National Lacrosse League Expansion/Relocation 2021

[Dilbert]

Announcement should come Tuesday afternoon, the NLL New England Black Wolves have been sold and are being relocated to Albany. It will be the second attempt for the Times Union Centre and Albany in the NLL

[JayMac]

8 hours ago, Dilbert said:

Announcement should come Tuesday afternoon, the NLL New England Black Wolves have been sold and are being relocated to Albany. It will be the second attempt for the Times Union Centre and Albany in the NLL

It is amazing to think that Philadelphia Wings 1.0 is being relocated again.

[Jer15]

I'm not sure about the location but it's got to be better than being an attraction at a casino. 

I like that the new owner is a former player, an investor in the PLL and, owns Poch Lacrosse. Says to me he'd be really invested in making this work.

 

 

[Burmy]

Happy to see another NLL team in Upstate NY...but not happy to see New England without the sport again.

 

Hopefully an expansion team comes to New England one of these days...

[GDAWG]

Weren't the Black Wolves owned by the Mohegan Sun Casino?  Or were they only minority owners?  If they were the majority, it may not be a good sign of their financial strength since they also own the WNBA's Connecticut Sun.  Obviously this is due to COVID, but if they are forced to sell the Sun, it may be a sign of serious financial trouble. 

[Brian in Boston]

On 2/23/2021 at 9:26 AM, GDAWG said:

Weren't the Black Wolves owned by the Mohegan Sun Casino?  Or were they only minority owners?  If they were the majority, it may not be a good sign of their financial strength since they also own the WNBA's Connecticut Sun.  Obviously this is due to COVID, but if they are forced to sell the Sun, it may be a sign of serious financial trouble. 

As of the time of this sale to Oliver Marti, Mohegan Sun held majority ownership of the team, with the minority stake split between Mike French, Brad Brewster, and Ted Goldthorpe. French, Brewster, and Goldthorpe will continue to own a minority stake in the team once it moves to Albany, New York.   

While the pandemic hasn't helped matters, the truth is that the Mohegan Sun casino has been in a financially precarious position for nearly a decade. Ditto for Foxwoods Resort Casino, which is just 11 miles away. They - and other New England casino ventures - have been cannibalizing one another's business.

In addition to the Connecticut gaming venues, there's Twin River Casino Hotel in Lincoln, Rhode Island (55 miles from Foxwoods, 66 miles from Mohegan Sun)... which is just 28 miles from its own wholly-owned Tiverton Casino Hotel subsidiary. Then there's Plainridge Park Casino, the Plainfield, Massachusetts slots parlor that's 18 miles from Twin River and 36 miles from Tiverton. MGM Springfield is located approximately 70 miles from the Connecticut casinos. Encore Boston Harbor - Steve Wynn's much ballyhooed entry into the New England casino sweepstakes before he resigned as Wynn Resorts amidst sexual misconduct allegations - is a 1-hour and 45-minute drive from the Connecticut casinos, a 1-1/2-hour drive from MGM Springfield, an hour drive from the Rhode Island gaming venues, and 45 minutes from Plainridge Park.

The market to support all of these gaming operations simply doesn't exist. Certainly not in New England. Ledyard and Uncasville, CT... Lincoln and Tiverton, RI... Plainville, Springfield, and Everett, MA - nobody is going to mistake these locales for Monaco, Macau, or Las Vegas. No, these locations are all prone to the same seasonal meteorological vagaries that plague Atlantic City, New Jersey. How's casino gaming working out there? Atlantic City's been trying to reinvent itself as more than a second-rate Vegas with lousy weather since the early 1990s.  

People tend to forget that Atlantic City got its start as a summer season, family-oriented vacation destination for Middle Atlantic residents during the first half of the 20th century. Yes, Prohibition brought copious amounts of liquor - and gambling - to Atlantic City, but the pursuit of such diversions took place "back-of-house", in private rooms and away from the public eye. After Prohibition ended, the next "boom" for the city was the entertainment era of the mid-'30s through the 1960s, with nightclubs booking top music and comedy acts. By the late-'60s and early 1970s that uptick had run its course. With the legalization of gambling in New Jersey came the opening of Atlantic City's first legal casino in 1978. This resulted in a burst of casino development and the city's so-called "heyday" as a legal gambling mecca. The truth of the matter is that the so-called "golden age" of Atlantic City casino gambling had run its course by the mid-'90s. With the arrival of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun on the scene, Atlantic City no longer had a monopoly on East Coast casino gambling.

Bottom line? Ownership of a National Lacrosse League franchise was likely an expense that Mohegan Sun could no longer afford.

[Brian in Boston]

I would add, there are efforts afoot to build yet another casino to in New England, with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe claiming that half of a 300-acre reservation granted to it by the federal government in 2016 should be sited on land in Taunton, Massachusetts. The Wampanoag's plan for the Taunton site is to build a $1 billion gaming complex - First Light Resort & Casino - on said property.

The trouble with said plan - as local casino opponents, including  a rival tribe, see it - is that the tract of land in Taunton is located 50 miles from the Mashpee Wampanoag's historic home territory in Mashpee on Cape Cod. Further, recent research by historian Jeremy Bangs of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum indicates that a 1664 deed - on file at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds in Plymouth, Massachusetts - designates the land in Taunton as part of the Titicut Reserve and specifically sets it aside in perpetuity for the Mattakeesets. Based upon said deed, the modern Mattakeeset Massachusetts Tribe - currently seeking recognition from the federal government - wants to block the Wampanoags from taking control of the proposed casino site in Taunton.

