Here's your almost daily update on the Lancers from Front Row Soccer: http://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2017/...te-bca-11th-hour-attempt-secure-indoor-arena/
Here is exactly what is going on with the Lancers as of Yesterday at 600 am Rochester Lancers Update for the 2017-18 Major Arena Soccer League Season. Doug Miller is Meeting with the arena today. Right now to make the Lancers Financially Viable for the season They need to have Friday and Saturday dates. and they have been offered none... Right Now They have ( 6 ) Sunday Dates During the NFL Season , ( 5 ) Thursday Dates all school nights , When your rent is $10,000 Per game With these dates it is impossible to cover your cost for the entire season. They Need a Minimum of a 4.000 fans per game average to just cover their cost.. The Lancers have Players in place , A training facility , A dance team in place. the Rochester Lancer Dancers that Kari Palandro Miller already runs & Local sponsors .The city of Rochester has lost so many teams , Now you have a team that wants to play and they may or may not have an arena to play in. This makes no sense at all . The View attachment 109660 Blue Cross Arena Has hold dates for events and concerts that may or may not take place. Michael Lewis Has done an amazing job covering the Lancers and keeping everyone updated. However as a Baltimore Blast FAN ,Rochester is essential to the Eastern Division. It will help theSyracuse Silver Knights Harrisburg Heat Florida Tropics SC Cut its travel cost. Sam Fantauzzo has gone of of his way to keep soccer going in Rochester. The final deadline for the lancers to have a Lease and dates to the League is Friday 8/25/2017 You can listen to Kick This on I Heart Radio Saturday for the final answer if they will or will not return to the MASL for the 2017-18 season .
Sorry, but to let them in a week before Sept to play THIS YEAR would be a complete failure, disaster, a Mickey Mouse operation... so a perfect fit for indoor soccer! Sign them up ! After all, all those kids are waiting in line for their free tickets with a paying adult
First off they are already in the MASL and Have been approved months ago. The hold up is that BCA gave them 13 dates that dont work , So they are going back and negotiating better dates. Players , Staff, Sponsors , Uniforms , Everything is ready to go once they get some better dates.
The Saint Louis Ambush were allowed to change owners at the end of September last year. The season occurred but was not a success on the field. The owners said that they had to do 6 months of work in 6 weeks. Probably a miracle they kept things running all year and dressed players for games (most of the players were rec center guys but that topic is covered elsewhere). Game days were well managed, and they did community events. The time frame was way too short. For most professional leagues starting their season in less than 3 months, the deadline for a team to join would have been the end of June. But this is indoor soccer, common sense need not apply. I hope the Lancers return but they can't sell enough tickets to break even on Sunday's and Thursdays. They need Fridays and Saturdays for at least 9 dates IMO.
Actually they need to average 4300 to break even and cover the budget. The $110,000 arena rent is going to kill them with the dates they were given. They need a total of 5 decent dates to make it work this season. All Thursday games would be a BOGO , & Sundays they need to reduced the price of tickets.
Cardman, your math doesn't work. You say they need 4300 per game to "break even". That assumes full-priced tickets. Then you say they are going to use BOGO on Thursdays and reduced prices on Sundays; that reduces their income. Therefore, it would need to be more than 4300 per game, at least for those discounted days.
Yeah, guess there won't be any 'kids get in free with an adult' type of ticket deals. Rent of $10K a game is probably standard for that size arena but that is very expensive for today's MASL teams, especially a team coming back after being gone several years. Too bad that nothing worked out with the other two arenas, which would have likely been less expensive.
Does their rent drop if they get 4,000 bodies in the building? What does this 4,300 number represent exactly?During their heyday they only sold 2,000+ tickets a game.
I am just stating what i was told by someone who actually knows what is going on. I dont know how they are going to pull this off , to be honest with you
The rent does not drop its $10,000 per game if they use the arena , The 4300 fans per game from what i understand is based on what they need to break even to cover all cost to play this year. They sold a lot more than 2K tickets per game even with the kids getting in for free.
