specific questions about the Clark deal and his finances. And in my mind, there is one HUGE question that needs an answer, and needs it now: Who exactly is going to pay back the $10.8 million in overdue owed to NBT Bank?

So far, the coverage of the Clark deal hasn't been completely clear or emphatic on the matter. In a March 14 article in the D&C, Jeff Diveronica reported that "Clark has received 'conditional approval' from NBT to take over payments on the loans ..." However, at least in the reports I've seen, the paper hasn't directly addressed the issue of who will take over the NBT loan payments.

In addition, it has been reported numerous times that Clark will not take over the debts of DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE), but the coverage I've seen hasn't specifically discussed which debts are or aren't included in that fact, i.e. So will Clark/Adirondack Sports Club LLC (ASC) assume the NBT debts or not?

It might also be legally possible for NBT Bank to go after DDE for the remaining debt. However, that could be unlikely because DDE don't have millions of dollars lying around. NBT trying to extract money out of them would be trying to get blood from a stone. As a result, NBT would look elsewhere for the money.

It's crucial to understand that, in the days before the Clark deal went through — actually, it still hasn't technically gone through completely — NBT was in control of the Rhinos and PAETEC Park (as I suspected weeks ago that the bank would), which means Clark is buying the teams and the stadium from NBT Bank.

So if Clark/ASC are, in fact, assuming the NBT debts, that essentially means that the $10.8 million — or $8.7 million, if you subtract the $2.1 million Adirondack Bank floated. Whatever — now effectively becomes Clark/ASC's mortgage on the stadium.

So what happens if Clark can't make his mortgage payments on time? Everyone involved in the deal — Clark, the city, the USL — says repeatedly that Clark has the necessary funds to take care of all his new financial obligations. Clark also believes that the Rhinos can make money.

However, to be frank, I seriously don't think the team will make much, if any money, at least not the firsts couple seasons. So if Clark can't make his payments to NBT, what happens then?

That's where the proposed lease between Clark/ASC and the city of Rochester comes in. It's been reported that the proposed lease — which still has to be approved by the City Council — is for 15 years, with an option for another 15.

First, it's asinine for both sides to have a lease that long. It makes more sense to have a short term lease that's renewable every year or so. That provides a lot of flexibility and room for give and take between the two sides.

But second, aside from that, will the lease somehow bind the city and its taxpayers to the $8.7 million that's owed to NBT Bank, especially if Clark can't make payments the debts themselves? Does, for example, the new proposed lease have a provision that allows — or requires — the city to assume control of PAETEC Park if Clark fails to meet his financial obligations?

If so, and if the city does take over the stadium, that very likely would mean that the taxpayers would be on the hook for that $8.7 million.

The bottom line is that NBT Bank will want its money, period, and it'll go after anyone it can to get it. If DDE can't provide it, and if Clark/ASC can't provide it, then who's left? The city.

That's why the proposed lease between ASC and the city must must must be made public as soon as possible. Once the Duffy administration submits the lease to the City Council for approval and the lease is placed on the agenda for a council meeting, the city absolutely should provide the public a chance to scour the proposal.

As of this afternoon, nothing had been submitted to the council's office, so it's unclear if and exactly when the council would vote on the lease.

Phew. That's enough for tonight. I'm wiped out, and I have to work on the mighty Webster Herald the rest of the night. Hopefully I'll have a little more on the Clark/ASC deal tomorrow evening.

Can the Amerks' finances be raided?

2008-03-24T12:47:00.001-07:00

Just some quick thoughts on how the Rhinos' situation might now affect the rest of the Rochester Sports Group teams ...

One reader of this blog raised the issue of whether the Rhinos' debts will affect the finances of the Amerks and Knighthawks, and it's a very good point. The new Rhinos ownership says it won't honor the debts of the team's previous owners, DuRoss/Donner/Economides (DDE).

As a result, in order to get their money, these various creditors could go after DDE as individuals. However, if Steve Donner doesn't have any of the money personally, will he dip into the Amerks' and Knighthawks' finances to pay back his Rhinos debts?

I'm not even sure if that would be ethical or even legal, i.e. to pay one company's debts by raiding another company. However, many people believe Dinner has been co-mingling funds between the indoor and outdoor sides all along.

Now, there might not be anything ethically or legally wrong with that. However, at the very least it would reflect questionable accounting practices (and keep in mind that the RSG has lost several CFOs in recent years).

Or another possibility — would the Rhinos' creditors have the legal right to go after the finances of the Amerks and Knighthawks because of the indoor side's legal connection to the outdoor side via the corporation known as Rochester Sports Group?

