NLL says team’s here to stay
Commissioner vows, ‘We’re major league’
Where the National Lacrosse League once failed, this time it will succeed.
That was the belief expressed in the Times Union Center atrium Tuesday when Albany’s new NLL team was introduced at a news conference.
Times Union Center and the franchise relocated from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., reached agreement on a five-year deal with a mutual option for an additional five years, arena general manager Bob Belber said.
The indoor lacrosse franchise will likely open its season in early December with a schedule of at least 18 regular-season games — nine home and nine away — though the NLL could expand to a 20- or 22-game schedule next season. Albany is the NLL’S 14th franchise.
“The important thing in this marketplace is for people to know is we (the NLL) are 36 years old, and we’re major league, and we have an ownership group that’s not going anywhere,” NLL commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said. “These guys signed a long-term lease because
this market has been left at the altar a few times, and that’s not any fun when a franchise leaves.”
One of those times involved the NLL’S Albany Attack, who played at Times Union Center from 2000 to 2003 and moved to San Jose, Calif.
Belber said much has changed since that happened and pointed to the commitment of the new seven-person ownership group, led by former All-america lacrosse player and hedge-fund founder Oliver Marti. One of his partners is Sol Kumin, co-owner of 2018 Triple Crown-winning thoroughbred Justify.
“Not to say anything negative about the prior owners of the Attack, because they were great people,” Belber said, “but what ownership groups are willing to invest and put into the ownership of the team and advertising at the games and investment in the community, all of that means something, and these operators have done it before.”
After purchasing the New England Black Wolves from Mohegan Sun, Marti and his group chose Albany over bids from Springfield, Mass., Providence, Baltimore and Montreal.
Marti pointed to the growth of lacrosse in the Capital Region, fueled largely by the success of the University at Albany program. Great Danes coach Scott Marr was at Tuesday’s news conference.
“It’s what the University at Albany has done,” Marti said. “It’s what some of the grassroots (programs) have done. It’s (Albany County Executive) Dan Mccoy and Bob Belber and knowing they’re going to partner with us. It was an opportunity to be in an environment where we’re not really competing with a hockey team, and we really want to be the pro team for Albany.”
George Manias was hired as team president. He held the same title with the Albany Empire of the Arena Football League. The Empire had an league-high average attendance of 10,053 and won a league title in 2019 but folded when the league declared bankruptcy.
Manias said he’ll rely on the same formula with the NLL team that helped the Empire succeed.
“I like to say it’s my playbook,” Manias said. “It wasn’t just about what happened on the field with the team itself. It was the experience we put on. We went out to the community. We were part of the community. When you came to a game, it was an event. You started with a block party, you came inside and it was everything from the music to the interaction that we had with on-the-field promotions and everything we did, we’re going to do exactly the same thing.”
Manias said the target goal for the first season is 6,000 fans per game, depending on the COVID -19 situation at the time. He added he thinks the team will outperform that number and sell out the home opener. The Black Wolves averaged 5,557 fans last season at Mohegan Sun in a smaller arena.
The team is currently known as Albany NLL and has launched its website, albanynll.com. The team will be renamed in April through a fan name-the-team contest.
Whatever the final name, the Albany fans won’t be getting an expansion team. The Black Wolves were 8-3 before last season was canceled by the pandemic.
They will have the same staff, led by coach Glenn Clark and assistant Daryl Gibson, who played for the Attack. The roster includes one former Ualbany player, Joe Resetarits, and others could be added through trades or the draft. Former Ualbany stars Lyle Thompson (Georgia), Blaze Riorden (Philadephia) and Connor Fields (San Diego) also play in the NLL.
“The upside for Albany is, we still have a very good program in place, a team that is going to be competitive right off the bat and an exciting team,” Clark said in a video shown at the news conference.