[GDAWG]

2 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

As of the time of this sale to Oliver Marti, the Mohegan Tribe held majority ownership of the team, with the minority stake split between Mike French, Brad Brewster, and Ted Goldthorpe. French, Brewster, and Goldthorpe will continue to own a minority stake in the team once it moves to Albany, New York.   

While the pandemic hasn't helped matters, the truth is that the tribal nation's Mohegan Sun casino has been in a financially precarious position for nearly a decade. Ditto for Foxwoods Resort Casino, which is just 11 miles away. They - and other New England casino ventures - have been cannibalizing one another's business.

In addition to the Connecticut gaming venues, there's Twin River Casino Hotel in Lincoln, Rhode Island (55 miles from Foxwoods, 66 miles from Mohegan Sun)... which is just 28 miles from its own wholly-owned Tiverton Casino Hotel subsidiary. Then there's Plainridge Park Casino, the Plainfield, Massachusetts slots parlor that's 18 miles from Twin River and 36 miles from Tiverton? MGM Springfield is located approximately 70 miles from the Connecticut casinos. Encore Boston Harbor - Steve Wynn's much ballyhooed entry into the New England casino sweepstakes before he resigned as Wynn Resorts amidst sexual misconduct allegations - is a 1-hour and 45-minute drive from the Connecticut casinos, a 1-1/2-hour drive from MGM Springfield, an hour drive from the Rhode Island gaming venues, and 45 minutes from Plainridge Park.

The market to support all of these gaming operations simply doesn't exist. Certainly not in New England. Ledyard and Uncasville, CT... Lincoln and Tiverton, RI... Plainville, Springfield, and Everett, MA - nobody is going to mistake these locales for Monaco, Macau, or Las Vegas. No, these locales are all prone to the same seasonal meteorological vagaries that plague Atlantic City, New Jersey. How's casino gaming working out there? Atlantic City's been trying to reinvent itself as more than a second-rate Vegas with lousy weather since the early 1990s.  

People tend to forget that Atlantic City got its start as a summer season, family-oriented vacation destination for Middle Atlantic residents during the first half of the 20th century. Yes, Prohibition brought copious amounts of liquor - and gambling - to Atlantic City, but the pursuit of such diversions took place "back-of-house", in private rooms and away from the public eye. After Prohibition ended, the next "boom" for the city was the entertainment era of the mid-'30s through the 1960s, with nightclubs booking top music and comedy acts. By the late-'60s and early 1970s that uptick had run its course. With the legalization of gambling in New Jersey came the opening of Atlantic City's first legal casino in 1978. This resulted in a burst of casino development and the city's so-called "heyday" as a legal gambling mecca. The truth of the matter is that the so-called "golden age" of Atlantic City casino gambling had run its course by the mid-'90s. With the arrival of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun on the scene, Atlantic City no longer had a monopoly on East Coast casino gambling.

Bottom line? Ownership of a National Lacrosse League franchise was likely an expense that the Mohegan Tribe/Mohegan Sun could no longer afford.

 

So what does that mean for the WNBA team that Mohegan Sun owns?

[Brian in Boston]

3 hours ago, GDAWG said:

So what does that mean for the WNBA team that Mohegan Sun owns?

Going on 25 years since opening the Mohegan Sun casino, it seems clear that the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority's property development and operation entity - Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment - is primarily focused on its resort casino properties. Such properties - particularly, the company's namesake flagship resort and casino in Connecticut - were already facing financial challenges prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. That being the case, with the hit that said properties are currently taking in the midst of a global pandemic, I don't know that I'd bet on pro sports team ownership being a priority for the company if financial push comes to shove.   

[GDAWG]

3 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Going on 25 years since opening the Mohegan Sun casino, it seems clear that the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority's property development and operation entity - Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment - is primarily focused on its resort casino properties. Such properties - particularly, the company's namesake flagship resort and casino in Connecticut - were already facing financial challenges prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. That being the case, with the hit that said properties are currently taking in the midst of a global pandemic, I don't know that I'd bet on pro sports team ownership being a priority for the company if financial push comes to shove.   

 

So they are probably going to sell their WNBA team.

[pluggerplugger1]

Looks like Albany has already narrowed their list of potential team names to 3:

 

 

Not keen on any of them to be honest.

[DEAD!]

"Attack" is the only choice.

[Jer15]

Yeah, Attack for sure. 

[Dilbert]

6 hours ago, pluggerplugger1 said:

Looks like Albany has already narrowed their list of potential team names to 3:

 

 

Not keen on any of them to be honest.

It should be Attack. I think it was going to be Attack all along but I thinks they threw together a couple quick other finalists, just to say they are going to let the public vote.They were the New England Black Wolves. The other choices? Black Arrows and Fire Wolves.

[Dilbert]

Looks like Albany went with the Fire Wolves

[Jer15]

 

 

[AnPheitseog]

4 minutes ago, Jer15 said:

 

 

beaten to the joke.

 

 

[DEAD!]

At first I thought this was an AEW Wolf.

[-kj]

The head isn't bad, though the initials are annoying.  That wordmark?  Woof.

[schlim]

AF