October 24, 2019
October 24, 2019
By: Frankie P. Fanta
VISITING THE LANCERS
Today I stopped by the Lancers office and met Salvatore “SoccerSam” Fantauzzo, Kayla Klark Kent and Ashley Maria King. They gave me the tour of 4 floors of amazing soccer and Lancers memorabilia.
Ashley Maria King is the President of Business Operations for all brands. King says “this office is like a high volume kitchen and we operate several brands including Salvatore’s Pizza, Donuts Delite, Arthur Treachers Rochester and our 3 Lancers teams.”
Kayla Klark Kent’s main focus is soccer as the Director of Operations and she handles CFO duties for all Fantauzzo Family Brands. Kent says she loves the game, Kayla and her husband and former Lancers Goal Keeper Marcelo Moreira enjoy giving back to the youth players of Rochester when they can. The office is child proof for when Kayla’s daughter Jilli visits.
It wasn’t very clear what SoccerSam’s duties included. Every question I asked he would point to Ashley or Kayla for a response. I quickly noticed the sign in his office, all meetings 20 minutes max, unless it’s soccer. Both Ashley and Kayla had their lap tops open and working during my interview and time at the office.
SoccerSam sat in his bright red chair with his entire black and white Adidas outfit on with his feet on the desk, eating Halloween candy. He did offer to share his Reese’s Cups and offered me an Ice Cold Lancers Lager, I declined.
I asked SoccerSam why he refers to the MASL arena soccer as indoor, he responded “to many vowels in arena and please never call soccer football, we are in America, its soccer brother.”
This is the first season back for the Lancers playing in the Top level of the MASL. The original Lancers played from 2011-2015 at the Blue Cross Arena. The team now plays at the New Dome Arena where every game was a sellout last season in the M2 league. “We love the New Dome Arena.” said King, “Every game is a party with the fans so close to the action.” The Lancers will play 12 home games this season with all games on Friday and Saturday nights. “Weekend dates are great for the soccer groups and families that we attract.” said Kent
Fantauzzo is excited about this upcoming season and all the local players Coach Doug Miller has signed. “Some of the best players in the league are local players from someplace, we hope to have 90% of our players from Rochester, New York.” said SoccerSam whom fell in love with Indoor Soccer watching the Buffalo Stallions and Blizzard. “They had amazing players come and go throughout the years but the main stays were Local Stars including NASL Lancers stars driving to Buffalo for the Stallions and Rochester Rhinos stars joining the Pikuzinski and DiNunzio brothers for the Blizzard. Fans loved and related to their local players and we hope to have the majority of local players on all 3 of our teams.” said SoccerSam
The Lancers Indoor home Season starts Friday, November 29. Individual seats go on sale Friday, November 1. “We exceeded our season ticket goal and we will continue to hold our $240 season ticket price for all indoor and outdoor teams for the 2019/20 season.” said Kent
The New Dome Arena offers free parking and family priced concessions. We are a locally owned Not For Profit organization that gives back to Rochester.” said King
The original Lancers started play in 1967 in the original A League, they joined the NASL in 1970 and won the championship that season. “That’s my goal.” said SoccerSam “Our first year back in the MASL and I hope we can win another championship for our amazing fans and sponsors.”
Lancers Season Tickets are available at RLancers.com or by calling 585-872-5425 (kick). SoccerSam offered to share the cell numbers and family home numbers for Ashley and Kayla. I declined.