Franchise out to avoid Stealth exit
Langley-based club averaged crowds of only 3,734 last season, the lowest in the NLL
You can sum up a good chunk of the Vancouver Stealth story in three words. Is this it? Stealth general manager Doug Locker has repeatedly said he doesn’t think this third year based out of the Langley Events Centre is make or break for the National Lacrosse League franchise.
The fact remains owner Denise Watkins is in a league filled with teams in NHL buildings and she’s trying to recoup on her investments in the 5,276-seat LEC, a venue the Stealth have yet to fill to capacity with any sort of frequency.
Unless things start trending in a more positive direction, there’s a point where Watkins is going to look for something or somewhere different. Could be five years down the line. Could be three. Could be sooner.
The players get it. They understand they aren’t yet on stable ground.
“There’s a pressure and an expectation for a Vancouver-based lacrosse team to do well from the Vancouver lacrosse community,” says Stealth captain Curtis Hodgson, a veteran defender. “It’s no secret.
“I don’t want to make some ridiculous statement. I believe in the group that we have. I believe that with the moves that we’ve made this off-season and by sticking to our process, this is a team that should be in the playoffs. There’s no excuse.”
Winning is the best marketing campaign. The Stealth haven’t done nearly enough of it yet, especially in a market like the Lower Mainland. In the two years since moving up from Everett, Wash., they are 9-27 and missed the playoffs both times.
They averaged crowds of 3,734 last season, which was the bottom of the NLL. Four of the league’s nine teams averaged 10,000 or more, led by the Colorado Mammoth, who brought in 14,787 a night to the Pepsi Center, the 18,007-seat building that’s also home to the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.
The league as a whole averaged 8,970 in the regular season in 2015, down from 9,430 in 2014. The Stealth were running along at a 3,590 clip in their first foray in the LEC, so at least they showed growth in 2015.
A year ago today, it was a team built around then-21-year-old phenom Johnny Powless. Locker had sent a trade package loaded with draft picks to the Rochester Knighthawks to land Powless and tried to turn him into the poster boy for the franchise.
It didn’t work on or off the floor and Locker spent even more draft picks to bring in even more offence as the defence, which was undermanned to start, continued to erode.
This season, the defence is much improved thanks to the return of veterans Matt Beers, who missed the 2015 season with work commitments, and Jeff Moleski, who signed as a free agent after a campaign with the Calgary Roughnecks.
The role of Powless now belongs to Garrett Billings, who came over in a deal this off-season with the New England Black Wolves — Saturday’s opening opponent — for Tyler Digby and another draft pick.
Billings isn’t a kid. He’ll be 30 in February. But he’s from Langley, having grown up just down the street from the LEC. He even interned at the rink one summer back when he was playing in the NLL with the Toronto Rock.
Powless is from Six Nations of the Grand River, Ont.
It was hard to get him to sell the virtues of the franchise to the public and sponsors when he was in town a day or two at time.
Billings says he wants to be coming to games in Langley long after he’s retired.
That’s pressure. That’s expectation. He seems willing to own all that. It’s another new start, but it’s the best the Stealth have had since coming to Langley.
“You have to win to build something here,” said Billings. “You look at the NLL and successful franchises — the Philadelphia Wings, the Toronto Rock — they were dynasties. They built their fan base up. We have to do that.
“It’s simple. You have to win games. It starts with Doug. He needs to make great decisions on every last player. And us as players, we have to believe that we’re going to win every game.
“I want to make selling this team and this league a huge part of my life. I think everybody who comes and sees a game will not be disappointed.”