CLA’swoesputcity’shostingof2019U19worldsatrisk
The Canadian Lacrosse Association board of directors has fired another salvo aimed at driving Canada’s national summer sport deeper into an abyss.
The latest decision by the CLA board to relieve all four of the manager soft he Canadian national teams of their duties reverberates right down to the Peterborough lacrosse organizations.
The Peterborough Lakers, current Mann Cup champions, are without question the most successful and efficiently run lacrosse organization in Canada. They supply a number of players to national men’s teams that compete at the world level in both the indoor and the field games. The other city lacrosse organizations send players to the other three national teams, the Under 19 men, the Under 19 women and the women’s national team. In fact, Peterborough will host the 2019 U19 women’s world championship for a second time in 12 years.
Now with the management level of the national teams wiped out by a decision of the C LA last week, the future of all national teams and events are in question. This will have an effect on the Peter borough teams. Also with the city preparing to eliminate the 2019 Lake rs schedule by ripping up the floor of the Memorial Centre, local lacrosse at the elite level is facing some serious problems.
These current problems of the C LA are just the latest of many that have plagued the organization for years. The CLA executive is often dysfunctional to the level of in competence. They have little idea of the needs of the elite levels of the game. They pass rules affecting all players that have negative effects on the senior and junior levels.
The latest faux pas was their involvement in a $60.7-million gifting program they walked blindly into. This decision resulted in their Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Association status being revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency in 2010. This denied the C LA the ability to issue tax receipts for donations thereby severely hampering the national programs from raising funds. The results were team members were assessed up to $10,000 in fees to play for Canada at world events.
The executive have been told by legal advisors they will not receive their status back until they essentially get rid of the two executive members who remain from the board that received the 2010 CRA sanction. In fact, legal experts feel a complete restructuring and re naming of the C LA is the only way lacrosse governance should move forward.
Unfortunately, there is a degree of deniable plausibility with many current CLA executive members as to how damaging this situation is on all aspects of the game. This was displayed last weekend by the return of the same executive at the CLA annual meeting.
How does this filter down to the Peterborough organizations?
The C LA runs the Mann Cup. We have seen some of their incompetence especially at the 2012 event here in Peterborough when they completely messed up the drug testing.
It is maybe time that the Lakers lead a movement to pull the major/ senior division out of the dysfunctional CLA. The Lakers have the clout to put pressure on the other major teams, east and west, to go it alone. A similar move in 1968 lasted two years. Hockey long ago separated its elite divisions from the national governing body.
Unfortunately, because the CLA is the organization the international organizations deal with, our national programs and the elite players that play on them are the most seriously affected. It is questionable Canada will be able to send a representative team to next year’s men’s world championships in Israel without experienced management.
Also the 2019 U 19 event scheduled for Peterborough will definitely be in jeopardy if the current situation with the CLA is not rectified.
Don Barrie is a retired teacher, a former Buffalo Sabres scout and a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. His column appears each Saturday in The Examiner.