The Post-Standard

How Pro Soccer In CNY Is Blocked From Its Goal

Monolith Athletic Club has stadium lease but no agreement with SkyChiefs.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 By Matt Michael Staff writer

Last April, the Monolith Athletic Club announced its plan to bring a professional soccer team back to Syracuse in spring 2006.

But now, instead of gearing up for its first game, Monolith is stuck in soccer purgatory, no closer to having a team than it was a year ago.

Monolith wants to play its home games at Alliance Bank Stadium, a $29.3 million facility built mostly with taxpayer dollars. Alliance is owned by Onondaga County, and its main tenant is the Syracuse SkyChiefs baseball team.

Monolith has negotiated a stadium lease with the county, but it still has to negotiate certain terms with the SkyChiefs. The SkyChiefs blame the county for the holdup; the county blames the SkyChiefs.

While both sides publicly support the soccer team, the bottom line is that Monolith still doesn't have a deal to play at Alliance, and Monolith's patience is wearing thin.

"My biggest fear at this point is that there doesn't seem to be an urgency," said Allen LaVenture, Monolith's executive vice president. "And from my perspective, there needs to be an urgency to resolve something because we would really like to have the opportunity to market this and do this the right way."

Soccer fans are frustrated, too. They're clamoring for a team to replace the popular Salty Dogs, who played in the United Soccer League in 2003 and 2004 but lost money and folded.

The fans can't understand why the county can't exert more control over its own building. And they're angry because they feel the SkyChiefs have blocked soccer at every turn.

"It makes me feel terrible, because the county should be running the show, not the baseball team," said soccer fan Sue Wrisley, of Syracuse. "Soccer fans lose because they don't get to see the games, the county is losing money, and the taxpayers lose because (soccer) is another source of revenue."

Dividing hot dog money

LaVenture said he initially spoke to the county and SkyChiefs in December 2004 - two months after the Salty Dogs went belly-up. Shortly thereafter, LaVenture found the financial backer he needed in Manhattan millionaire Vito William Lucchetti Jr., who started The Marcellus Group last year to buy and restore properties in Marcellus.

Monolith met with county officials in April 2005 to discuss a stadium lease. But all summer, county officials told LaVenture they could not negotiate until the county resolved its long-running dispute with the SkyChiefs over a stadium lease. That dispute still has not been settled.

On Sept. 13, the county did an about-face with Monolith and worked out a one-year lease for 18 home games in 2006 or 2007. Monolith agreed to pay the county $3,000 a game, plus utilities.

The county invited the SkyChiefs' board of directors to attend that Sept. 13 meeting, but no members of the SkyChiefs' board or front office showed up.

LaVenture next had to negotiate with the SkyChiefs. Time was running out to play in 2006; the United Soccer League had an Oct. 1 deadline to consider new teams.

The issue between the SkyChiefs and Monolith, for the most part, boils down to hot dogs, soda and popcorn.

Under the SkyChiefs' 15-year lease with the county that runs through 2011, the SkyChiefs are entitled to about 40 cents of each dollar spent at the concession stands for every event at Alliance. (The concessionaire gets the rest.)

Minor-league teams rely on concession revenue, and LaVenture said Monolith needs a fair share of that money from its games. That's why Monolith needs a deal with the SkyChiefs.

County officials say the SkyChiefs should make a concession deal because the team would get money for doing nothing. But County Attorney Tony Rivizzigno said the county cannot force the SkyChiefs' hand.

"The fact of the matter is, we screwed up in the beginning by letting (the SkyChiefs) take control of the concessions," Rivizzigno said. "That should be under our control, and then we wouldn't have any questions.

"If we had to do it over again, that's what we'd do," Rivizzigno said. "But we're stuck with what we've got."

No movement

After Sept. 13, LaVenture said, he had only one discussion with a SkyChiefs official: a brief telephone conversation with general manager John Simone, who said the SkyChiefs had to settle with the county first.

But in a recent interview, Simone said the SkyChiefs can deal with Monolith while they're still negotiating with the county.

"I don't see how the two go together. To me, they never did," Simone said. But county officials "kind of brought it in and made it a part of it."

The SkyChiefs' willingness to negotiate with soccer has been off and on. Three years ago, the SkyChiefs opposed having the Salty Dogs play at Alliance (then P&C Stadium). The SkyChiefs said another team would cut into its profits and hurt its ability to pay off its $4 million loan to help build the stadium.

"We can live with soccer, but not in our house," SkyChiefs executive vice president Anthony "Tex" Simone said in March 2003. "And I can say 'our house' because of our investment."

In February 2005, the SkyChiefs reported to the county that the team had operating losses of $88,637 in 2003 and $165,431 in 2004 - when the Salty Dogs played at the stadium.

According to the SkyChiefs' most recent financial statement, the team also had an operating loss of $71,049 in 2005 - even with no soccer team, only three SkyChiefs home games rained out, and the team in the playoff race through August.

John Simone said there's a reason the SkyChiefs didn't negotiate with Monolith in September. He said Frank DuRoss, the majority owner of Rochester's USL team, told Simone he was not going to release his territorial rights to Monolith, making Monolith's lease moot.

LaVenture said he and Lucchetti met with DuRoss last fall, and DuRoss never said he would block soccer in Syracuse. DuRoss said in a recent interview that he worked out the rights with the Salty Dogs, and he thought negotiations with Monolith could be done in a week.

Charlie Rich, chairman of the SkyChiefs' board of directors, said last week he knew of no reason why the SkyChiefs and Monolith could not negotiate.

"The board supports soccer and anyone else who wants to play there," Rich told a reporter. "If you talk to him (LaVenture), have him get a hold of John (Simone) again."

LaVenture said he called Rich last week and told him he'd like to talk to the SkyChiefs' board about cross-marketing, cross-promoting and other ways Monolith and the SkyChiefs can both benefit from soccer at Alliance. Rich told LaVenture to write down his plans and send them to Simone.

Simone said the SkyChiefs will consider LaVenture's requests, but there are no guarantees of a deal quickly - or at all.

"Either we'll say 'we can't do it,' or we'll say 'yes, we can do it,' " Simone said. "And then he can have an idea before he gets into this thing of what it's going to cost him from the county and the Chiefs."

That sounds like something that could have been done months ago. And that's what worries LaVenture.

"I will respond as the SkyChiefs requested," LaVenture said. "However, I don't understand why they're asking me to jump through hoops now when we've been able to do this from the beginning."