But one fact is clear — if the indoor side's finances are diminished either way (by Donner doing it voluntary or the Rhinos' creditors seizing the indoor side's assets), it would be absolutely disastrous for the Amerks and Knighthawks, who are basically broke as it is (assuming this new mystery investor in the indoor side doesn't arrive in time or doesn't materialize at all).

This all touches on the murkiness surrounding the Rochester Sports Group as a legal and corporate entity. The Rochester Sports Group appears to have been created in September 2002, when the company Rochester Amerks Inc. filed a DBA (doing business as) with the Monroe County Clerk under the assumed name of Rochester Sports Group. (As a side note, the DBA was filed by Dan Dipofi, one of the teams' former CFOs).

But that still doesn't fully explain how, exactly, the RSG's outdoor and indoor sides are connected legally. For example, how was Rochester Amerks Inc. legally connected to Empire Professional Soccer LLC if at all? It's all somewhat of a mystery to me.

Along those lines, another question: Now that the Rhinos (and perhaps the Rattlers) have new ownership, what does that do legally for the corporation known as Rochester Sports Group? Does it just dissolve altogether?

Good questions ...

Logo logistics

2008-03-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

I'm working on something for tonight about my concerns regarding the Clark deal, but in the meantime, here's something that reader Erik Rhodes dug up ...

Erik did some research and found that the Rhinos' new logo uses generally available clip art of a rhino. (It can be found at www.fotosearch.com.) For $19.95, the piece of clip art is available to anyone in the public who wants to use it, which means the Rhinos might not be able to copyright their new logo using the art.

Fotosearch also has a long licensing agreement for people who purchase clip art from the site; the restrictions provided in the agreement clearly state that "(E)xcept as provided herein, licensee may not ... Incorporate the Product into a logo, trademark or service mark."

Erik believes the Rhinos shouldn't simply settle for some piece of clip art for their logo, and I have to agree. Such a move seems to indicate that the new team owner and management are cheap and/or lazy, which does not bode well for the future.

I mean, of the team is willing to be lazy cheapskates on something as basic as a logo, then you have to wonder how they'll address other decisions, i.e. signing players, players' and coaches' salaries, concessions, etc.

I also agree with Erik that the Rhinos SHOULD have held an open contest to find a new logo. For example, have local high school and college art students submit proposals for the new logo, with the winner receiving a scholarship or something.

Such a contest, I think, would be a HUGE community-relations success. It would prove that the new owner is earnestly committed to reaching out to and involving the public in this "new era" for the Rhinos.

So thanks to Erik for raising this issue.

(As an aside, Erik also notes that the Batavia Muckdogs baseball team has a cool logo, and I have to agree. However, my favorite sports team logo is for the Carolina Mudcats, a double-A baseball team near Raleigh -- it's the face of a big ol' smiling catfish. I dunno, I just like catfish. They look cool to me. Plus they're very, very tasty. Mmmm ... friend catfish.)

For the love of money

2008-03-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've finally digested everything that happened last week with the Rhinos — here are my thoughts:

First of all, being the cynic I am, I still don't fully believe the Rob Clark purchase is a done deal. Apparently a lot of documents still need to be signed and filed, and until every last one of said documents is taken care of and placed on the books, I'll still be skeptical about whether Clark has indeed "saved" the Rhinos. Well, I also won't fully believe it until the luxury suites and press box are finished, more parking is added, better concessions are offered, etc. ...

Plus, everyone is talking about the Rochester City Council's approval of Clark's new lease deal with the city like it's a foregone conclusion, like the council is just going to roll over and do whatever Bob Duffy and Tom Richards say. Even the council's president, Gladys Santiago, said last Thursday: "I'm not projecting any problems with City Council."

I'm sure Duffy wasn't "expecting any problems" when the city's new ambulance contract came up, either. Hopefully, at least one of the council members will ask the hard questions that need to be asked (some of which I'll discuss later). The City Council shouldn't just rubberstamp this thing.

I'm also concerned with how quickly the Clark deal came together. It just seems like somewhat of a rush job. But this is a delicate, complex situation that needs to be addressed carefully, and I'm just not convinced enough care was taken by any of the involved parties.

But aside from the whole issue of whether this is all actually "a done deal" or not, I still have a nagging question or two ...

Why, for instance, would Rob Clark — a bank executive from Utica who apparently had no prior connections to the Rochester area and no background in soccer — be interested in a minor-league soccer team in this town? True, he says he's always longed to own a sports team; that's why he formed Adirondack Sports Club LLC in 2003, and that's why he tried to use that company to attract a hockey or indoor football team to Utica.

