NLL Expansion 2018

[Jer15]

The National Lacrosse League announced this morning that they will be expanding to San Diego for the 2018-19 season. The team will play out of the Valley View Casino Center (home to the AHL's Gulls). 

This will bring the league up to 10 teams for the first time since 2011.

 

http://www.nll.com/news/national-lacrosse-league-welcomes-its-10th-franchise/

 

My 2 cents: I'm usually pretty opinionated about where this league expands to but I'm taking a wait and see approach on this one. The owner has deep pockets (worth almost 5 billion) and apparently has aspirations to get into the NBA as well so you'd think he'd want to put his best foot forward with this. 

[JayMac]

I'm really hoping there will be a return to Philadelphia. But, like you, I'm cautiously optimistic with this one.

[bosrs1]

3 hours ago, mr.negative15 said:

The National Lacrosse League announced this morning that they will be expanding to San Diego for the 2018-19 season. The team will play out of the Valley View Casino Center (home to the AHL's Gulls). 

This will bring the league up to 10 teams for the first time since 2011.

 

http://www.nll.com/news/national-lacrosse-league-welcomes-its-10th-franchise/

 

My 2 cents: I'm usually pretty opinionated about where this league expands to but I'm taking a wait and see approach on this one. The owner has deep pockets (worth almost 5 billion) and apparently has aspirations to get into the NBA as well so you'd think he'd want to put his best foot forward with this. 

 

Yeah it's really interesting. The new San Diego owner is worth between $5 and $11.5 billion by accounts. And he has shown interest in the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. And he's reportedly purchased around 80 acres of land in San Diego's East Village (also home to the Padres' Petco Park). Rumor is his long term plan is to build a privately financed arena on some of those 80 acres that would house the NLL team and possibly a future/relocated NBA team (or perhaps NHL).

 

He's definitely got the money to suck up any losses by the NLL team in the short term at the old SD Sports Arena, presuming they don't hit a home run. So they should be a stable long term addition.

[nickp91]

Please bring the Wings back to Philadelphia

[Jer15]

3 hours ago, bosrs1 said:

 

Yeah it's really interesting. The new San Diego owner is worth between $5 and $11.5 billion by accounts. And he has shown interest in the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. And he's reportedly purchased around 80 acres of land in San Diego's East Village (also home to the Padres' Petco Park). Rumor is his long term plan is to build a privately financed arena on some of those 80 acres that would house the NLL team and possibly a future/relocated NBA team (or perhaps NHL).

 

He's definitely got the money to suck up any losses by the NLL team in the short term at the old SD Sports Arena, presuming they don't hit a home run. So they should be a stable long term addition.

Can you imagine if he got the Nets to relocate to San Diego? lol. 

 

But seriously.....he sure does have the deep pockets. I'd think the only thing stopping him would be if the team looses money consistently for a long period of time. 

 

Yeah @nickp91 You, me and, the league wants Philly back. The commish has made that well known. I hope they can pull it off sooner rather than later.

[AnPheitseog]

I can't wait until a 12 team nll returns. 

 

What I didn't know, even with following the league, is that the current 9 team structure has been around for 6 seasons, which is the most stable the league has ever been. Even with franchises moving 

[AnPheitseog]

Cities I'd love to see the NLL return to. 

 

Portland

Minnesota

Philadelphia

Chicago

Pittsburgh

 

Expansion

 

Norfolk

North Carolina

 

[Viper]

Minnesota and Philadelphia are in more or less the same lurch when it comes to the NLL: Absent an NHL or NBA ownership/arena connection (which doesn't seem to be in the cards for either market), teams tend to thrive best in minor-league hockey arenas that can be cheaply rented, which neither Minneapolis/St. Paul nor Philadelphia has.

