Rush cancel Friday’s exhibition as NLL’S labour impasse lingers
With the National Lacrosse League only weeks away from the scheduled start of the 2018-19 season, players remain in limbo without a new collective bargaining agreement.
That lack of contract resolution is now affecting Saskatchewan Rush fans. The team had been scheduled to play a pre-season exhibition game Friday against the Colorado Mammoth at Sasktel Centre. That game has now been cancelled.
The league is still scheduled to open the new season on Dec. 1.
The Rush is slated to play its season-opener that day against the host Georgia Swarm in Georgia. Saskatchewan’s home opener is set for Dec. 8 versus the Colorado Mammoth at Sasktel Centre.
Rush media relations spokesman Brandon Urban on Tuesday said that “unfortunately, the team can’t provide any comment on the CBA negotiations.”
He directed media inquiries to the league.
“Hopefully, we have some good news to share soon,” Urban said.
The NLL, in a statement to the Saskatoon Starphoenix, said it hopes to reach a fair deal on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Professional Lacrosse Players Association (PLPA).
“The National Lacrosse League has made great strides as a competitive and viable sports and entertainment business in the last three years. Our ownership groups have never been more committed and engaged to growing our sport than they are today,” the league said in its statement.
“At the core of that success is the relationship with the fans, our business partners, our coaches and staff, and, most importantly, our players. Our goal as it has been throughout this negotiation is to find the most fair and equitable arrangement to keep the NLL moving forward, and we feel that the offer we are putting forward, which includes a very solid and fair offer and, importantly is one for the players and league to continue to build a strong, competitive and exciting business.
“That is our sole purpose here, the health of the league for all, and we look forward to continuing along that path for years to come.”
In an earlier statement, the NLL said it is “not locking out the players,” but would be postponing training camps in the necessary markets “due to lack of participation.”
Fans, including season ticket holders, who had purchased tickets to Friday ’s exhibition game will receive full refunds, the team said.
EXPANSION PLANS CONTINUE
Meanwhile, as the CBA negotiations continue, the NLL is scheduled to make a “major” announcement on Thursday in New York.
It is believed that the NLL will be announcing future expansion plans for a team to be based on Long Island, N.Y.
That NLL team, according to multiple media reports, would play games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., an arena controlled by Brooklyn Nets parent company BSE Global. The Coliseum is also to be, once again, home of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders.
The NLL is currently comprised of 12 franchises across the United States and Canada: Buffalo Bandits, Calgary Roughnecks, Colorado Mammoth, Georgia Swarm, New England Black Wolves, Philadelphia Wings, Rochester Knighthawks, San Diego Seals, Saskatchewan Rush, Toronto Rock, Vancouver Warriors and Halifax ‘19.
San Diego and Philadelphia are expansion teams for the upcoming season. Halifax is set to join a year from now.
Long Island is considered a hotbed for U.S. lacrosse, with 447,213 youth (14-and-under) participants last year, up from 241,581 a decade earlier, according to the sport’s national governing body. The sport is also booming at the college level where 371 schools sponsored men’s lacrosse last year, up from 295 in 2012. For women’s lacrosse, the number rose to 498 schools from 376 in the same fiveyear period.
The NLL — billed as North America’s premier professional indoor lacrosse league — was founded in 1986 and ranks third in average attendance for pro indoor sports worldwide, behind only the NHL and NBA.