But owning a soccer team is completely different than owning a hockey or indoor football team, largely because the target audiences and fan bases are so disparate. I'll guarantee that there aren't many fans who go to both Rhinos games and Amerks games, or Rhinos games and Rochester Raiders games. And it appears that Clark has no background whatsoever in soccer; at least Dan Williams had always been a soccer nut.

So again, why would Rob Clark be interested in buying the Rhinos? I have connected the dots and formed a theory of why and how everything has gone down the way it has:

NBT Bank was staring down the very real possibility that it could lose a boatload of money on PAETEC Park and the Rhinos, and, as a result, it was intent on recouping its losses. Sources tell me that NBT was so ornery about this that it was poised to level lawsuits against not only Donner/DuRoss/Economides, but just about every other involved party — including the city — if things didn't go down to NBT's satisfaction.

But NBT wasn't the only party that was freaking out. Donner/DuRoss/Economides — hereafter referred to as DDE — were panicking because NBT wasn't going to let up in its pursuit of the $10.8 million. The city also must have been getting a little antsy — while Duffy and Richards vented a lot of hot air about taking over the stadium, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually dreaded that possibility because of the risk that the city might end up liable for NBT's money.

So everyone involved gets together and brainstorms — how can we save all our butts here? They quickly set their sights on Adirondack Bank, for a few reasons. One, DuRoss, who's also from Utica, has known the Clark family (which runs Adirondack Bank) for many years. Two, Adirondack bank had floated about $2.1 million of NBT's loans to DDE. It just seemed logical to go to Adirondack.

And golly gee, look what we have here — an Adirondack Bank senior VP who's always wanted to own a sports team and even has a company set up to do so. What coincidence! What's more, Rob Clark and his father (and Adirondack chairman) Howard just so happened wanted to get back the $2.1 million the bank was owed by DDE.

So they draft Rob Clark to be the miraacle man who saves soccer in Rochester — and gee willikers, all in enough time to save the 2008 season!

The point is that the Rob Clark deal wasn't just a matter of Clark altruistically stepping up out of the blue to save the Rhinos and fulfill a lifelong dream. The whole thing was a huge, behind-the-scenes orchestration by a coalition of the willing — NBT Bank, DDE, the city and the Clarks. EVERYONE was involved because EVERYONE could have lost their shirts if the Rhinos and the stadium tanked. Make no mistake about it — the CLARK deal was NOT about saving the Rhinos in general and the 2008 season in particular. It was about saving everyone involved a whole lot of money.

I know, that's unbelievably cynical. However, I should note that while the Clark deal was all about money, if the Rhinos are saved as a side effect, that would be awesome. It doesn't matter why the involved parties did what they did, as long as one of the effects was preserving the Rhinos.

Of course, there's a caveat to that — it's a great thing as long as EVERYTHING IS DONE CORRECTLY — and by that I largely mean that the taxpayers won't end up paying back that $10.8 million. And right now, I'm not sure that's the case. More on that Monday ...

The RazorSharks in court

2008-03-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

On March 30, the Rochester RazorSharks will take the court at Blue Cross Arena to play the Arkansas Impact for the inaugural Premier Basketball League championship. In fact, the RazorSharks have so far been fairly dominate this year on the court -- the basketball court, that is.

I issue that clarification because Rochester's pro basketball team has also had its fair share of appearances in another type of court -- the legal one. Over the last couple years, the RazorSharks have either run afoul of the law or accused other parties of running afoul of them. The' Sharks rap sheet is a fairly good-sized one:

* At the top of the list, of course, are the criminal charges facing RazorSharks co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Orest Hrywnak.

In November, a Wayne County grand jury indicted Hrywnak on charges of felony DWI, speeding and reckless driving following a September arrest in Sodus, Wayne County.

His case has been delayed several times by his defense attorneys, including earlier this month -- he was scheduled to appear on March 21, but the case was adjourned to April 10 at the request of the defendant, according to the Wayne County District Attorney's office. That's probably so Hrywnak can wait until after the PBL season is over.

Despite numerous attempts, I haven't been able to contact Christopher Bokelman, the ADA prosecuting the case; Hrywnak's attorney, Norman Palmiere; or Hrywnak himself. I've also contacted the 'Sharks' PR department seeking comment, but I haven't heard back.

* In 2006, the RazorSharks' first director of player personnel, Brendan Rooney, was fired shortly after the team won the American Basketball Association championship. Rooney promptly sued the team for breach of contract. While I haven't been able to track down the details, the case appears to have been settled out of court, because it was discontinued last July.