 

In Minnesota's case, the U of M has a couple of arenas of suitable capacity, but Mariucci Arena's rink is Olympic-size which may not work for the NLL, Ridder Arena (women's hockey) would have the lowest spectator capacity in the league, and in either case I doubt the university would want to take on an outside tenant on a permanent basis, at least not one that would need a liquor license (which was a sticking point with the Vikings). Outside the U of M campus, the only other local option would be Warner Coliseum, which would be almost perfect capacity-wise (around 6K) and location-wise (on the state fairgrounds, about halfway between the two downtowns and just up Snelling Avenue from where MNUFC is building Allianz Field) if it weren't ancient and falling apart.

 

At this point Minnesota's best chance of returning to the NLL is the New England Black Wolves' route; i.e. if one of the state's Native American tribal casinos decides to take a stab at NLL ownership, and is willing to either build their own arena, finance a Warner renovation, or take their chances as a second- or third-banana tenant at Target Center or even back at Xcel Energy Center. (One of those casinos was the Swarm's jersey sponsor for several years, so that is within the realm of possibility.)

[JackieMoon]

Glad to see the NLL is taking an approach to adding more teams.  Some day I would like to see the league 14/16 strong.

[Jer15]

Well....

 

Looks like the NLL is going to announce another expansion team. Back to Philly! Comcast is going to own the team, which may mean good things in terms of a TV deal with NBC sports? 

This is exactly the type of ownership I understand the NLL likes, a NHL (or NBA) owner so that it the NLL team isn't fighting for arena dates. 

I'm quite a bit more optimistic about this than San Diego but it seems like Nick Sakiewicz is following up on his promises so that is positive. 

 

I'm glad to see this but that brings the league up to 11 teams, so I assume they'll be looking to add a 12, hopefully they stop there. Too much growth may make the talent pool a little thin. 

 

http://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/nll-to-announce-franchise-returning-to-philadelphia/50453

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/other_sports/national-lacrosse-league-philadelphia-wings-comcast-spectacor-20170912.html?mobi=true

 

 

[JayMac]

I am so happy to hear this! They will be owned by Comcast Spectacor, so that is a solid backing. Now, all we need is the Wings moniker to return 

[AnPheitseog]

1 minute ago, jmac11281 said:

I am so happy to hear this! They will be owned by Comcast Spectacor, so that is a solid backing. Now, all we need is the Wings moniker to return 

i wouldnt be suprised to see a "franchise swap" happen, and the expansion technically goes to NE

[Jer15]

If I recall, they already said that the "Wings" nickname/history was to stay in Philly. The old "Browns treatment" lol.

[Wings]

I vote for a return of the Wings. Not that I'm biased or anything. 

[BeerGuyJordan]

I just love how this thread is primarily ULL currents and Alumni.

 

I know it's in the "never gonna happen" category, but I'd love to see the Sting make a return.

[Jer15]

14 hours ago, BeerGuyJordan said:

I know it's in the "never gonna happen" category, but I'd love to see the Sting make a return.

 

They averaged on the high side of 8,000 per game. Not horrible, but they were killed by travel costs. 

My buddy was on the practice squad and the team had to fly a bunch of Ontario guys out each weekend. Usually they'd fly them to Phoenix on Friday morning. They'd practice on Friday, fly to the game on Saturday, fly back to Phoenix on Saturday or Sunday then, send everyone home again on Sunday.

I can see that getting costly pretty quick. 

 

It's also why I'm a little worried about San Diego (and to be perfectly honest, Vancouver though there are a lot of Western Canadians that play the sport) they are both pretty far from the rest of the league and don't have a NHL or NBA ownership backing them. Money is great (and it seems like they have it in San Diego) but seeing as so much of the players are based in the north-east, the cost of bringing them in every weekend adds up quick.  

[Jer15]

Philly was made official today.  Not too much of note from the press conference except that it was mentioned (by the mayor) that there will be a name the team contest.

 

There's no way the majority is anything other than "Wings", I'm sure of it.

 

On another note, I've been hearing that there will be one more team announced to start play in 2018/19 and that it is probable that it will be in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

[BeerGuyJordan]

Edit: nevermind, I always confuse Halifax and St. John's...stupid American...

[Jer15]

That's funny 

St John's arena could use the tenant though! 

[Seadragon76]

Why Halifax? Doesn't it seem like a total outlier for the other teams??