Just when you thought a decision would be made today... http://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2017/08/26/thursday-deadline-lancers-need-secure-lease-thursday-masl/
we've had teams come in, at the last minute before, the PA Roar and Chicago Riot comes to mind. Results- ok, they sucked royally and basically were nothing more than doormats that existed solely to keep the league doors open, and pad the win totals of teams like Baltimore, Milwaukee and San Diego. and i highly doubt a last second Rochester addition would translate to being competitive on the field. if your team goes 2-20, you're not going to have many fans show up near the end of the season.
The MASL, under Schaub's leadership (it's been a while since we can use the words 'indoor soccer' and 'leadership' in the same sentence), has improved in several ways, with tighter team financial requirements, improving the online game broadcasting, and less infighting between owners. However, we see one of the flagship teams, the Comets, looking more likely to fold by the day due to not finding sufficient additional investors. Rochester seems to have everything they need (including random soccer players to join the squad) but an Arena that can give them decent game dates, we will know for sure this week. Chicago lost half their players to free agency, though I haven't heard they are folding. It looks like St. Louis, Chicago, and Rochester (if they get the arena deal) would be Roar/Twisters/Thunder type teams who would basically be junior varsity games for the Wave, Blast, Rampage, etc. These lopsided blowout games may be fun for the kids to watch, but the sport won't attract more adult fans and better sponsors with poor quality matchups. The teams that keep finishing 2-20 usually don't survive very long. The sport is still in the 'add two teams, lose three teams' pattern it has been in for decades now. I think it is just a matter of a few years before 'professional' indoor soccer goes back to mostly smaller rec center arenas and a 'subsistence farming' PASL type model. Kenn is right, just not enough fan support for the sport. The PASL was (and is) a poorly paid experience for the players but the league was slowly growing and local fans kept the low cost operations funded. There are lots of soccer players willing to play for little or no money to chase the dream of a professional career on the field. I would love to be proven wrong but I am not going to bet on it. Such a great sport, so poorly managed and funded for too long.
But they have 12 NPSL PLAYERS WHO HELPED THE OUTDOOR TEAM GO 6-4-2 AND ALMOST MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. Didn't you hear?
Still hoping they come back, it would be awful for the league to lose a leading franchise. Saint Louis, Cedar Rapids, and Chicago need the Comets too for travel reasons. But how long can the arena wait to schedule dates? The Ambush were allowed to change ownership at the end of September last year, and the league has been flexible already. At some point, Silverstein arena will have to either schedule Comets games or move on. Have not heard any updates on the Comets ownership situation. Keeping my fingers crossed.
A lot of things can happen behind closed doors. Dates can be held, deals can be struck and ownerships can be finalized...sometimes not even Cardshop will know what's going on!
Any updates at all...............Two days to September. For the sake of the financial well being of the franchise trying to get 4300 paid anywhere in MASL will be difficult. Loading the team up with a bunch of Thursday night games, Sunday night games head to head with the NFL is insanity for trying to get to 4300. The best thing the Lancers could do is take a year off and actually come back rather than spend $10000 a home game, provide hotels for the visiting team, pay players all on 1200-1400 paid a night. They'll be in chapter 11 bankruptcy by Christmas.
See, Paul gets it. Why doesn't the league just say "Enough, too late, that's it?" Because Syracuse is pressuring them? Because they need a replacement for KC? See, this is the kind of MISL 3 crap that gets you into trouble.
I honestly see more teams moving to college arenas and us playing on smaller floors. Even rochester was looking to play in a local 4K seat arena. The league needs to get its act together and start having deadlines and actually stick to them If you cant meet the deadlines or requirements you are out , End of story
Per Doug Miller on this morning's Kick This! radio show, the Lancers are still waiting on an official lease from the Blue Cross Arena. He said that the arena did free up a few more dates but nothing is official yet. No word about the supposed Aug 31st deadline issued by the MASL but Soccer Sam, in all of his corny wisdom, says be believes the MASL would give Doug until Tuesday, Sept 5th to confirm the lease and game dates.