MOVEMENT TO RESTORE PRO SOCCER IN SYRACUSE KICKS OFF A NEW COMPANY HEADED BY A MANHATTAN MILLIONAIRE TRIES TO REPLACE THE SALTY DOGS.

Nolan Weidner Staff writer

Professional soccer in Syracuse, which had a two-season fling here before dying a sudden death in October, could be back in 2006.

The Monolith Athletic Club will announce today that it is negotiating with the United Soccer Leagues to bring pro soccer back to Syracuse. Monolith AC is an offshoot of a company called The Marcellus Group formed recently by Manhattan millionaire Vito William Lucchetti Jr. to buy and restore properties in Marcellus. The soccer club is headed by executive vice president Allen LaVenture, who formerly directed sales and marketing for the Syracuse Salty Dogs.

The Salty Dogs played in the USL's A-League and attracted large crowds to the former P&C Stadium, now called Alliance Bank Stadium. The Salty Dogs made the Eastern Conference playoff finals in 2004 before losing to eventual A-League champion Montreal. The team ranked third in A-League attendance both years, drawing an average of 6,387 fans per home game. The only franchises that outdrew the Dogs were Rochester and Montreal.

But the Salty Dogs, formed in late 2002 under a partnership known as Syracuse Pro Sports, collapsed last fall under a mountain of debt. LaVenture said it was the business, not the team, that failed.

"To me, it was unacceptable to lose something that was so great, and just needed to be tweaked a little bit," said LaVenture, who has been doing freelance marketing work the past six months while trying to put a group together to bring soccer back to Syracuse.

LaVenture emphasized that Monolith AC has no connection with Syracuse Pro Sports, which ceased operations owing creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars. Included in that debt is more than $100,000 owed to Onondaga County for licensing and other fees, and use of the stadium.

LaVenture said he met Lucchetti in March through a mutual friend working at The Marcellus Group. While he's not necessarily a huge soccer fan, LaVenture said Lucchetti liked what he was told about the earlier franchise and decided to look into it as a community venture.

Before plans to put another team in Syracuse can proceed, Monolith will have to renegotiate a franchise agreement with the USL to return to its top league, now known as the First Division.

The club also would have to negotiate new agreements with Onondaga County and the Syracuse SkyChiefs Triple-A baseball team to use Alliance Bank Stadium. The club also would have to forge an approval agreement with the Rochester Raging Rhinos, since the teams are within a 100-mile radius and the Rhinos were in business first.

Tim Holt, vice president of the United Soccer Leagues, confirmed Sunday that he's had discussions with Monolith concerning the return of pro soccer to Syracuse. Holt would not comment directly on those talks but did say he was excited at the prospect of being back in the Syracuse market.

"We're really disappointed that we're not there for 2005," Holt said of the demise of the Salty Dogs. "The team was fantastic, and the soccer operations were as good as any team in the league."

Lucchetti, who LaVenture said wants to stay in the background, was not available for comment. His name was not even included in today's release.

A Post-Standard profile of Lucchetti published several weeks ago said the 39-year-old businessman has adopted Marcellus, where his parents live, as a second home. The Marcellus Group, located at 20-22 W. Main St. in the village, is a subsidiary of his Manhattan company, The MacReport.Net.

LaVenture said Monolith AC will have several advantages over the former franchise holder.

First, he said the new team will start out with the proper financing, which is about $1.5 million, according to league recommendations. In 2002, Syracuse Pro Sports started out with less than a third of that.

Second, the new franchise will have more time to plan for its first season, enter into a stadium lease agreement, select a coach and players, and sell tickets. The Salty Dogs basically did all that in less than three months before its first game in 2003.

LaVenture said a formal announcement likely won't be made for another six months, probably around Sept. 1.

"We're not announcing anything right now but the start of negotiations with the league," he said.

Copyright, 2005, The Herald Company