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The NLL's Annual Relocation/Contraction Ritual


Viper

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Why don't the Swarm use the College arena?

If you're referring to Mariucci Arena, as I mentioned previously, it has an Olympic-sized rink, which is considerably larger than the NHL-standard 200x85-ft rink that NLL rules call for (and their carpets are designed to fit).

Also, college hockey is typically played on Fridays and Saturdays like the NLL, so the Swarm would still have had difficulty lining up weekend dates, which was the dealbreaker at Xcel Energy Center in the first place.

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Why not Manchester? Manchester is a good lacrosse market and a great location for the Swarm to relocate to. We have the Monarchs hockey team and the fisher cats baseball team. The Verizon would make a perfect arena for NLL lacrosse.

When I mean Manchester, I do not mean the city in England, I mean the city in New Hampshire.

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Welp, that was quick:

The Minnesota Swarm has Georgia on its mind.

Stan L. Hall, executive director of the Gwinnett Sports Commission, confirmed to Atlanta Business Chronicle late Thursday the team is moving to Georgia.
“We are really excited about the guys from Minnesota moving our way,” Hall said.
Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported May 28 the team was scouting The Arena at Gwinnett Center. The arena is north of Atlanta and hosts the Gwinnett Gladiators minor league hockey team.

No word yet on how the team will be rebranded.

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Welp, that was quick:

The Minnesota Swarm has Georgia on its mind.

Stan L. Hall, executive director of the Gwinnett Sports Commission, confirmed to Atlanta Business Chronicle late Thursday the team is moving to Georgia.
“We are really excited about the guys from Minnesota moving our way,” Hall said.
Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported May 28 the team was scouting The Arena at Gwinnett Center. The arena is north of Atlanta and hosts the Gwinnett Gladiators minor league hockey team.

No word yet on how the team will be rebranded.

http://www.nll.com/view/nll/news-1147/news_303108

From that article, it wont be.

Welcome to the NLL, the Georgia Swarm

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Formerly known as DiePerske

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Looks like they are returning to the old primary logo, unless that is just a place holder for the time being.

SwarmLogo_250.png

GTA United(USA) 2015 + 2016 USA Champions/Toronto Maroons (ULL)2014, 2015 + 2022 Gait Cup Champions/Toronto Northmen (TNFF)

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Why not Manchester? Manchester is a good lacrosse market and a great location for the Swarm to relocate to. We have the Monarchs hockey team and the fisher cats baseball team. The Verizon would make a perfect arena for NLL lacrosse.

When I mean Manchester, I do not mean the city in England, I mean the city in New Hampshire.

Manchester's best bet is to be in Arena Lacrosse League.

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Oh what could have been....

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Looks like they are returning to the old primary logo, unless that is just a place holder for the time being.

SwarmLogo_250.png

It's not just the logo. The team's new website looks like it's going to be a clone of the old one, stylistically at least. In fact they seem to be transplanting the team's entire identity from Minnesota to Georgia lock, stock and barrel, with no differentiation to speak of, apart from slapping on a different state's name. They're even recycling "The Hive" as a collective nickname for their new digs and fan base.

As I told a friend earlier today, this tells me they could have moved to Pyongyang or Timbuktu or anywhere else on Earth you could name, and probably would have kept the Swarm name and identity package.

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Meanwhile the Rush have won Game 1 of the best-of-three Champion's Cup Finals, leaving them one more win away from their first NLL title. Game 2 is next weekend in Edmonton. Win or lose, it could also turn out to be the Rush's final game in Edmonton.

The last time the NLL faced a situation like this was the infamous "circus game", the 2007 Champion's Cup Final (which, back then, was a one-and-done affair). The game was shifted from Rochester to Arizona because Rochester's arena was already booked for a circus. More to the point, it turned out to be Arizona's final game, as the Sting closed up shop during the following offseason.

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Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

I didn't realize that Arizona has those attendance numbers. I know they opted out of the lock-out shortened season but I wonder why they didn't come back. Seems like they had better numbers than the Coyotes (sorry, had to make that joke).

Yeah, last night was rough as a Rock fan in attendance. But as the 4th quarter rolled around I started to think about this exactly. How weird would it be to see Edmonton win it all this year and not be around next year?

GTA United(USA) 2015 + 2016 USA Champions/Toronto Maroons (ULL)2014, 2015 + 2022 Gait Cup Champions/Toronto Northmen (TNFF)

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Congratulations to the Edmonton Rush. I hope that this title makes you feel like a city of champions again. Your Oilers sure don't seem to be panning out very well.

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An NLL blogger considers the Swarm's future in metro Atlanta. (Spoiler alert: He doesn't think it looks good.)

Honestly, if an indoor lacrosse league is going to work here, it's got a much better chance in Gwinnett than in Philips Arena in Atlanta.

Rent is cheaper. Gwinnett is much closer to what lacrosse fanbase is in town. Games will be more affordable for fans (free parking, cheaper tickets).

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Swarm posted their "new" uniform designs yesterday - note the scare quotes.

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So it's official now - aesthetically at least, they're not bothering to differentiate the Georgia phase of the franchise from the Minnesota one. This does lead to a pretty big blunder, though: Notice the asymmetrical patterns on the sides of the helmets. They, too, appear to have been left as they were - even though they were designed to represent the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

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I kind of hope they don't replace it, it would be funny!

GTA United(USA) 2015 + 2016 USA Champions/Toronto Maroons (ULL)2014, 2015 + 2022 Gait Cup Champions/Toronto Northmen (TNFF)

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Glad to see lacrosse grow in the south, first with the MLL Florida Launch and now Georgia in the NLL (and Orlando briefly for that matter). But wish it wasn't at the expense of another market and solid fanbase.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Meanwhile, six weeks after the Edmonton Rush won the 2015 title, there is finally movement on that front as well - alas, in more ways than one.

EDMONTON — A number of sources tell Global News that the Edmonton Rush is moving to Saskatchewan. A news conference is expected to be held Tuesday afternoon in downtown Saskatoon.

The move comes just six weeks after the team won its first National Lacrosse League Championship.

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