Rochester, N.Y.) – The Rochester Rhinos lost more than $1 million last year, according to owner Rob Clark. Clark, who called his losses “pretty massive,” said he trimmed staff last fall. One of those workers was a “bookkeeper,” and Clark blamed that person’s loss on a tax lien filed by the state. Clark said the taxes have since been paid. Clark expects to break even this season, which kicks off in May. Clark bought the team last year, after it had been struggling financially. Revenue from luxury suites will help, he said, but those suites will not be finished until September.

hey, works for us...I assume they couldn't afford all of their players so we were able to sign a guy who should be able to provide some depth on our back line...does T-Bone have anything left in those 32 year-old legs?

Ever want to have a stadium named after you? For $1,000, the Rhinos will provide that chance.

In what the team is calling an unprecedented but necessary move in a sagging economy, the Rhinos are selling the naming rights to Rochester’s downtown soccer stadium for $1,000. Just about anyone - an individual, company, club, school, etc. - that buys $1,000 in season tickets or sponsorship will have their name entered into a drawing. The winner will be selected at the May 30 home opener against Montreal.

The person/company gets one entry per every $1,000 spent. The naming rights deal is good for the 2009 season, which starts Saturday at Carolina. Stokes and Visca, a local accounting firm, will oversee the promotion.

Salvatore “Soccer Sam” Fantauzzo, the Rhinos’ president of business operations, said the team had been negotiating with several companies, including two car dealers and two banks, for the past several months but couldn’t reach a deal.

“It’s not desperation, it’s frustration,” Fantauzzo said during today’s announcement at the Strathallan Hotel in Rochester. “This has never been done.”

Rich Randall, 25, a Churchville-Chili graduate and account executive for the Rhinos, came up with the unique idea to give anyone the chance to buy the naming rights.

Fantauzzo said the team’s goal is to help bring in 4,000 new season-ticket holders with this contest.

”We think that with the economy being what it is a lot of companies can’t afford,” to spend big money on a naming-rights sponsorship, he said. “But any company - small, new, medium - can afford a $1,000 sponsorship. For $1,000, that small start-up company can have their name on our building.”

The stadium, which opened in June of 2006, had been known as PAETEC Park until January. But PAETEC Communications decided not to renew sponsorship and the facility has gone by “Rochester Rhinos Stadium.”

“It could be an annual thing,” Rhinos owner Rob Clark said of a similar contest. “We’ll have to see how it goes and gauge the market after the season.”

The team announced a few disclaimers and several rules. No competitor of one of the Rhinos’ exclusive sponsors — Connolly Printing, Coca-Cola, Famous Dave’s Barbeque, Nothnagle Realtors, Red Bull, Salvatore’s Old Fashioned Pizzeria, Time Warner Cable and Zwiegle’s Hot Dogs — may enter. Also ineligible are minor-league sports teams or leagues and “organizations that are not conducive to the family-fun atmosphere promoted” by the Rhinos.

The Whinos are not going to make it. I see a fold job after this year.