February 18, 2008
This week we had Rhinos President Frank DuRoss on for the entire hour and he covered a lot of very interesting topics from the timeline that he feels that Dan Williams has to get a deal done (early March at the latest), why he hasn't been talking publicly about the Dan Williams deal, what he thinks they could have done differently if they had it over again, and why the team isn't afraid of a potential audit that the City has requested.
Not long after the show was over, Dan Williams released this statement. It appears that Mr. Williams has grown tired of waiting on NBT Bank to respond to the offers he has put forth and is trying to push things to a resolution.
Hopefully the bank will decide that trying to get more out of a bankruptcy situation isn't the way to go and Mr. Williams can get this deal done as soon as possible.
On the Plan B front, Soccer Sam's group met with Tom Richards of the City of Rochester for three hours today. Sam felt that the meeting went really well. He also told Mr. Richards that Dan Williams offered the best deal for the City of Rochester as his group has no interest in taking over PAETEC Park and that they would expect the City, or some other entity, to operate the stadium in the event that their emergency Plan B is set into action.
And for all the Rhinos season ticket holders that are wondering if they will lose their money, I can say that I asked Steve Donner and he spoke with both Dan Williams and Sam and both gentlemen insisted that all season ticket payments will be honored if they take control of the team.
And while some people have patience, apparently Ryan Whirty at the Pressbox Powertrip is not one of them!
News & Notes:
- Somewhere, Sam is crying after reading what's become of his second favorite USWNT player.
- Beckhamania 2.0? Come on Jonah! Although, the Whitecaps are hoping that Edmonton has Beckhamania. This makes me wonder about the Rhinos vs the Galaxy at the Ralph...........
- Scott Palguta played in the second half of NY's preseason game on Friday. It's a good thing for Scott that he's not a forward after the Red Bulls have brought in Oscar Echeverry. Although, the fact that Chicago defender Wilman Conde has said that he wants to go to NY to play for his former coach can't be good for Carlos Mendes and perhaps Scott.
- The San Jose Earthquakes will play three games in Oakland's McAfee Coliseum . The larger venue will mean a bigger gate when Beckham and Blanco come to town.
- So DC has parlayed two players they didn't want to re-sign into a solid Generation adidas player in Quavas Kirk, a 1st round pick, and the use of Colorado's DP slot for a few years. You have to love the single entity system!
- Michael Bradley's seven game goal scoring streak has ended and he has to miss next week's game thanks to yeloow card accumulation? What a bum.........
- Minnesota with what must count as splashy signings for the Thunder.
- Apparently the Rochester-Cary connection isn't dead as the Rattlers will be playing a road game in Cary this season.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