* In August of last summer, Monroe County Clerk Cheryl Dinolfo ordered Rochester Sports Partners, the company formed by the Hrywnak brothers to run the RazorSharks, to pay $14,500 to the New York Workers' Compensation Board. Apparently, the 'Sharks failed to carry Workers' Comp insurance (for period from April 2006 to June 2007) and got fined for it by the state. Oops!

* In 2006, the New York State Insurance Fund sued the RazorSharks -- I haven't had a chance to dig up details, however.

* And, finally, RazorSharks co-founder -- and now PBL chairman of the board -- Dr. Severko Hrywnak in January 2007 sued ABA head Joe Newman in Cook County (Illinois) Circuit Court, alleging breach of contract, promissory estoppel and fraud.

Sev Hrywnak claimed that Newman promised to repaay Hrywnak for hosting the 2006 ABA All Star game by giving Hrywnak 400,000 shares of ABA Utah stock (apparently there was or were plans for an ABA team in that state, but it's impossible to keep track of all the ABA teams).

The matter was eventually settled, but Hrywnak then apparently failed to keep a promise of his own. Under the settlement, he pledged to provide collateral for an appeal bond in another case, but Hrywnak failed to do so in a timely manner.

Not bad for a team that's only three years old.

As a side note, one guy who could shed a lot of light on the inner workings of the RazorSharks and the PBL isn't talking -- because he legally can't. Steve Rossi, a former RazorSharks and PBL exec who recently split with the team and the league, was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement with his former employers when he exited.

Got a bit overwhelmed

2008-03-21T19:04:00.001-07:00

I'm so sorry I've been out of touch for the last couple days -- I've been pretty sick and couldn't make it to the big press conference yesterday.

To be honest, I've been feeling somewhat overwhelmed this week. After getting back from nearly two weeks away, I had a huge pile of stuff in my "To Do" box, including playing catch-up with my paying jobs at Empire State Weeklies and the U of R alumni magazine (I've got a big article on the UR squash team due, believe it or not, and they're paying me quite handsomely).

Then everything happened with the Rhinos this week, and I had a hard time keeping up. I also wasn't able to write about some other topics this week -- yes, there ARE other teams in Rochester besides the Rhinos -- like the RazorSharks' legal issues and the latest goings-on at the ESL Centre. Plus it's only a few weeks from Opening Day at Frontier Field.

And it all kind of got to me, I suppose. There's so much more I want to do with this blog, and I want to give you guys the best possible product. All of you have been incredibly supportive, and I'm grateful for your readership, comments and support.

There were actually a few times over the last 48 hours when I considered shutting down this blog. I just felt like I couldn't keep up with everything, like I couldn't give this blog the amount of time and attention it deserves -- and YOU deserve.

But, happily, I decided to keep going, because I enjoy this too much. My hope is that you enjoy this blog, too. Sometimes I might need to take a day or two off, just to decompress and re-energize, but aside from that, I'm here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

Again, thanks for your readership, your patience and your support. As always, you can contact me anytime at rwhirty218@yahoo.com or (315) 690-6551.

Anyway, within the next 24 hours or so, I'll have some thoughts on the developments of the past couple days, and hopefully some other stuff as well.

We're going over the rainbow, my friends

2008-03-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

I've never really been big on media circuses. I don't like crowds, and I'm not to fond of jockeying with some TV reporter bimbos for position in a mass of journalists swarming around an "important" person who isn't really as important as he/she thinks they are.

That's why I cringed — I literally hunched my shoulders, crinkled my face and shuddered — when I got an e-mail this afternoon from a Rochester Sports Group media-relations staffer announcing a "'major' press conference" — the press release had placed quotation marks around "major" — tomorrow (Thursday) "to announce plans to 'begin (a) new era' of Rhinos' soccer."

I cringed because I knew there would be hoards of journalists, groupies and sycophants — some of the attendees will probably fit all three of those terms — waiting with baited breath to hear what Rob Clark has to say.

That's right, they're going to introduce the Rhinos' new owner at this dog-and-pony show tomorrow. Also on hand to provide what will undoubtedly be inspirationally insightful comments will be Mayor Bob Duffy, Rhinos Executive VP Matthew Ford, City Council President Gladys Santiago, United Soccer Leagues Executive VP and COO Tim Holt and — we can't have a formal event without this guy — Rex the Rhino.

The wing-ding is scheduled for 3 p.m. tomorrow at the Riverside Convention Center.

(Actually, the e-mailed press release I and other members of the media received was totally different than what appears to be a formal invitiation sent to selected VIPs. The fancy invite was sent out by Brooke D. Whowell, who works as the Rochester Sports Group's "director of sponsorship services," whatever the heck that is.)

