To: Jim Bob Rhino Wow, check this out: ------------------------------------------------- Source: ElJefe https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73382&perpage=15&pagenumber=3
Another hurdle cleared. The Rhinos have a 45-year lease for the land. Groundbreaking is the next step. http://democratandchronicle.com/news/0924BI1T771_rhinos24_news.shtml
Sources told me today that there has been some talks recently of an existing MLS team moving to Rochester as early as next season... Anyone from Rochester seen or heard anything on TV, radio or in the papers? Who knows how much truth their is to this, but I'm hearing just normal expansion talks of Rochester are heating up...
Ahhh yes, the ubiquitous "sources". Funny little people, those "sources", strangely attired in trenchcoats and dark fedoras, with a penchant for hangning out in parking garages making creepy squeaking noises to scare lonely secretaries who just want to get to their cars so they can go home, feed their cats, pop open a tub of vanilla bean ice cream, and tune into the Hallmark channel. Dirty bastards.
ya, my source (only one) is actually a longtime friend who gets a lot of info... and i've just found out that tuesday night on a station in Rochester the relocation of an MLS team to Rochester was mentioned???
a little too fishy for my liking if mls had any knowledge whatsoever, they wouldn't be moving an existing team to rochester. to me, it's a complicated little situation. basically: the people of rochester love and support their rhinos. i'm not confident they will fully support an existing mls team called the rhinos playing in rhinos jerseys at the rhinos stadium. for mls to get the most long term, i think they will end up "promoting" the rhinos and they keep the same roster, coaches, etc. but can sign maybe 3 SI's and one or two others (Onstad?). as time goes of, the former rhinos players will be phased out, but by that time the people will have accepted this new team and it's players. if the rhino's players move to a new city under a new name, and an existing mls team moves to rochester, i think we're alienating a group of people far too big than what we could live with. anyone from rochester agree?
I agree totally, and i'm as far away from Rochester as you can be...(well Rochester, WA is actually only 15 minutes away) anyways, ya, I hope that the current Rhinos are just "promoted" to MLS, don't think they should keep the same players, their are some current Rhinos in MLS they could go after, and theres probably a few on their team now that are good enough to stay, but i would say at least half the roster would be different, MLS needs its fans to support the clubs, not the players... anyways, i hope Rochester does become a reality, depending on when the stadium opens, might get delayed to beginning of 2005 which would be perfect IMHO, Rhinos kick off their promotion to MLS with a new stadium... but the stadium is supposed to be completed by half to 2/3rds through next years a-league season, but like i said, with PTP, a delay is expected, hah... if the stadium can be opened at least by june i say put the Rhinos in MLS NEXT YEAR, Rochester and San Diego joining in 04, Cleveland and (OKC, Houston, Philly, Seattle) in 05, and we got 14 teams...good stuff
Ground has not been broken (i'm speaking on behalf of Rochester and I live on the other side of the country, hah)...but anyways, supposed to start mid-october, i think i was told 14th to be exact? we'll see, but this whole situation just smells delay, look how everything else with PaeTec Park has gone...
man, I'm just so excited to see these options being tossed around at all. i remember living in New York as a youngster and seeing Pele play. I thought that soccer was dead when that league disintegrated, and to even have the discussion about a league that is starting to look more stable everyday ............. well, it just brings a tear to my eye!
Currently there is an archaeological dig going on at the site. The old Erie Canal used to run through the site, so my guess is that they have to prove that digging into the ground for the stadium won't destroy any historically significant structures that are currently below ground. The Rhinos are working on obtaining a construction permit as well. Minority owner and GM Chris Economides said that the team hopes to break ground within the next 10 to 14 days. However, majority owner Frank DuRoss has tried to stay away from any solid time commitments as to not have people get disappointed or worried should they not hit the target date. As far as moving an existing MLS franchise to Rochester, well, we've heard the talk before. Prior to last season and the commitment for the Frisco stadium there was serious talk of the Burn moving to Rochester. Then this year there was some talk of Colorado and San Jose. We'll see what happens, but right now I think moving an existing franchise that is having trouble drawing fans, like San Jose, would be a better fit than an expansion team. And I'm sure if the Equakes were to move to Rochester that the fans would have no problem supporting a side that including Landon Donovan and had Pat Onstad in net. Pat was on local radio Saturday and said it was weird to move to MLS and play in front of smaller home crowds.
