NLL commissioner extension

[LadyStanley]

National Lacrosse League Announces Contract Extension for Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz | National Lacrosse League

Five of the NLL teams are owned by NHL owners.

Recently negotiated new CBA.

Click to read more...

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

That league is still around?

I remember watching it on ESPN2 back in day

Buffalo seemed to be dominant team back then

 

[Fenway]

Boston had a team for several years but the rent was too much at TD Garden and they folded.

Until now I had no idea New England has a team as the Philadelphia Wings moved to there a few years back.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Boston had a team for several years but the rent was too much at TD Garden and they folded.

Until now I had no idea New England has a team as the Philadelphia Wings moved to there a few years back.

Isn't NLL the outdoor Lacrosse league?

 

[CANADIENSFAN90]

Isn't NLL the outdoor Lacrosse league?

no indoor

 

[varsaku]

Isn't NLL the outdoor Lacrosse league?

MLL is Outdoor Lacrosse
NLL is Indoor Box Lacrosse

 

[tony d]

Seemed like the league used to be more visible yrs. ago. I remember Sportsnet showing games in the early 2000's. They don't show them anymore which is to bad as I found Lacrosse fun to watch.

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

I quite enjoy box lacrosse but hard pressed to see it on a channel in Boston. I would like to watch a game in a bar but seems unlikely. I followed their FB account for highlights but their pundits were awful for listening to.

 

[LadyStanley]

Sharks used to have NLL team, but it folded years ago. Went to a few games and enjoyed them.

 

[Takuto Maruki]

I mean - to those that say 'I didn't know that NLL is still around' and 'I used to watch it on TV' well...it's on Bleacher Report's streaming service.

Which should say a lot about the ability to penetrate. I follow the league, mainly because of the Warriors, and with my own ties to Vancouver, but yeah, it's hard to care for it too much when you basically have to pay for some obscure streaming service just to watch.

 

[McRpro]

The Edmonton Rush won the championship in 2015, then moved to Saskatchewan during the offseason. A local talking radio head in Edmonton wouldn't shut up about them and seemed to enjoy talking down to people for not supporting the team more.

 

[GindyDraws]

Isn't NLL the outdoor Lacrosse league?

No, NLL = indoor, good.

MLL = outdoor, bad.

Anyway, he deserves it. The league has been able to stabilize, increase attendance, and expand to 13 teams, which is impressive for a niche sport. That being said, the worst part about the league is it's TV deal, or lack theorf, since it's streamed on B/R Live. That's one step above the bottom of the barrel in American sports television, with that being the CBS Sports Network and whatever the hell Sinclair has, as even though it's part of WarnerMedia, it's a PPV subscription service, meaning that the game mostly grows through the local markets and not from a national perspective.

 

[hockeyguy0022]

This places laughs at Saskatoon.... but there getting 14K-15(Sellout) at $60-150 every Sask rush game, every year.....

Then we look at Pheonix/Florida attendance and ticket prices...

 

[Fenway]

Remember this nutty sport?

 

[Hoek]

Indoor soccer is still a thing, though futsal is more popular around the world. What ever happened to Marc Cuban's bid to make a futsal league here?

JP Dellacamera with his full name and mustache? Wow.

Home - Major Arena Soccer League

 

[BKIslandersFan]

This places laughs at Saskatoon.... but there getting 14K-15(Sellout) at $60-150 every Sask rush game, every year.....

Then we look at Pheonix/Florida attendance and ticket prices...

Its called corporate support, genius.

 

[famicommander]

The ownership situation is pretty legit right now in the NLL.

Buffalo Bandits - Pegulas (owners of the Buffalo Bills and Sabres, Rochester Americans)
Colorado Mammoth - Kroenke Sports (owners of the LA Rams, Arsenal, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, Denver Nuggets)
Calgary Roughnecks - owners of the Calgary Flames, Stampeders, and Hitmen
New England Black Wolves - Mohegan Tribe (owners of Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort and Connecticut Sun)
New York Riptide - former CEO of MSG Group, playing at an arena controlled by another NLL owner
Rochester Knightwaks - Pegulas, see Bandits
Philadelphia Wings - Comcast Spectacor (owners of the Philadelphia Flyers and Maine Mariners)
San Diego Seals - Joe Tsai, co-owner of Ali Baba Group and 49% of the Brooklyn Nets
Vancouver Warriors - owners of the Vancouver Canucks and Utica Comets

The only teams with smaller ownership are:
Georgia Swarm - the last "problem" owners in the NLL. Most agree they are just waiting for the right time to sell.
Halifax Thunderbirds - Curt Styres, former longtime owner of the Knighthawks. New market.
Saskatchewan Rush - owner wasn't able to make it in Edmonton without Oilers support but they now lead the league in attendance
Toronto Rock - not sure how the owner made his money but rich enough to build the team a 20 million dollar practice facility

Ten years ago the league was on the brink of death and the only legit owners were the Mammoth and Bandits groups.

Basically, they recovered from the housing market crash where the Arena Football League didn't.

 

[kaiser matias]

This places laughs at Saskatoon.... but there getting 14K-15(Sellout) at $60-150 every Sask rush game, every year.....

Then we look at Pheonix/Florida attendance and ticket prices...

I highly doubt tickets are starting at $60. Season tickets for the most expensive seats sell for $80 a game, and a quick search suggests closer to $25-45 for single game tickets.

 

[GindyDraws]

Indoor soccer is still a thing, though futsal is more popular around the world. What ever happened to Marc Cuban's bid to make a futsal league here?

JP Dellacamera with his full name and mustache? Wow.

Home - Major Arena Soccer League

I'm sorry, but as long as they have teams average less than 1K a game and there's a team in Turlock (who blocked me on Twitter for telling them they're awful) playing out of a rec center, they ain't legit.

 

[Hoek]

USL has teams averaging that much, though they are reserve squads.

 

[GindyDraws]

USL has teams averaging that much, though they are reserve squads.

To be fair; nobody likes seeing reserve squads, regardless of country. Especially if they suck, particularly Swope Park and Tacoma.

I'm talking about really awful attendance. Turlock is pretty damn obvious, as they play in a rec league facility that you can rent out for birthday parties and such and has a maximum capacity of 700 or so (though, let's be fair; they never sell the place out), which automatically disqualifies them from being taken seriously in any argument. Over at Big Soccer, I kept tabs on attendance figures over the previous season, and some teams had pretty hideous figures, such as El Paso (the only team that matched Turlock in awfulness, and El Paso played in an actual sporting arena), Rio Grande Valley, Mississauga, and even Orlando (who were treated as an expansion team, but were technically the relocation of Cedar Rapids), with some averaging Turlock numbers on rough evenings. Even the stalwarts that you assume would help provide healthy attendance figures like Tacoma, San Diego, Baltimore, and Milwaukee, and what would have probably given the league a boost in credibility in Landon Donovan didn't help matters.

Much like arena football, being swarmed with cheap imitations, and then people being angry at the real deal when those cheap imitations failed, not to mention constant turnover with ownership and finances, helped give indoor soccer a huge blow to its credibility. Worse, the de-facto indoor soccer league has changed hands several times in the past few decades with dwindling attendance figures.