Rhinos to take one-year hiatus, host 'several' USL matches

Owners of the Rochester Rhinos soccer club announced Thursday that they plan to take a one-year hiatus.

In the interim, David and Wendy Dworkin intend to retain control of Capelli Sport Stadium, saying they plan to host "several" United Soccer League matches and other events, including concerts and festivals. Whether that fits within terms of the existing lease needs to be discussed, a city spokesman said.

“While understandable, the decision by the owners of the Rochester Rhinos to suspend play next year is, nonetheless, disappointing on many levels," city spokesman James Smith said in a statement. "Rochester has a long history of professional soccer and (this) announcement is clearly a disappointment for our region’s soccer community and fans. Obviously this decision also calls into question the future of the soccer stadium itself and how that will impact the neighborhoods that surround it."

Fans who ordered 2018 season tickets will be refunded deposits starting Tuesday. Next year will be the first since 1995 without a professional soccer team in Rochester.

“We want to sincerely thank our fans, sponsors, players, coaches and staff for their unwavering enthusiasm, and their attempts to rally others,” David Dworkin said in a news release. “We will continue to work diligently with supporters, the regional business community and government leaders to solidify a foundation for sustained success, including placing Capelli Sport Stadium on equal footing with other facilities in Monroe County and the city of Rochester.”

The 22-year-old club announced two weeks ago that it needed $1.3 million in new revenue by the end of the month from any combination of corporate support, public funding and/or season-ticket sales or the Rhinos would not field a team in 2018. They fell short of that goal, saying Thursday that "a significant gap" remained. Declining attendance and insufficient corporate support are among the team's issues.

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The Dworkins, who took over the team in early 2016, made that plea Nov. 15, saying player contracts were due to the United Soccer League office by Nov. 30. They said they've invested $3 million already into the franchise but unless additional support was pledged they couldn't continue.

Earlier this week the owners said they'd made progress but they were nowhere near reaching their goal. City officials had declined to comment on what, if any, contingency plan existed for the 11-year-old stadium or to comment on default provisions in the Dworkins' lease of the $32 million park that has also hosted pro lacrosse, women's pro soccer, high school sports and drum-and-bugle corps events.

The city owns the stadium, and Smith said Thursday that it has been "a budgetary challenge," adding: "It is not feasible or appropriate for city government to subsidize the team’s operation given the already large public investment being made in the facility." The city has spent nearly $1.6 million on the stadium over the past two years.

The USL had told the Rhinos, the league's most decorated franchise, it could take a year off and remain in good standing. The owners could return in 2019. They also could sell the franchise, but David Dworkin has repeatedly said that has not been his pursuit over the past few weeks and is not his intention.

"The best thing that could come out of this would be in 2019 we have a very solid foundation with which to build on this team for the long-term that's a sustainable, economically viable model for this stadium, this community and this team," David Dworkin said.

The couple from Brighton has a 10-year lease to operate the 13,000-seat facility at 460 Oak St., where the Rhinos moved in 2006 after nine years and four championships while playing at Frontier Field.

The lease agreement calls for an annual rent payment of $50,000. That's similar to what the Rhinos used to pay annually as a secondary tenant to the baseball Red Wings at Frontier. The city of Rochester pays approximately $590,000 annually for utilities and maintenance, among other expenses, at the stadium.

The Rhinos owners said they approached the USL about hosting matches in 2018. That will allow them to remain as stadium operator, based on their lease. The Dworkins would be in default of their lease, as it reads, if the "tenant ceases use of the stadium for professional soccer play or the Rhinos forfeit, lose, abandon under any terms or circumstances, its right to participate as a team in a recognized professional soccer league."

David Dworkin said the USL will dictate which matches it may move to Rochester.

"This is a soccer stadium. It just seems tragic not to play soccer here," he said..

The Dworkins talked about a "three-year plan" when they were revealed in January 2016 as the third owner in Rhinos' history. They said they understood it would take time to turn around the business of winning off the field like the club has always done on it.

But the money they projected to lose over three years was gone after 2016. Even last off-season the Rhinos' return for 2017 was tenuous.

Despite the optimism of new ownership from the Dworkins, and coming off the 2015 USL championship — Rochester's first title since 2001 — attendance dipped to 3,655 in 2016 and 2,031 per match last season. That was the lowest in team history and 22nd in the 30-team USL.

“It’s a sad day, but at least it’s not dead. That (team is) part of my heart and soul — it always will be,” said Rochester native Chris Economides, 58, who along with Steve Donner and Frank DuRoss made up the Rhinos’ original ownership group from 1996 to 2007.

Economides, who worked with the USL for several years following his group’s demise, lives in the Tampa area and is back in the game, running the Florida Tropics indoor soccer team. “From where the franchise once was to where it is now, nobody wanted to see this," he said. "No one thought we’d ever see this day. But I understand where the (Dworkins) are coming from.”

JDIVERON@Gannett.com

Includes reporting by staff writer Brian Sharp.