So I should go to the press conference tomorrow, even though I know right now what's going to happen — each speaker will be called up to a podium and proceed to recite a canned statement about how wonderful Clark is and how it was everyone's goal all along to get this whole nasty situation worked out and how the Rhinos are an indispensible asset to the Rochester community.

Then there might be a question-and-answer session with Clark, and reporters might be allowed to speak to the other bigwigs in attendance. But few, if any, tough questions will be asked by those reporters. Tough questions would spoil the festive mood and be a downer in general. Tomorrow will be a happy time, happy happy happy. Cynicism will have no place at the celebration. A new king will be coronated. The Bastille will be stormed. The Stones will do "Street Fighting Man" for an encore, and everyone will hold up their lighters and sway to the music.

Ding dong, the wicked witches will be dead — or at least headed to bankruptcy — and we'll all be given a shiny new pair of ruby slippers. We'll click our heels and luxury suites and a pressbox and parking spaces will magically appear. Tom Richards will get a heart, the D&C's sports columnists will get courage, and I'll get a brain. We'll never have to go back to Kansas ever, ever again (although we WILL have to go to Quebec a couple times a year).

So rejoice, my brothers and sisters. A "new era of Rhinos' soccer" is upon us. Come to the Riverside Convention Center and share in the bounty before us. I mean a literal bounty — there's gonna be refreshments.

And maybe I'll bring my Rollins Band CD and ask Rob Clark to sign it.

Not just a coincidence

2008-03-19T03:18:00.001-07:00

I have to say that I'm disappointed but not surprised that the mainstream media — at least the sports media — here in Rochester have COMPLETELY missed the boat on the imminent departure of Rochester Sports Group CFO Ronald Steinmiller, who's headed to a similar position at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at the end of the month.

That's a HUGE story, but it's also a very nuanced one. As chief financial officer, Steinmiller was at the very least privy to the disastrous finances of the RSG teams and at most intimately involved in their creation and perpetuation.

Quite simply, as CFO, Steinmiller knows EXACTLY why the teams' finances have gone down the toilet.

Or at least he SHOULD know why. If he doesn't, if he was kept in the dark by the teams' ownership, that in itself would be a terrible thing. If he was kept out of the loop, that could be why he bailed on the operation — he didn't want to be associated with such a murky financial mess and wanted out while the gettin' was good.

There also might reach a point — say, if the state conducts an audit of PAETEC Park's finances — that he'd be GLAD he was kept in the dark.

Or maybe he — like all the other RSG employees — left because he was simply worried for his job. Maybe he was concerned he'd stop getting a paycheck or be let go because the owners simply couldn't pay him anymore. Or perhaps he was worried that he'd be sent packing by a new Rhinos ownership.

Of course, there's also the possibility that the RPO just simply made a better offer. But even if that was the case, you have to believe that Steinmiller certainly saw leaving the RSG disaster as an added bonus.

Steinmiller's departure from the RSG is only the latest by the teams' CFOs. I've lost track of how many chief financial officers or similar company executives have left the RSG over the last few years. A steady exodus like that can't just be a coincidence.

K-hawks WON'T make playoffs

2008-03-19T02:39:00.000-07:00

I'll say it right now — the Knighthawks will NOT make the National Lacrosse League playoffs this year.

They just don't seem to have the heart they had last year. They were on a mission in 2007. This season, they're on the fast track to also-ran status.

Right now the K-hawks are 4-5 — including a mystifying 2-3 mark at home — with seven games left. They're sitting in sixth place in the tough East Division, above only lowly Chicago.

And it doesn't get any easier from here on out. The combined record of their remaining opponents is 38-27. That includes road games against 6-3 Colorado and 7-3 Minnesota, and a home game against 7-1 Philadelphia.

I don't think they can do it. The road is just too tough from here on out. The only way they can turn things around is if they get their heads out of ... well, you know the rest.

There's a bunch of possible reasons for this year's disappointing effort so far. You've got the departure of Mike Accursi, who was a key cog in last year's offensive juggernaut.

There's also the possibility of a post-championship letdown. Maybe they're just taking their success for granted.

Or, as I've suggested before, perhaps they're seeing the financial, managerial and legal chaos that's engulfed the franchise and letting it affect their play.

How can you NOT be distracted when the operation teeters on the brink of bankruptcy and one owner sues the other? You have to wonder if the players are even worrying whether or not they'll get paid every week.

I hope the K-hawks DO make the playoffs. I know they definitely CAN if they pull things together in a hurry. On paper, they're still one of the best teams in the league, if not THE best.