Moving an existing MLS team into Rochester is the worst idea i agree with MD_05 's post here. There are only two issues to discuss when it comes to Rochester. One is the stadium will be built with smaller capacity then what MLS requires, but that can be done in the near future . Second issue is how to compensate the present owners for the work they allready done. What would it take for the present owners to move from total ownership into just running the team. Most cases an owner/operator has to fork a substantial amont to get a franchise. In this case all the elements are in place the franchise exists. Talking about any other issue here makes no sense with relation to MLS.
This is why Fake Grass Field is bad for the new Rhinos Stadium. He's the 4th player to be seriously injured on FAKE GRASS Field in the last 2 years, and many more had burns, and blisters on their feet, while playing on the fake stuff.
for all those who say that Rochester needs it because of the wheather and the cost. This is a picture of the Binghamton Mets stadium, I know a baseball feild is probably easier to maintain than a soccer feild, but they don't seem to be having too hard of a time in keeping grass on the feild. http://www.cnystma.com/news/ The double-A Eastern League of professional baseball selected B-Mets head groundskeeper Jake Tyler as its Sports Turf Manager of the Year. Also, I had heard from a friend that they were switching to the synthetic hybrid, the one where it's rooted with synthetic but has real grass. I'm looking to find news about it. So basically I'm saying if a poorly drawing minor league baseball team can do something respectable with their feild, no reason Soccertown USA can't. Found this on a fan site http://www.acad.sunytccc.edu/instruct/wright/fields/bbdivaparksdetail.htm#NYSEG The turf is a mix of real grass and artificial turf that is supposed to wear better than real grass, necessary at NYSEG as the stadium is also home to a semi-pro football team.
Without knowing the exact specifics around who is responsible for the maintainence of the field (The Rhinos are responsible for all the upkeep at PTP and that is rare in today's world), my guess is that Binghamton's situation differs greatly from the situation at PTP for one big reason: the variety and type of events that will be held at the facility. I doubt that the Binghamton baseball stadium will host as many concerts, football, lacrosse, and field band events as PTP will. And those type of events are a lot harder on the surface than baseball games. Baseball is one of the easiest sports on a playing surface. So while it may be feasible to have natural grass at a baseball only stadium, it won't work as well on a multi-use facility like PTP. Plus, you have the issue of who pays for maintaining the field. If I had to guess, I'd say that the upkeep at the Binghamton stadium is done by the city or county where the stadium resides. In many cases like that the team can say they want natural grass knowing that they won't be paying the increases cost to maintain the field. It PTP's case the Rhinos are paying those costs and are more apt to take long term maintainance costs into consideration when making the decision.
And how many MLS players got injured on real grass over the pat 4 seasons? You need to do an apples to apples comparison and look at how many injuries took place, what surface they were on, what types of injuries they were, and how many matches were played on each type of surface. But I guess if a player tears up their knee on a natural grass surface, then it was for some other reason, huh.........
Does anyone have the specifics on what stadium capacity MLS is looking for? Everything I've heard here is that MLS would have no issue at all placing a team in PTP which will have over 17,000 seats plus standing room. And the whole ownership compensation issue likely isn't a big one. My guess is that the current Rhinos ownership would be brought in as a partner to the current owner of the team that moves to Rochester. Or the current owner may just sell the team outright to the Rhinos owner. Whichever way it works there would have to be some sort of partnership worked out as the Rhinos owners will own PTP.
1) MLS is looking for 20-25K stadiums, but PTP shouldn't have a problem getting from 17K to 20K seats. 2) You got it, partnership is the only way I see Rochester entering MLS. I doubt the current Rhinos owner/s want to own a MLS team on their own. 3) Yes, to your question. Also, I don't see a way Cleveland can build a Soccer Stadium in 16 months for the 2005 season, so I think MLS exapnsion there is B.S
That I will agree wholeheartedly with. Cleveland is an NFL town plain and simple. An MLS team would even run a distant second to the Indians over the summer. At least when they went to Cbus they could count on Ohio State being dormant for the majority of the season....
The bottom line is that Soccertown USA is making a buisness decision here. It's one that soccer fans can criticize it for making. It reminds me exactly as the situation in Dallas where people have said, 'Oh we're playing on a fake grass high school football feild but it's because we're getting a SSS.' If you ask me to a man they pretty much all realised in the end that wasn't really a compramise they were ultimately comfortable with making. Sure you get your SSS but if in order to maintain it or make it profitable it has to be fake grass, fine you still have your SSS. I'd just then hope that you realise that it means no MLS expansion team is likely every to play in that SSS and you can kiss any interenational games at all good bye. Instead of making excuses to justify the fake stuff, just realise what the implications are and either accept them or don't. Because if you're a Rhinos fan then you're going to have to accept that you're destined to watch a very successfull A-League team, but it'll never be anything more than that.