With hi-tech, murderous thieves in control of the building, McClane packages the body of a dead terrorist and crashes it through a plate-glass window, sending it plunging onto Powell’s vehicle below. Needless to say, Powell’s attention is suitably grabbed. As he stands on the window ledge above, McClane shouts to the beleaguered cop, “Welcome to the party, pal!”

            That scene immediately came to my mind as I read Democrat & Chronicle reporter David Andreatta’s article about the Sports Centre at MCC in the Jan. 14 issue of the paper. The story detailed the extreme fiscal distress facing the multi-surface ice arena, which is overseen by the Monroe County Sports Centre Corp., a not-for-profit board created more than a dozen years ago.

            Andreatta’s article also quotes for County Legislator and MCSCC president Jack Driscoll, who generally serves as the facility’s spokesperson, as saying that bankruptcy is a distinct possibility for the arena. “It’s one of the options we’re looking at,” Driscoll is quoted as saying.

            After reading Andreatta’s article, I felt just like John McClane: Welcome to the party, pal!

            I should note right here that my cinematic analogy is only a general one, and I’m certainly not calling anyone involved in the operation of the ice arena a criminal. The idea was to relate how disastrous the handling of the centre has been since its construction in 1998 — as well as the wholesale failure of the local Rochester media (the print media, in particular) to cover the centre's debacle.

            I will also admit that what will immediately follow in this article will be moderately self-serving ego stroking on my part.

            For a few years ago I operated a blog about the Rochester sports scene called the Pressbox Powertrip. Although I stopped blogging nearly two years ago, it’s still up, if you’re interested, at pressboxpowertrip.blogspot.com.

            The goal of the blog was to attempt to reveal the seamy underbelly of local Rochester sports, to expose political, economic, cultural and (maybe) criminal behind-the-scenes actions that drove local sports.

            Whether I was successful at doing so can be a matter of debate, as is my ability to attract readers. However, I’m still pretty proud of the little blog that could.

            One of my favorite Powertrip subjects was the mess at the MCSCC’s facility, then called the ESL Centre. (The name has since been changed because the building’s former sponsor, ESL Federal Credit Union, belatedly but wisely bailed on the ice-filled albatross.)

            I began writing about the ESL Centre in late 2007, when I started writing about much of the stuff Andreatta covered in his story earlier this month — including the centre’s massive amount of bonded debt, its sea of red ink, and the ongoing efforts of Rochester developer David Christa and his hotshot Chicago business partner, Leon Lekai, to purchase control of the beleaguered facility.

           But the Powertrip was writing about it more than two years ago, long before the D&C decided to cast its rose-colored eyes on the ice arena. In fact, in a Jan. 25, 2008 post, I openly lamented the D&C’s lack of coverage and investigative gumption.

            I don’t now discuss the inability (or unwillingness) of the D&C — and, to be fair, most of the other local media — to get its act together on the centre as a way to puff out my chest and narcissistically draw attention to my work.

            OK, yes, fine, there’s SOME of that in here. But the main reason I point out the media’s lack of attention regarding the ice arena is simple — maybe if the D&C and other press outlets had have gotten their heads out of, ahem, the sand and scrutinized what was happening (or, perhaps more appropriately, NOT happening) out there on the MCC campus, then this publicly-supported monstrosity might not have reached the extremely dire situation in which it now finds itself.

            Perhaps, just perhaps, if the D&C had paid attention years ago, the ice arena might not be facing bankruptcy right now, and the public might not be getting screwed out of millions of dollars.

            To be fair to Andreatta, his Jan. 14 article is a very thorough, well-reported and incisive piece. And in general, the addition of Andreatta to the D&C reporting staff has been one of the very, very few things the newspaper has gotten right over the last few years. Andreatta is, quite simply, an excellent investigative journalist, and he does his job well. Unfortunately, he’s also a fairly recent hire to the paper, which means he might not have had the chance to cover the Sports Centre before now.

            And his Jan. 14 article largely lacks discussion of one of the biggest elements of the fiasco — the fact that, from the very beginning, the facility has been a political playground for local leaders, and especially the Republican party.

            Public records show that the late Steve Minarik, the savvy, hard-nosed former chairman of the Monroe County GOP, was heavily involved with the formation of the MCSCC board. Records also will show that several other major GOP operatives — including Driscoll — have either served on the facility’s board or in its management at some point.

            In addition, Monroe County’s ruling Republican administration appoints five of the MCSCC’s board members, with only two slots (one by MCC and one by the County Lej’s minority party, the Democrats) contributed by other bodies.

            But that’s only half of it. There’s also the money. Lots of money.

While Andreatta does note that Lekai donated $10,000 to Driscoll’s County Lej campaigns, he lets Christa almost completely off the hook.

Not only is Christa now one of the centre’s primary owners, his construction firm BUILT the thing in what was no doubt a very, very lucrative contract. In addition, Christa was intimately involved in the facility’s management at the beginning.

And who is David Christa? One of the biggest (at least in terms of money) and most connected businessmen in the area. Over the years, the monetary contributions by Christa and his companies to various GOP campaign coffers easily clear six figures, and he has landed dozens of major publicly-funded construction contracts.

Hopefully, such political intrigue will be addressed in future media coverage of the Sports Centre. But even if that does happen, it might be a matter of too little, too late.

In the end, John McClane killed all the terrorists and saved the day. But there’s no reason to expect such a happy ending over at the ice arena.


-Ryan Whirty
Ontario, NY