But if they keep playing the way they've been playing so far, you can right off 2008 altogether.

I'll also say this — John Grant is overrated.

You heard me. Overrated.

Sure, he scores a lot of goals. But look at his shot percentage — as of today, it's a mere .165. He scores a lot because he SHOOTS a lot.

Wilmot's company sues Rhinos

2008-03-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally happened — Chris Wilmot has sued Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss.

Today, Wilmot's company, Endless Wave Productions LLC, filed a lawsuit against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC. I will try to get more details ASAP.

Wilmot invested $250,000 in the Rhinos and PAETEC Park at the end of 2006. However, a couple months ago, he announced he was fed up with Donner and DuRoss' management of the team and the stadium and wanted out of the partnership. It was, essentially, a very ugly split.

Rattlers NOT part of Clark deal

2008-03-17T20:14:00.001-07:00

Rochester Sports Group communications director Craig Rybczynski said tonight that the Rattlers outdoor lacrosse team will NOT be purchased by investor Rob Clark along with the Rhinos.

That leaves the fate of the Major League Lacrosse team decidedly up in the air, but Craig e-mailed me saying that "we are optimistic about the 2008 season."

It should be noted that the Rattlers have other outside owners in addition to Frank DuRoss and Steve Donner, but the future roles of those other people in the Rattlers is unclear at this point.

Last week I called the Major League Lacrosse offices to solicit comments and input on the status of the Rattlers from league commissioner David Gross or anyone else with the league. However, I have yet to hear back from any league representative.

GROSFC meeting postponed

2008-03-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

It looks like I won't be attending a meeting of the Greater Rochester Outdoor Sports Facility Corporation tomorrow (Tuesday) because the meeting has been postponed to April 22. The board was unable to gather a quorum for Tuesday.

I already have April 22 on my calendar, and I plan on being there. I invite anyone else to come as well. The GROSFC board meets at 1 p.m. at the Ebenezer Watts Conference Center at 49 S. Fitzhugh St. in downtown Rochester.

CFO bails on Rochester Sports Group

2008-03-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

This really flew in under the radar today. Mike, my editor at Empire State Weeklies, forwarded an e-mail press release from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra that was distributed today (Monday).

I know. It's the RPO, I thought. Why does this have any relevance to me as a sportswriter? But Mike directed me to the release's second paragraph.

It seems the RPO has hired a new vice president of finance and administration named Ronald L. Steinmiller, effective March 31. Again, ho hum, right?

But after reading further, I saw why Mike sent it to me. Steinmiller's current job? Chief financial officer of the Rochester Sports Group!

Yeah, that's right. Yet ANOTHER CFO is bailing on Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss. As Mike wrote in the forwarded e-mail, the rats are apparently deserting the sinking ship.

"Mr. Steinmiller is currently the CFO with the Rochester Sports Group," states the RPO release, "where he is responsible for finance and staff management for five professional sports teams and a stadium."

That must have been an interesting interview for Steinmiller and the RPO. He must have been able to convince his new employers that he has nothing today with the financial chaos currently imploding the RSG. That would have been a pretty tough sell.

Back in town, back to work

2008-03-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

Phew. Back in Rochester, finally. I've got a lot of catching up to do, and I'll do my best to crank out as much stuff as I can this week. I've got a lot on deck, so here's a preview of what I'll (hopefully) discuss:

• The sale of the Rhinos — I want to do a little digging on Rob Clark and Adirondack Bank -- who are these guys, anyway? And who will be the biggest winners and losers with the Clark deal? Here's an idea ... The biggest losers: All the local companies that are owed money by the Rhinos. The biggest winners: Frank DuRoss and Steve Donner.

• The Amerks' future — So why is it, exactly, that Randall Latona now wants to pump even MORE of his money into the flailing franchise with a proven track record of squandering his money? And suddenly Latona is now chummy with Walter Turek, whom, you may remember, is still being sued by Latona? But really, all of that isn't going to matter, because of this: The Buffalo Sabres WILL eventually own the Amerks and Blue Cross Arena, and it might happen as early as this spring.

• Are the Rattlers done for?

• The Greater Rochester Outdoor Sports Facility Corporation — the politically connected board that runs Frontier Field — meets Tuesday, and I hope to be there. Can we finally shine a lot on these people? Maybe not — I've been told that GROSFC's bylaws are NOT public record. Oh no, they have NOTHING to hide, do they?

• A Razorsharks update, including a look at the ways the pro basketball team has become very familiar with the American legal system. Oh yeah, and apparently the PBL might not be doing that well.

