Friday afternoon, Major League Lacrosse announced that the Chicago Machine will face the Denver Outlaws in Rochester, NY on June 25th. This is huge news for Rochester, a dedicated lacrosse town whose own MLL team moved to Toronto after a period of mismanagement in 2008. But does Rochester's chance mark a death knell for the Machine?
Curiously, the MLL composite schedule lists all Chicago Machine games for the upcoming season, which begins on May 15, as occurring at the "MLL Head Office." The Outlaws-Machine game was initially scheduled for Saturday, June 26th, but was moved to the 25th to accommodate other events at Rochester's Marina Auto Stadium.
A few commenters on lacrosse boards across the web have been claiming for weeks that for the upcoming season, the Machine would be run much like the since departed Philadelphia Barrage was in 2008 - run solely by the league, with no home games. The Barrage then folded after their "traveling season" ended.
The Machine's own website now states - on a sub-page - that the 2010 is the "Road Tour." "For the 2010 Season, The Machine will be playing each of its games on the road. Each "home" game will be played in a possible MLL expansion market," the page reads, with no additional information. All ticket sub pages say that ticket information is "coming soon," and the main page makes no mention that the team will be on the road all season. This information about the "Road Tour" is not linked to from the team's news page, and isn't mentioned anywhere prominent on the league webpage.
Friday's announcement about the Rochester game was the first time anything close to an official announcement was made by the MLL about Chicago's fate. If the "Road Tour" will be heading out to potential expansion cities, it will be interesting to see what other cities the Machine will visit? Will a league that keeps losing teams actually be able to expand?
Comments
dave gross, the mll commissioner is the problem.
If Chicago is losing it's team, a big part of it was that they charged a fortune to get into the game.
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