Senior B lacrosse season cancelled
Lakers create and deliver themed masks for 10 local nursing homes; club to issue refunds to 2020 season-ticket holders, executive Cowie says
While another lacrosse league cancelled its 2020 season Wednesday, the Peterborough lacrosse community has rallied to fight the spread of COVID-19.
The Ontario Series Lacrosse Senior B league announced it has cancelled its 2020 season. The announcement came after Major Series Lacrosse cancelled its season Tuesday. The Ontario Junior C Lacrosse League cancelled its campaign last month.
“It’s totally disappointing,” said Ennismore James Gang coach Jim Johnston.
“I don’t know what the future is going to bring to us. There are going to be some retirement of players who are going to find they don’t want to travel and some who are going to move on in life. I hope we can get it back to where it was.”
Johnston said, being a contact sport, it was the smart move to cancel the season for the safety of all involved.
He said the team relies on sponsorship for three-quarters of its budget with gate receipts and a golf tournament making up the rest.
“It’s hard to ask some of our sponsors who have been off for the last two months to support us for the season,” Johnston said. “I found it very hard to even ask somebody to give us a sponsorship. They’ve been so loyal to us over the years it would be an insult to ask them.” The league considered a shortened season if play could begin by July 1 but commissioner Joe Hiltz said there is too much uncertainty to prolong what’s becoming an inevitable decision.
“We’re not sure how many fans we could put in the crowd or how many players we’d be allowed to have on the floor. The government hasn’t said we could do this,” Hiltz said. “We decided as a group, for the safety and benefit of everybody, that we cancel the season and look forward to next year.”
The only local team to not officially cancel its season is the Merit Precision Jr. A Lakers. Team president Tim Barrie said it seems inevitable but so far British Columbia’s Jr. A league hasn’t cancelled so Ontario has held off on a decision.
Barrie said the Peterborough lacrosse summer camps, run by Nationwide Lacrosse, have been cancelled. They employ eight senior and junior Lakers with 60 campers per week.
The Peterborough Minor Lacrosse Association will announce a decision on its house league this week, said PMLA president Aaron Garfat.
The Ontario Lacrosse Association paused all in-person lacrosse activity until June 15. Garfat said the rep program is waiting until then to make a decision.
“The OLA has contingency plans in place for anywhere from a four- to 10-week season,” Garfat said. “It’s all dependent on other centres and even our arena availability. It’s sit and wait until June15 and see where we’re at. July 1 is probably a drop-dead date.”
Garfat said the PMLA is ahead of most centres because its tryouts were completed before the pandemic.
Century 21 Lakers executive Brian Cowie said season-ticket holders will be refunded by the Memorial Centre box office for any 2020 packages sold. The refund will be in the method of payment.
Cowie said the PMC box office is closed but staff are monitoring voice mail and email to answer fan questions. Fans also have the option of putting their payments toward future events at the facility, he said.
Cowie said fans should not worry about losing their seats for 2021. “Everybody’s seats will be saved whether they bought their seats for this year or not,” he said.
Cowie said the team should be able to survive the loss of a season given it will not have many expenses with no games being played.
“We do have some and we have a little bit of operating money right now,” Cowie said. “We will probably be giving some back to sponsors who want it back for this year or we’ll give them a credit for next year if they want to leave it with us.
“Our biggest worry is, what sponsors will be back after two years? Some sponsors didn’t come back last year and after two years it will be even harder,” he added.
“With the economic situation, some people might be going out of business, too. That’s a big fear. We do have an older crowd and some might be afraid to get back in there, too, but hopefully in a year everything will be a lot better.”
Meanwhile, Lakers executives John Grant Sr. and Len Powers led a charge to raise funds to produce masks in team colours with the words “Peterborough Strong, Lakers Lacrosse” to donate to local nursing homes.
Sponsors Century 21, Merit Precision and other members of the Lakers community donated more than $5,400 to produce 450 masks created by Uncommon Fit: Custom Lacrosse Apparel.
“We delivered them to 10 different nursing homes between Peterborough and Norwood,” Cowie said.