Should be one heck of a week.

Rhinos' credit ... improves?

2008-03-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yet even more Rhinos notes ...

* I'll tell ya, when you subscribe to Dun & Bradstreet, you really get your money's worth. Yesterday (Wednesday), the respected credit evaluator e-mailed me again to tell me that the Rhinos' credit rating has changed again.

However ... are you sitting down? ... the team's credit has IMPROVED! Or so D&B says. D&B dropped the Rhinos' financial stress class -- which measures a company's risk of failure, with 5 being the highest risk -- from 4 to 3. It's true!

So what happened? Why the upturn? Did the Rhinos suddenly start paying their bills? It can't be! This is madness! Madness, I tell you!

I should note, however, that this is all for Empire Professional Soccer LLC, which is the team itself. It's NOT for Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC, the company that was formed to build the stadium and that has been the primary target of all the recent lawsuits.

* Yesterday I tried to find out more about the legal action the engineering firm of LaBella Associates has taken against the Rhinos. This week LaBella filed a mechanic's lien against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC for an overdue debt of more than $9,100. However, the lien doesn't give more details.

So I called the Labella offices to see if I could talk to someone about the lien. However, I didn't really get very far.

"That's with our attorney," a receptionist told me.

"OK," I said, "who is the firm's attorney?"

"I'm not privileged to give that out," she said.

When she said that, had to resist the temptation to retort, "Are you serious?!?!? Really, are you absoutely serious?!?!?"

Fortunately, LaBella's legal firm is listed on the mechanic's lien -- it's Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP.

I then called Woods Oviatt but haven't heard back.

* Because I'm a procrastinator, I never called Rochester Gas & Electric a few months ago to find out if the rumors were true. You know the rumors. The ones about utility service being turned off for an event at a certain sports facility because someone hadn't paid some sort of bill?

So, on a lark, I called RG&E this week to find if certain customers have had trouble paying bills. My call got bounced around between a few people before I talked to someone in RG&E's PR department.

So, I asked her, has a certain customer been paying its bills?

She was stumped for a moment.

"I don't ..." she said before abruptly putting me on hold. I waited a few moments before she came back.

"I can't disclose that information," she said.

Even though it's frustrating hitting dead ends, to be honest, sometimes the process is just as fun and fascinating as the result -- or, in this case, the lack of a result. For some reason, I actually sort of enjoy reporting "no comments." Not sure why.

Schroeder AD: Rhinos a possibility

2008-03-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Webster Schroeder High School Athletic Director Gary Tirohn just confirmed to me that school district officials have had talks with Webster native and resident Soccer Sam Fantauzzo and his partners about the possibility of the Rhinos playing at Schroeder this summer.

However, Tirohn added that "we're still in the very preliminary stages. We haven't signed any contracts yet."

He also stressed that if school district officials decide that the wear and tear of a Rhinos season would wreck Schroeder's field for Warrior sporting events, the district would absolutely say no to the Rhinos.

"We want to make sure that if we did (allow the Rhinos in), it doesn't damage the field for our kids," he said. "Our kids are our No. 1 priority."

However, Tirohn believes the city of Rochester and the new Rhinos ownership -- whoever those owners may be -- will be able to work out a deal to allow the Rhinos to play at financially-beleaguered PAETEC Park, making the Schroeder possibility moot.

"I have a feeling the city will make good on PAETEC Park if someone does pick up the Rhinos," he said.

Tirohn said Sam's group approached Schroeder to inquire about the possibility of using the school's field. He said Webster School District Business Manager James Fichera is evaluating numerous factors that could affect the district's decision.

Tirohn said many of the logistical and contractual aspects of hosting the Rhinos -- whether the team would pay rent to use the field, whether to charge for parking, crowd containment and seating, etc. -- are still being reviewed.

"Those are the things we're trying to figure out," he said.

For further coverage of the Rhinos question, check out next week's Webster Herald.

Sam's group to make statement Friday

2008-03-13T05:19:00.001-07:00

I just talked to Soccer Sam, who gave me a quick update on the negotiations between Rob Clark, the bank (NBT/Adirondack), the city and Sam's group regarding the future of the Rhinos.

Sam said his group is preparing to make a formal statement tomorrow (Friday) about the situation. It seems as though the city is faced with the choice of which ownership group to back, with some heavy legal repurcussions on the line.

My sense was that each ownership groups -- Sam's and Clark's -- brings positives to the table. While Clark would solve the team's debt problems and make the bank happy, Sam's group is more knowledgeable about the Rhinos, the city and soccer in general.

