It’s been a bit over a year since the famous Wendy Dworkin quote that great things were coming in the future.
“We’re at a place now where we’re so excited and to think about where we were to where we are – it is a step on the road. There’s a way to go but the journey is just getting better and better as time goes on for us” – Wendy Dworkin. Owner
Source
It’s widely believed this was based on a possible merger with Flower City Union, which had also been near completion in early December 2022, but hit a snag with the merged team’s name since both RNYFC and FCU have such a long, fabled history. As all of us are aware, 18 months of history is hard to overcome, so we can all understand why this was the final hurdle that was unable to be overcome. Also, everyone hated the name Rochester United.
RNY’s previous “exciting development” at the end of November was announcing that half the team had their contracts canceled. To make up for this, a snap-signed jersey giveaway occurred with promises of the winner being announced. After confusion of which date the giveaway was ending, no winner was ever announced, nor was a picture of the jersey shown at any point. (EDIT: Post article publishing, @GxLobes on Twitter/X/Musk’s PlayGround posted he was in fact the winner of the jersey.)
In February we were told developments would be announced within a week by an unnamed source. Based on the unique grammar choice, it appears to be one of the Dworkins. These rumors were again about possible mergers with FCU, and a mystery man from Brooklyn who appeared to own several fly-by-night mechanic shops.
16 days later on March 10th, we received the announcement the team was suspending operations for 2023 in MLS Next Pro. Ticket sale refunds would be delayed by 11 days for reasons unknown. It would take some over a month to receive a refund. This was also after 2022 season ticket holders were given no option to stop their renewal from automatically occurring in January.
This also postponed schedule releases for both MLSNP and NISA.
Since then, there have been many minimal rumors. USL 2 was the top choice for either 2023 or 2024, with the plan for a move up to USL 1 the following season. We’ve also heard this for other teams in town as a possible option too, but I don’t put much confidence in this. These types of plans are often how D4 leagues get entrants, by trying to entice teams that they can move to a professional league without explaining the slight difficulty of going from a budget of $15k a year to $800k in a six month span.
We did have first-hand confirmation from the UK part of RNYFC that they have removed themselves from any future involvement with the team, as well as confirmation the V9 academy closed in August 2023.
The clearest outside confirmation of life was weirdly enough, a domain registrar change that occurred early this morning. From January 2021 to January 19th, 2024, the registrar was 123-reg.co.uk. This morning, we received the exciting development that not only had the domain been renewed, but that it moved registrars! As domain registars are well known by even the least technical person on the planet, I’ll avoid wasting my breath explaining this aspect further. The domain moved to MeshDigital, a GoDaddy company, which is also used by several of the other domains previously used by the US contingent of RNYFC.
So what does this all mean? Not much really. Hopefully, it didn’t take you too long to get here.
Trying to anticipate what is going to happen next has always been difficult with how late any decisions have been made since the end of the 2016 season. Here is what we do know:
- RNYFC.com is still redirecting to MLSNP with little chance they continue in that league.
- RNYFC still has working e-mail accounts on Google, albeit without a hardened SPF or DMARC setting.
- David Dworkin’s public Instagram page does not state he is an owner of RNYFC.
- We knew last year Morris/Vardy was out after he prioritized a vacation with his wife and returning to Leicester City training over coming to a much-hyped home game during his summer break.
- NISA isn’t an option unless there is a merger, and that’s not going to happen.
- USL 1 isn’t a likely possibility even if the Rhinos still have a website on the USL Championship and USL League 1 page.
- Another self-demotion to an amateur summer league simply won’t work unless:
- Every game is a home game.
- Their budget for 2024 is similar to what it was in 2022, but diverting player and coach salaries to marketing.
- They play at a real stadium and not the Empire United facility on John Street. A college stadium is an obvious choice, but not MCC most likely.
- Pigs fly out of my butt because that’s somehow the precursor to the above 3 actually happening.
None of the above has any direct correlation to what the next steps, if any, are occurring. About all we know is that the team is willing to spend a few bucks on operating expenses over 2023 and 2024 while we all learn from their silence, and either paid someone or worked themselves to move the registration for RNYFC.
This shows the team isn’t fully dead, which at this point should be considered a good sign. I suspect the next choice largely depends on what FCU does. Nothing we’ve hard has made a merger easier. In fact, I think FCU winning NISA championship last year will just make a name change that much harder.
If the rumors of a FCU move down to D4 for 2024 are accurate, then that opens a return in 2025 or 2026 to pro soccer for RNYFC with a likely rename back to the Rhinos. On the other hand, FCU staying in NISA, or any potential USL/MLSNP move will likely keep RNYFC on the sidelines.