Where will the Rochester Red Wings play next season?
That’s the question percolating behind the scenes as negotiations between the team and Monroe County for a new lease at Frontier Field seem to be on the rocks.
At issue is the unspoken $2 million annual subsidy that has underwritten operation of the stadium for the last several years, and the keeping of a good-government pledge by County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo.
She ran on a platform of eliminating the LDC mess that had been spun by her predecessors. LDCs are odd privatizations of public functions that can send a lot of public money down private rat holes.
Like the operation of Frontier Field.
Frontier Field is owned and operated by an LDC, and that LDC is the Red Wings’ landlord. A very generous and trusting landlord, as it turns out. Over the years, the LDC has accumulated a debt of $32 million. That accumulating debt has been a functional subsidy for the Red Wings.
That has been good for the Red Wings.
But the LDC is going away.
And that could be bad for the Red Wings.
As a candidate, Dinolfo promised to untangle and eliminate the LDCs, and she mostly has. At the end of this year, she will disband the LDC which operates Frontier Field, and the county government will directly take over operation of the ballpark. That means that next season’s rent agreement will be between the Red Wings and the county.
And the county is going to be a different type of landlord.
And these have been a different type of negotiations.
And that has led to rumors that the Red Wings are upset, maybe upset enough to leave town or sell the team.
One scenario bounced around has the Red Wings playing in Batavia next year, at Dwyer Stadium. Though much smaller – 2,600 seats versus 13,500 seats – it would be a temporary landing site in order to pressure MonroeCounty or give management time to find a legitimate new home for a Triple-A team.
It’s hard to believe team leader Naomi Silver – whose family rose to prominence when her father kept the Red Wings from leaving Rochester – would move or sell the team. And it’s hard to believe the county wants to lose baseball in Rochester. But the sweetheart deal of the last 20 years can’t realistically continue into the future.
The Red Wings want to continue to make as much money as they can, and to largely keep their business information private, but the county wants a good deal for taxpayers. Several options to find the middle ground have been put forward by the Dinolfo administration. Thus far nothing has clicked.
Basically, it breaks down to two types of deals.
In one, the team would simply pay rent. Whether it paid to rent the ballpark just for the dates of its home games, or it rented it for the whole year, with the ability to put on other events, would be decided by the parties.
In the other, some sort of scheme would be set up where the county would get a percentage of revenues or some other monies based on attendance or the amount of money the Red Wings were making.
In the rent scenario, the team could keep its books to itself, and nobody would know the team’s financials.
In the other, there would need to be transparency about the Red Wings’ business records.
Companies don’t like to give that sort of stuff up. And government typically doesn’t have any business knowing. But in this situation, the opening of the books would be a sort of “means testing.” Any final decision would require the approval of the county legislature, but Monroe County probably would accept something less than its actual costs – if that was truly all the Red Wings could afford.
Translation: If the Red Wings are hard up, the county may continue to subsidize Frontier Field, the way the LDC did. But if taxpayer dollars are going to cover what is essentially an expense of the Red Wings, the taxpayersare going to want black-and-white proof that it’s necessary. And the county is going to want that proof before it agrees to such a subsidy.
Over the years the LDC underwrote the stadium, nobody knows if that easing of financial responsibility helped the Red Wings survive, or rack up big profit. Now that there will be no intermediary, the county wants to know.
For example, the Red Wings over the last several years have put a quarter of a million dollars a year into running the Batavia Muckdogs. Going forward, it would be odd to ask Monroe County taxpayers to subsidize the Red Wings if the Red Wings are themselves subsidizing a business in Genesee County.
So where do things stand?
Not at stalemate or impasse, but not at a point of real progress either. Probably the county feels it has offers on the table, and is waiting to see which the team might be interest in discussing. Probably the team feels changing the way business has been done for 20 years is no fun, and the new way is apt to be more intrusive and expensive.
What is each willing to do?
The county has apparently spoken to the Rhinos about moving their games to Frontier Field – as a lone or joint tenant. And the Red Wings have apparently floated rumors that they will play in Batavia next year.
Somewhere, the goal should be the best deal for taxpayers that allows baseball to still be played in Rochester.
Personally, I think the Red Wings should take up negotiations and make a deal with the county. That’s a concession by the team. But I believe the team should recognize the position of strength which it occupies. Its recent Plates promotion filled the park and showed the great well of public support the Red Wings enjoy. Also, in a looming county executive race against a popular Democrat opponent, there is no way Cheryl Dinolfo is going to want to be the executive who lost baseball for Rochester.
Also, the Red Wings should recognize that openness with the county government is openness with their fans. One of the team’s great strengths is the high regard in which it is held by the community. It has the air of an honest, high-class operation of extremely decent people.
Decent people lay their cards on the table.
Cheryl Dinolfo and Naomi Silver are tough, smart and kind, and they each are going to represent their interests well. In this matter, their interests are really the same. They each want baseball to continue in Rochester.
Right now that is on the bubble.
But they can change it.
And hopefully soon we will see the two of them together, smiling, telling us that this won’t be Rochester’s last professional baseball season.