The End of Sport in Rochester?

Well, it appears as though just about every minor league team in Rochester is in danger of either collapsing or leaving because of some exceedingly bad financial moves by the ownership.  That’s the news from the D&C today, in their piece entitled “Fast-ferry future for city’s teams?,” an unmistakably gleeful choice of words.

The question in my mind is: are these bad financial dealings the result of an inept leadership or were they the desperate tactics of a failing business model?  The truth is doubtless somewhere in the middle, but it makes a  big difference in terms of what happens next.  My suspicion has always been that the city’s market is just too small to support all those teams, especially for things like soccer and arena football, which are niche sports with a very small audience in the first place.

I’m just hoping that, in an effort to save face for the city, the mayor doesn’t decide to try to take over Paetec Park unless it can be proven to be a money-maker.  I would say that we need to have someone take a serious look at what kind of entertainment/sports venues this city can really support – that we could use a master plan against which to work – but I think we all know by now these things are run by the contractors, not by our elected officials.

Vive la CMCE.