Professional Lacrosse Changes

[4_tattoos]

A professional graphic artist made that Albany NLL logo? Looks like the type of things my classmates would draw out of boredom in middle school.

[raysox]

 

congrats to the happy parents

[4_tattoos]

FWIW, the PLL has released player t-shirts for the Cannons. Guess we can expect their first PLL jerseys to have generic block numbers.

 

 

 

[JayMac]

12 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

FWIW, the PLL has released player t-shirts for the Cannons. Guess we can expect their first PLL jerseys to have generic block numbers.

 

 

 

They will probably do this because they are the only club with some kind of "history". Not that I think that they are the same franchise as the MLL one but I'm guessing the PLL will regard it as such.

[monkeypower]

The Toronto Rock announced today they are relocating to Hamilton beginning this next season.

 

However, the release goes out of it's way to specifically word the relocation as "relocat[ing] the team's home games" and the team will still be called the Toronto Rock, so they aren't committing to a "full" relocation (because they don't want to lose that precious Toronto branding/connection).

 

Quote

Despite the move, and a history of intense sports rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto, the team's name will remain the same.

 

Dawick said a change was considered, but stressed that even though the team is relocating, he believes nothing has really changed.

 

"I do get the rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto but it's bigger than that," he said, adding that as the only team in Ontario, the Rock represent the entire province, especially the GTHA.

 

The owner said he's from Oakville, and that when he travels outside the area he tells people he's from Toronto.

 

"When you're travelling and you have a brand … no disrespect to the people in Hamilton … but around North America a lot of people would look at you and think you're talking about Bermuda or something like that," he said.

 

"I would say to anyone that's worried about the team name, come out and come out and see what we're going to do in this community. It's who we are. We are the Toronto Rock."

 

They used to be the Ontario Raiders when the previously played in Hamilton and the release says they represent the entire province, so why not go back to Ontario? (I mean, I know why they didn't, but still).

 

We'll see how Hamiltonians accept the name and Torontonians accept the move. Early Twitter reaction isn't great.

[Echo]

Makes a certain amount of sense, I guess.  Rent has got to be a lot cheaper at Copps (or whatever it's called these days), and they won't be 3rd in line for arena dates behind two major league teams. 

[Burmy]

7 minutes ago, Echo said:

Makes a certain amount of sense, I guess.  Rent has got to be a lot cheaper at Copps (or whatever it's called these days), and they won't be 3rd in line for arena dates behind two major league teams. 

In that case, why not go with the Coca-Cola Coliseum (only other neighbors are the AHL Marlies)?

[Echo]

Capacity at Coca-Cola is less than 8,000. Capacity in Hamilton is over 17,000. The Rock usually averaged over 10,000 a game at the ACC. I'm guessing they wouldn't want to limit possible ticket sales that much, especially after losing a season and a half to the pandemic.

[nash61]

8 hours ago, monkeypower said:

We'll see how Hamiltonians accept the name and Torontonians accept the move. Early Twitter reaction isn't great.

Hamiltonian here. There are few things we hate more than being called Toronto. Hamilton will never embrace this team until the name changes.

[nickp91]

If "Rock" is truly the brand as owner Jamie Dawick says then perhaps calling them the Ontario Rock

[schlim]

I remember the early 90s when it was reported beer sales were so high at Toronto's NLL games they were more profitable than Maple Leaf games. Toronto, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Rochester had solid attendance and the league at least tried plugging teams into logical spots, no matter how poorly run or marketed they were.

Now Toronto is in Hamilton, and the original Philadelphia Wings are in Albany, the original Knighthawks are in Halifax and the league is adding teams with 'Panther City' as a name.

I guess at least they outlasted ArenaFootball!

[Discrim]

The Toronto Rock of Hamilton.  This would be like the Blackhawks for some reason deciding to move to Milwaukee...and then insisting that they remain the Chicago Blackhawks.  The Chi, the Mil, same thing, amirite?

Could they not have found somewhere closer to Toronto?  As in somewhere where still calling themselves Toronto isn't outright silly?

[nash61]

8 minutes ago, Discrim said:

The Toronto Rock of Hamilton.  This would be like the Blackhawks for some reason deciding to move to Milwaukee...and then insisting that they remain the Chicago Blackhawks.  The Chi, the Mil, same thing, amirite?

Could they not have found somewhere closer to Toronto?  As in somewhere where still calling themselves Toronto isn't outright silly?

The line where you can be called Toronto and it not be weird is Oakville.

[Jer15]

Having lived in both Toronto and Hamilton (currently) and being a huge Rock fan; I can say this one seems extremely perplexing to me. 

there’s so much talk about fixing up Copps/ First Ontario Centre (or at least there was about a year ago IIRC) but nothing has come to pass. I love going to see the Bulldogs but that arena just isn’t up to snuff. This is a huge step backwards to me. 

While I agreed with what @Echo is saying in terms of capacity I think that it would still make sense to play at “coke”.  
 

I honestly wonder how much of it is The relationship between MLSE and the Rock (or, Jamie Dawick ((the Rock’s owner))). I recall a few years back there was talk of the Rock getting kicked out of the ACC because concerts made More money and it was kind of a year by year renewal at that time. 

Maybe the “coke” wasn’t even an option. 

 

I guess time will tell but I’m not optimistic about this move. 

[nash61]

11 hours ago, Jer15 said:

Having lived in both Toronto and Hamilton (currently) and being a huge Rock fan; I can say this one seems extremely perplexing to me. 

there’s so much talk about fixing up Copps/ First Ontario Centre (or at least there was about a year ago IIRC) but nothing has come to pass. I love going to see the Bulldogs but that arena just isn’t up to snuff. This is a huge step backwards to me. 

They finally fixed that escalator that was broken for over three years, so hey, progress.

[Jer15]

14 hours ago, nash61 said:

They finally fixed that escalator that was broken for over three years, so hey, progress.

I think this was a literal case of "one step at a time" 

[Jer15]

Just realized this wasn't posted in this thread:

 

https://www.nll.com/news/saskatchewan-rush-acquired-by-the-priestner-sports-corporation/

 

Considering all the other moves since the NLL stopped play, this one really isn't much of a head-turner. The owner of the junior hockey team bought the lacrosse team that plays in the same arena. Makes sense to me. 

[4_tattoos]

Based on a brief mention Paul Rabil has with his camera man on his most recent YouTube video, the Cannons PLL uniforms should be unveiled next Friday. PLL training camp begins next Friday (May 28), and the season starts the week after that on June 4.

 

Based on the Cannons player t-shirt I posted earlier in this thread it may be safe to assume their jerseys will have simple block numbers, and one of the jerseys will be navy blue. I hope they carry over the silver helmets from the MLL days.

[4_tattoos]

Cannons uniforms were released earlier today.

 

 

 

[4_tattoos]