Frank DuRoss:
Turning business opportunities into gold

Listen to this article

Frank DuRoss has the “Midas touch,” one of his business partners says.
DuRoss is president of the Rochester Raging Rhinos and the Providence Bruins, a team in the American Hockey League. Last year, the Rhinos won the A-League soccer championship and the Bruins took home the AHL Calder Cup–giving DuRoss the distinction of being a top executive and co-owner of two of the nation’s leading minor-league sports teams.
His earlier business ventures, in janitorial services and asbestos removal, also were tremendously successful and eventually sold to large, public companies.
“I’ve been very fortunate in my business career,” DuRoss says. “Everything has pretty much gone according to plan.”
DuRoss was born and raised in Utica, where he makes his home today. He graduated from Utica College with a degree in business administration and went to work in his family’s janitorial services business with his brother, James DuRoss Jr.
“I was married in my sophomore year of college, so I was kind of anxious to get out of college and start making a living and start a family,” Frank DuRoss recalls. “I was really focused in on the family business and trying to see how we could grow that business and make it a success. I really wasn’t at all focused on professional sports.”
Within three years, DuRoss and his brother had bought the business from their father and the other two individuals who owned it, becoming equal partners. They grew the company into an operation with offices in 15 cities scattered across four states.
In 1980, the two started Oneida Asbestos Removal. Their business interests remained an equal partnership, with DuRoss running the fast-growing asbestos removal firm and his brother managing the janitorial services operation.
“It was one of the largest asbestos removal companies in the United States at the time,” DuRoss says.
Oneida Asbestos Removal was purchased in 1988 by Allwaste Inc., a publicly held firm based in Houston and now owned by a Toronto company. His brother did not stay with the business, but DuRoss remained until 1990.
The janitorial services business also was sold and now is part of Tyco International Ltd.
It was during an asbestos removal job at the Utica auditorium that DuRoss struck up a friendship with the general manager of the local hockey team.
When the team ran into financial difficulties in the early 1980s, the general manager asked DuRoss to help out.
“I ended up buying the team. It was the Mohawk Valley Comets at the time,” DuRoss recalls.
Two years later, the New Jersey Devils moved their American Hockey League team to Utica, and the Mohawk Valley Comets, part of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League, was disbanded. DuRoss became president of the Utica Devils, with an option to buy the team, which he never exercised.
The Utica Devils have since relocated to Albany, and DuRoss is no longer affiliated with the team.
In 1990, DuRoss and Edward Anderson–president of the team at the time–together purchased the Maine Mariners and moved the team to Providence, R.I.
Anderson, the partner who uses the phrase “Midas touch” when referring to DuRoss’ string of successes, uses equally glowing words to describe their business relationship.
“In 13 years, we have never had an animated word with each other,” he says.
Anderson, a self-described control freak, says DuRoss is a delegator whose personality balances nicely with his own.
“He’s a very easygoing fellow who has done quite well,” Anderson adds.
Sitting on the board of governors for the American Hockey League proved to be fortuitous. It brought DuRoss together with future business associate Stephen Donner, who did a stint with the Rochester Americans hockey franchise from 1980 to 1983 and four years ago led a group of investors that bought the Amerks.
“We served on various committees and attended meetings together and we were friendly competitors on the ice,” DuRoss recalls. “We kind of just said, ‘It would be nice if some day we could do something together.'”
In 1995 at the AHL board’s summer meeting on Hilton Head Island, Donner approached DuRoss with a proposal for Donner, DuRoss and Chris Economides to start a professional soccer team in Rochester.
Donner sketched out the basics of the plan in pencil on Palmetto Dunes resort stationery–a memo DuRoss has kept to this day.
“I was very, very nervous,” Donner recalls. “I told him it was important that he have an open mind.”
Donner need not have worried; DuRoss immediately was impressed with the idea.
“I had a lot of confidence that Steve’s analysis and Chris’ analysis of the market was probably right on,” DuRoss explains. “I felt with the new stadium coming on board it would be an opportunity that could work out. It would give Steve, Chris and I an opportunity to work together, so I said yes.”
The partnership has worked out well, he says. Economides handles drafting, signing and negotiating with players; Donner directs marketing efforts for sponsorship and ticket sales; and DuRoss represents the team both in the A-League and as point person in negotiations with Major League Soccer about joining the league.
“The great thing about our partnership is we all share in just about every decision, and we all trust each other’s judgment if one of us isn’t there,” DuRoss says.
“(Frank) is a kind, gentle, fair man, but when things are on the line he can be very strong and ferocious,” Donner observes. “People make the mistake of thinking he’s very mild-mannered; when he has to, he can come forward in a very strong manner.”
Although DuRoss is based in Utica, he spends two to three days a week in Rochester and one day every two weeks in Providence.
The first hour of each workday is spent reviewing every article relating to professional sports he can get his hands on. In addition to his work with the Rhinos and the Bruins, DuRoss sits on the A-League executive committee and does work for the National Lacrosse League, which he co-founded in 1996.
Achieving the goal of a Rochester soccer stadium is high on his priority list.
“I work quite a bit every day on the proposed new stadium with the architectural firm and the company doing the feasibility study,” he says.
Within five years, DuRoss predicts, the new stadium will be a reality, as will a Major League Soccer franchise in Rochester and a women’s professional league with a local team.
“There’s no doubt there will be a women’s soccer league at some point in time,” he says. “It’s just when it will be and in what form it will be.”
It is much more difficult for DuRoss to say what he likes to do when not working.
“I’m pretty fortunate. Most of my work is a lot of fun, too,” he says, replying to the question. “I love coming to all the different soccer games and the hockey games.”
DuRoss also attends all of the all-star and championship games, including the recent Women’s World Cup title game in Pasadena.
“It’s sort of not during work hours, so it’s sort of a combination of work and pleasure,” he explains.
If DuRoss’ Midas touch holds and Rochester becomes home to an MLS team with a new soccer stadium, he envisions it as the best of both worlds.
“The players will still be as accessible as they currently are, we’ll still have post-game parties, still have fireworks, still have a strong fan club,” he says. “I hope there aren’t an awful lot of changes, other than a higher level of competition, some international matches and the ability to host a women’s professional league at the highest level at the new stadium.”

8/27/99