A few weeks ago I had a roundup about the behind the scenes that led to RNYFC not competing in 2023. At the end, I went into a bit of a technical deep dive on the RNYFC.com domain and how it’d moved around a bit. Since then, there have been a few interesting changes that may be indicative of some upcoming behind the scenes changes.
First to explain the technical side a bit better, a domain registrar is where you buy a domain name, such as RNYFC.com, Valiant33.com or Google.com (the last one might be a bit harder to buy…). You can use any number of companies for this, but common ones are GoDaddy, Network Solutions or even Google and Microsoft.
Last time I indicated that the registration for RNYFC.com had expired on its UK Registrar, but was quickly updated to a new registrar in the US. This typically happens when a domain is up for renewal. It’s also not uncommon to change domain registrars just because you can. New registrars will often give deals on the initial yearly fee for example.
What happened after the article was published was a bit interesting, as it switched back to an expired status and wasn’t renewed until 5 days later on its new, third, registrar. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. During the process, the website stopped forwarding to the MLSNP RNYFC site, which does still exist. Note that the USL Championship Rhinos site still exists as well, so don’t take much from this on any future plans.
When a domain expires, the original owner has about 3 months to buy it back. Any changes made after this would have been done by the original, UK owners of the site. I believe this would have been the remnants of the V9 academy.
Here’s the part that you actually care about. A week ago the RNYFC.com domain went up for sale on GoDaddy Auctions, with a starting bid of $15. A normal .com domain typically costs $10-20 a year. After 2 bidders bid up to the lofty total of $35 over the first 4 days, bidder 3 and 4 sent it above $10,000 yesterday morning. There is a strong interest in this brand from someone, but who?
This is strange because RNYFC was at best a “meh” name, and at worst was disliked. It was pretty obvious from the start that it was a misstep, and none of the expected marketing around the name to differentiate the team from the NYC area ever materialized. The value in the brand was always the Rhinos, and ownership gave up on that early on. Many of us, including myself, have been a bit revisionist of whether the 2022 team was the Rhinos or not, but no matter what you think, no one puts a high value for the name RNYFC, and the domain RNYFC.com has even less value.
It’s also strange because other similar domains are available for so little. As of writing, here is a smattering of similar domains available:
- RNY-FC.com $0.01
- RNYFC.co $11.99
- RNYFC.soccer $31.99
- RNYFC.net + RNYFC.co + RNYFC.store + RNYFC.info $15.49
- RNYFC.sucks $99.99
None of these domains are as good as RNYFC.com…but they’re also not $10,000+. We’ve seen in the past the team decide to go for a non-standard domain, RhinosSoccer.com, instead of RochesterRagingRhinos or RochesterRhinos, which were both available as of relatively recently. What would make them decide now is the time to hold onto the domain?
Here are a few theories, from “this is a joke” to “this could actually be real”:
- The Rochester NY Fascist club needed a new domain.
- One of the supporters groups suddenly fell into a lot of money after hitting a parlay and wants to make a joke site, ala what SaltCityUnion.com was for the 2023 season.
- Another competing local team wanted the domain.
- RNYFC Youth wanted the domain.
- The Dorkins had to buy back the domain from the V9 Academy and this was the only way to get it.
The last two are the most obvious answers. The name RNYFC only really has value for two organizations, and these are the only clubs willing to bid in the thousands for it, or have access to that amount of money in the first place to buy a domain that GoDaddy themselves said was worth $1500 (for reference, Valiant33.com had an estimated value of $2250 through similar estimates). No one else has shown much interest in the name.
We know from the 2023 season there were disagreements between RNYFC Youth (the old Empire United Academy) and RNYFC. We also know that there were issues with V9 and RNYFC. The domain was bought by a UK registrar in early 2021, which points to V9 having a final fuck you moment, and the other two organizations having to fight each other for the name.
The good news is that there is obviously money in Rochester local soccer. I’m still flabbergasted at the price the auction went up to, but whichever organization did buy it has indicated they have large cash reserves and a willingness to spend when they see value. The organization that lost the bidding war also has a lot of money to spend. The cynic in me sees this as bullet point to use when either organization feigns poverty in the future. If they have $10k plus to buy a domain, then the small improvements fans want at local games shouldn’t be a problem? Hopefully we actually see this, and this wasn’t just a bidding war where two rich individuals got into a pissing contest over something that doesn’t actually matter, and ultimately will be seen as wasted money by all but those involved.