According to Soccer Frank things are even worse ''It will be interesting to see what the Rhinos will draw at this Saturdays home opener. With no promotions/marketing/advertising,etc in 8mths , a train wreck of of team so far , and taking not the "back seat", but the "trunk" to the Western NY Flash (womens pro team) , it could be the worst home opener in history. I've been actively keeping an eye and ear open on all available media to see when any mention of the team would come about.....so far, absolutely nothing....nothing. Its as if the organization has become a "ghost ship" out somewhere at sea.'' UNFORTUNATELY of course, because we all want the Rhinos to do extremely well
Worst start ever in franchise history Moments after it was Harrisburg 1, Rochester 0 on Saturday night, Danny Earls stood at midfield. Teammates were scattered. Earls stood alone, arms folded, looking at the scoreboard high above Sahlen’s Stadium. The Rhinos lost their home opener. They’re 0-5-1. The Rhinos? Yes, the Rhinos – not some other USL PRO League team. It’s the worst start in franchise history. That’s 18 years now, 18 years filled mostly with winning. Rochester hasn’t won a championship in 12 seasons, but it has never missed the playoffs and it’s still arguably the most tradition-rich franchise in minor-league soccer.
still possible, though they got a huge win last night The Rochester Rhinos got a late goal by Matt Horth to claim their first victory of the season as they took a 1-0 victory against the Wilmington Hammerheads at Legion Stadium on Friday night. Horth’s first goal for the Rhinos came in the 79th minute, handing the Hammerheads their fourth consecutive defeat and second in a row at home.
another loss rhinopit .@RocDevo reporting that Pat Ercoli will replace Jesse Myers as Rhinos Head Coach for remainder of season.
On a more upbeat note, saw the following twitter: Devin Pleuler (@devinpleuler) 5/23/13, 3:24 PM Between @RochesterRhinos (6,265 avg. attn.), @LancersMISL (5,975), and @WNYFlash (2,977), is Rochester the premier soccer city in the USA?
First off, the Rhinos are averaging 5,621, but they were under on the Lancers (who averaged 6,361 last year). Secondly, if you consider KC has teams in MLS, the MISL and the NWSL, you'd have: Sporting KC: 19,177 Missouri Comets: 4,238 FC Kansas City: 5,070 And you don't even need an indoor team in Portland to see that they do far, far, far better than Rochester with their MLS and NWSL teams. So, no.
I wouldn't even call Rochester a good soccer city at this point in time (and I lived there until recently). It used to be a premier soccer city some 15+ years ago, but even that involved some liberally papered crowds. Once the prior Rhinos owners let the MLS balloon burst, it was all downhill from there. It has stabilized somewhat, but any uptick going forward (if there is any) will be minimal at best.
Mike is correct with with his point. The papered/announced/distributed tix look good for USL attendance stats but are far,far,far from what you'll actually see in the stadium on game day.....they've slowly disconnected the organization from the fans in various ways since the USSF Div2 merged league season. No radio broadcasts( just crappy UNation stream if its even working), no regional rivalries like the Montreal,Toronto,etc they had years back, no recognizable names or somewhat stars, virtually no advertising/marketing in between seasons, and other things I've mentioned before that just all add up to what were seeing now which is very very disappointing. I do remember many times at Paetec/Marina/Sahlen's stadium when "real" crowds were 7-8k...sometimes 9k plus....and I'd give anything to see that happen again.
Any predictions on the attendance for Tuesday's Open Cup game vs the Revs? It'll be my first Rhinos game in a while (I'm a Revs fan), I was wondering if I'd be safe in planning on buying tickets at the door for a group of 8 or 10 people and getting everyone next to each other.
Yes..lol....I'm sure you'll be fine. Try one of the beer specials and enjoy the game, should be a warm evening.See ya there!
With a squad devastated by injuries and loan call ups, the Rochester Rhinos front office placed a call to FC Buffalo of the NPSL on Monday morning inquiring about Brian Knapp, Peter Marlette and Andy Tiedt. A release from FC Buffalo confirms that pending USSF and USL approval, the trio will join the Rhinos at Sahlen Stadium ahead of their US Open Cup match with the New England Revolution tonight. If approved, the three Blitzers would join FC Buffalo alumni Joshua Faga, Mike Reidy and Kendell McFayden in Rochester.
Ugh, regardless of the reasons it's sad to see this franchise coming apart. Worst USOC loss in franchise history, and a very real possibility of missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Maybe it's time for Clark to look into selling...or at least caring about his team.
Could someone remind me why Lilley was replaced by Myers in 2012? Wasn't Lilley's Rhinos pretty good? I can't remember. Thanks.
Lilley resigned himself for 'personal reasons'. Word is the organization reached out to him recently about possibly coming back (I believe he's coaching a couple of youth teams at the moment). I don't know how serious the talks were.
Rochester 1-3 Dayton The loss mathematically eliminated the Rhinos from the 2013 USL PRO playoffs. The Rhinos had successful qualified for the playoffs in each of their previous 18 years in existance.
I watched until the third goal, the Rhinos were playing decent until that moment. They did not have anyone up front that could put pressure on the goal.
Not bad, I'd say about 2,500. This year Rhinos have had 4 games delayed due to severe weather and 2 of those called early for a Rhinos loss. The way Dayton was playing it seemed unlikely that Rhinos would be able to score 3 goals to win. I posted on RocSoccer.com about Rhinos' playoffs chances being over now (for first time in Rhinos' history) and they have one more home game so it will be interesting who they play.