The bottom line is that it seems like things are still up in the air in terms of exactly who will own the Rhinos. It looks like SOMEONE will end up buying the team. The question now is who that will be.

Takin' the night off

2008-03-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I'm wiped out right now, I'm wiped out. Plus I'm on vacation, so I'm gonna take the night off. However, I should have a bunch of stuff sometime tomorrow (Thursday) morning, then hopefully more stuff tomorrow night.

Thanks, as always, for reading ...

Great news for baseball fans

2008-03-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

You might have already heard or read this, but the Batavia Muckdogs appear to be saved.

The Muckdogs, you might recall, are a Single-A baseball team in the New York-Penn League. They're based in Batavia, which is not a surprise given their name; Batavia is about halfway between Rochester and Buffalo.

The Muckdogs had been experiencing financial difficulties that were serious enough to threaten their future existence.

But the Rochester Red Wings have announced a press conference for tomorrow (Wednesday), at which time they're expected to announce that they'll take over operation of the Muckdogs.

I heard the news from a fairly highly-placed Wings official -- and NOT from the D&C, so nyah -- who couldn't give too many details at this point.

The press conference is tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Batavia's Dwyer Stadium. I highly recommend checking out the coverage by the D&C's Jim Mandelaro over the next couple days.

However, I will say that I'm THRILLED about this. There's absolutely noting better than minor-league baseball during the dog days of summer. To me, minor-league baseball is America personified ...

On being negative

2008-03-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

A reader posted a comment today asserting that I unfairly pick on the Rhinos and have a "vendetta" against them because I'm so negative all the time.

Actually, I've been pondering that very notion myself today. While the D&C is reporting today about the good news -- that Adirondack Bank exec Rob Clark is going to buy the team and the stadium and that Soccer Sam will be heavily involved in the new-look Rhinos and that the Rhinos' financial and on-field prospects look so much brighter now -- I'm writing about tax warrants and more legal action against the team.

And, I have to say, the reader who posted the comment might be right. I probably AM too negative sometimes, and there are times when I wish I wasn't so pessmistic and cynical.

Those character traits, I fear, are largely the result of my experience as a political reporter in a previous life. After college, I worked at a series of papers, for which I regularly reported on government corruption and dirty politics and the kind of stuff that makes you want to take a shower when you come home at night.

You get conditioned to see the negative in everything, because that's all there is around you, and that's all you find yourself writing about.

And that experience definitely shaped me into the journalist I am now. It's made me hard, cynical, pessimistic and, yes, negative. Now that I'm focusing on sports, all that stuff definitely is affecting what I do today, and sometimes that's not a good thing.

On the other hand, what some might call negativism, I call healthy skepticism. I refuse to unconditionally accept and swallow the party line without asking questions and raising the possibility that what we're being told isn't completely the way things actually are.

In the case of the Rhinos, my skepticism has been bourne out of what's already happened. How many times have we as journalists, fans and citizens been told something by the Rhinos' ownership, only to find out later that the opposite is true?

We were told that MLS was a possibility. We were told that PAETEC Park would attract droves of fans and make the Rhinos even more popular. We were told that the Rhinos would not go back to the well for more public funding. We were told that the Dan Williams would go through painlessly and quickly.

None of that happened. Instead, a beloved sports team -- not to mention the other teams on Exchange Street -- is in disarray, and there's no way we can deny that.

I wish more than anything that wasn't the case. I love the Rhinos wholeheartedly. I want to see them succeed and prosper.

But that doesn't change our present situation. So until the ink is dry on Rob Clark's purchase of the team, until NBT Bank and LeChase and all the other disgruntled creditors drop their lawsuits, until the luxury suites and pressbox are built, until the team actually takes the field for its 2008 season opener, I'm going to be skeptical.

If that means I'm negative, well, there's not much I can do about that.

How broke can you get?

2008-03-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

How broke are the Rhinos?

They're apparently so broke that they can't even scrape up a mere $207.79 to pay an overdue tax bill.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance issued a tax warrant this morning against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC for the grand total of $207.79.

You've GOT to be kidding me. The notion that a professional sports franchise can't find $207.79 SOMEWHERE -- take up a collection at the office or have a bake sale or car wash -- is absurd.

Yet ANOTHER Rhinos tax warrant

2008-03-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Breaking news ... the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has issued yet ANOTHER warrant against the Rhinos. This one was issued today (Tuesday) against Rochester Rhinos Stadium LLC.

This news is so breaking, in fact, that the Monroe County Clerk's Office hasn't posted the actual warrant on the Clerk's Web site, so I don't know how much the Rhinos owe. I'll have more information soon, hopefully later today.