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Major League Lacrosse reportedly contracting teams, Boston Cannons safe for now
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Major League Lacrosse, based out of Brighton and home of the Boston Cannons, is in the midst of making some hard decisions about the future of their league.
Earlier this week, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported that the 2008 MLL Champion Rochester Rattlers would move to Toronto. Thursday afternoon, rumors hit Inside Lacrosse magazine that the Philadelphia Barrage had folded, and the futures of the New Jersey Pride, San Francisco Dragons and Los Angeles Riptide were in doubt.
The Rattlers team had been in the league since its inception in 2001. Rochester finds itself in financial difficulty with most of its professional sports teams due to a series of ownership and fiscal issues, and the loss of one of their teams is not a giant surprise to the struggling city's sports fans. Some hoped that the Rattlers, with a roster stacked with players born and bred in western New York, might have survived. But their fan base could never stack up to that of the much more popular Rochester Knighthawks of the NLL.
Rattlers players are finding out about the team's move along with the general public, "Seeing Rochester moving is bittersweet," said Rattlers and current Boston Blazer Jack Reid to the Examiner this week. "We had invested in building a winning, successful organization in Rochester, but the move signifies a failure to fully accomplish this. I am going to miss the fans that had committed to supporting us and whom I had the opportunity to develop a strong connection with."
Reid and his fellow Rattlers were originally unsure of where the team would be moved. "The relocation to Toronto is certainly far more welcomed than where the original rumors had us going (Orlando, Florida.) It is in the backyard of a lot of the current players on the roster which has the added benefit of keeping traveling costs down."
Although Rochester was a strong lacrosse community, there is a lot of excitement regarding bringing the MLL to Toronto, also a lacrosse hotbed.
"Toronto is a great city with a tremendous lacrosse community and the facility they have us reported to be playing in is first rate," said Reid. Reid's teammate on the Rattlers, John Grant Jr., agreed. ''A team in Toronto could be great for MLL,'' Grant said in an interview with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on Wednesday. Grant likened the relocation of the Rattlers to the NLL's expansion to Toronto in 1999. ``Adding the Toronto Rock might have saved the National Lacrosse League."
Philadelphia's future had been in doubt even last season, as the team was unable to secure a home field in the Philadelphia area, and was forced to play the 2008 season as a travel team. The league had taken control of all operations of the Barrage since their championship season in 2007.
It is anticipated that the new Toronto team would play in the same division as the Boston Cannons, although with the details of the league's contraction still unclear, the divisional alignment could change. Inside Lacrosse reports that the desire to cut down on the league's travel costs will play a major role in these decisions. These decisions about league contraction come after MLL leadership announced a desire to expand, particularly in the Western part of the US, in the middle of 2008.
All of the uncertainty surrounding MLL teams this week has fans worried. "This is the death of the MLL perhaps," commented "MLL Fan" on the Inside Lacrosse boards. "I sincerely hope not because I love watching lacrosse on the professional level, and it would be a shame for the league to shut down."
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