Yesterday I left a message with the Sabres' media-relations director and sent an e-mail to the Panthers' media guy in an effort to find out what the Amerks' parent teams think about this new lawsuit filed by Randall Latona against Steve Donner. Naturally, I've haven't heard back from either of them.
But I've been thinking about this whole situation ... Latona has filed two lawsuits now, one asking the court to remove Donner from the management of the Rhinos and Knighthawks, the other asking for more than $3.1 million from Donner and the two teams.
OK, the first lawsuit ... what if the court DOES remove Donner from a position of power. Then what? Who runs the teams?
That's a question that hasn't really been directly addressed by anyone, at least not that I'm aware of. What are Latona's ultimate, long-term goals here? Does he want to want to buy out Donner's share? Does he want to replace Donner and assume control of the teams' day-to-day operations? What if that's NOT what he wants to do? Here's what Latona asks for in his first lawsuit:
"That Rochester Amerks, Inc. and Rochester Knighthawks, LLC be directed to call immediate meetings of the owners and shareholders to elect a replacement director and manager of each entity to replace defendant Donner, and thereupon that the directors and managing owners of such entities immediately appoint a new chief executive officer to act as their replacement for Donner."
OK, now the second lawsuit ... Latona wants Donner and the teams to pony up $3 million-plus. But by all accounts, neither Donner nor the teams have anywhere near that amount of cash on hand. In fact, Donner has admitted that the teams are losing money. And in fact, because of that, he's had the cohones to ask the city for a better lease deal and more loans.
And Latona asserted in his first lawsuit that Donner actually OWES hundreds of thousands of dollars to everyone and his brother. So if Donner has no money, and the teams have no money, and if Latona wins his second lawsuit, where in the hell does that $3.1 million come from? How does Donner get that kind of money?
As far as I can tell, there's only one answer to that — he sells his share of the teams.
But to whom? To Latona? To Tom Golisano? To Frank DuRoss? To a complete stranger?
And would it come to that? Will these cases even go to court? In his coverage of the second lawsuit last week, the D&C's Kevin Oklobzija quoted Joe Zdarsky, Latona's attorney, thusly: "The parties have been engaged in various discussions. I don't want to say anything that would interfere with those discussions."
So Donner and Latona, probably through their attorneys (by the way, who IS Donner's attorney? Who is the teams' attorney?), have been negotiating.
In my mind, the result of those negotiations — and, indeed, the ultimate resolution to this whole nasty situation — come down to one question: What does Randall Latona really want? Does he want control of the teams? Or does he just want his money? Or does he want both?
The answer to that question, I fear, will determine the entire future of the Amerks and the Knighthawks.
Of course, perhaps the negotiations won't get anywhere, and perhaps this WILL go to court, and perhaps Latona is completely wrong and full of crap, and perhaps he'll lose. We'll have to see. But who IS Randall Latona? And what about Walter Turek? I'll address those questions in an upcoming post.
