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National Lacrosse League
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The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is the league of men's indoor lacrosse in North America. It currently has 12 teams; 3 in Canada and 9 in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter. Each year, the playoff teams battle for the Champion's Cup.
Although there are specific areas where lacrosse is popular such as Canada (mainly in Southern Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta), New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and southeastern Pennsylvania primarily for historic reasons or due to high profile college programs, it is still considered a marginal sport in most of North America.
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Encyclopedia
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is the league of men's indoor lacrosse in North America. It currently has 12 teams; 3 in Canada and 9 in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter. Each year, the playoff teams battle for the Champion's Cup.
Although there are specific areas where lacrosse is popular such as Canada (mainly in Southern Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta), New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and southeastern Pennsylvania primarily for historic reasons or due to high profile college programs, it is still considered a marginal sport in most of North America. Consequently, franchise foldings and relocations have been common in the NLL.
Game
The version of lacrosse played in the NLL is indoor lacrosse. This is slightly different than box lacrosse, which is played on a hard floor, usually in the summer, and has 3 periods instead of four. The NLL plays four quarters of fifteen minutes each, with two-minute breaks between the first and second quarters and between the third and fourth quarters, and a twelve-minute break between the second and third (called half-time). The clock does not run when play is stopped.
The team that has scored the most goals at the end of regulation time is declared the winner. If the game is tied after four quarters have been played, the teams begin sudden death overtime; the team that scores first wins the game. Overtime period are fifteen minutes long, with two-minute breaks between overtime periods. Prior to the 2005 NLL season, overtime periods were 5 minutes each.
Each team dresses eighteen players, of whom two are goaltenders; the remaining sixteen are called runners, and may be either forwards or defensemen. There are also players, frequently defensemen, who specialize in the transition from defense to offense.
The team in possession of the ball has ten seconds to move the ball over the center line, and thirty seconds to take a shot on net. If either of these time periods expires, the whistle is blown, and the opposing team is given possession. In the NLL, the shot clock runs while a team that is killing a penalty has possession of the ball; this is not the case in all box lacrosse leagues (eg. Major Series Lacrosse, Western Lacrosse Association).
Season and playoffs
Each team in the NLL plays sixteen games during the regular season, eight at home and eight away. The teams are divided into two divisions, the Eastern division and the Western division. Each team plays at least twelve of its sixteen regular season games against division opponents.
The regular season begins in late December and ends in April. At the end the regular season, the top four teams in each division make the playoffs, which consist of three single-game elimination rounds. In the first round (the Division Semi-finals), each division winner hosts the fourth-place team in its division, and the second-place team hosts the third-place team. In the second round (the Division Finals), the two remaining teams in each division play; the higher-seeded team hosts the game. Two weeks after the Division Finals, the division winners face off for the Champion's Cup.
All NLL games are played on weekends, save for the occasional Thursday night game. Most NLL players have full-time jobs off the floor; notable examples include Toronto's Dan Ladouceur, a Durham Region police officer, and Buffalo's John Tavares, a high school teacher in Mississauga, Ontario.
History
The rebirth of major professional box lacrosse in the United States came on March 13, 1986, with the formation of the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League (EPBLL), which was incorporated by Russ Cline and Chris Fritz. As background, in 1985 box lacrosse sponsored an event played at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The USA/Canada Superseries was an eight-game series, seen as a pre-cursor to the Major Indoor Lacrosse League. The league began play for the 1987 season, opening with two games on January 10, 1987: the Philadelphia Wings at the New Jersey Saints and the Washington Wave hosting the Baltimore Thunder. Those four teams contested a six-game regular season before a postseason which saw all four teams qualify for a single knockout tournament, which ended with the Baltimore Thunder crowned the EPBLL's first champion.
Those same four teams played in the second season of the EPBLL. The teams expanded to an eight-game schedule, and set up a three-team playoff with the regular season winner claiming a bye to the title game. The league rebranded itself as the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL) immediately after the season, and announced that the Detroit Turbos and New England Blazers (based in Worcester, Massachusetts) would begin play for the 1989 season. Meanwhile, the New Jersey Saints moved to Long Island and were renamed the New York Saints.
| National Lacrosse League Progression |
|---|
| Year | Teams | Games Played | | 1987 | 4 teams | 6 games | | 1988 | 8 games | | 1989 | | 1990 | 6 teams | | 1991 | 10 games | | 1992 | 7 teams | 8 games | | 1993 | | 1994 | 6 teams | | 1995 | | 1996 | 7 teams | 10 games | | 1997 | 6 teams | | 1998 | 7 teams | 12 games | | 1999 | | 2000 | 8 teams | | 2001 | 9 teams | 14 games | | 2002 | 13 teams | 16 games | | 2003 | 12 teams | | 2004 | 10 teams | | 2005 | | 2006 | 11 teams | | 2007 | 13 teams | | 2008 | 12 teams | | 2009 |
Like many young professional leagues, the MILL had its share of franchise instability. After the 1989 season, the Washington Wave folded and the MILL granted the expansion Pittsburgh Bulls a franchise to remain at 6 teams for the 1990 season. 1991 saw no franchise changes, but the league expanded the schedule again to 10 games, and introduced two divisions. The American Division consisted of the Baltimore Thunder, Philadelphia Wings, and New York Saints, while the National Division was to be contested between the Detroit Turbos, Pittsburgh Bulls, and New England Blazers. The 1991 postseason consisted solely of a championship game, between the winners of the two divisions.
1992 brought another franchise move, as New England relocated to Boston and became the Boston Blazers (1992-1997). In what would ultimately prove to be the first of the successful expansions, the Buffalo Bandits joined the American division. The Bandits dropped their first three games of the season, but then went on a record 22 game winning streak to claim both the 1992 and 1993 titles. The 1992 and 1993 seasons ended the 10 game schedule, shrinking it back to 8 games, while expanding the playoffs so that 6 of the 7 teams would qualify.
1994 would mark the first time the league would contract, as the Pittsburgh Bulls folded while no new teams were added. The league remained with the 2 division format with just 6 teams, but would abandon that for a single division in 1995, which also saw the folding of the Detroit Turbos and the introduction of the Rochester Knighthawks. The Knighthawks had immediate success as an expansion team, going all the way to the championship game before falling to the Philadelphia Wings in overtime. 1996 brought the ill-fated Charlotte Cobras to the league to expand back to seven. The team from North Carolina(GM Coleman Hynes) went 0-10, and quickly folded camp after the season. At the same time, the league went back to a 10 game season.
The 1997 season went back to the same 6 franchises as the 1995 season had seen, but any sort of stability was only an illusion. After the 1997 season, a rival league named the National Lacrosse League was formed, which was to be based on the franchise model traditional in major American sports leagues, instead of the MILL "single entity ownership" model. After a short battle between the two competitors, the two leagues merged and the 6 MILL franchises joined two NLL franchises, the Syracuse Smash and the Ontario Raiders (based in Hamilton, Ontario), under the NLL umbrella and league structure. The league suffered a setback quickly, as the Boston Blazers suspended operations for one year for the 1998 season, but never returned to play. The NLL went to a round robin schedule for the 1998 season, so the 7 teams played a 12 game season.
The franchise turmoil didn't change with the new league structure, as the Ontario Raiders packed up and moved to Toronto after one season, becoming the Toronto Rock. The Rock quickly became a major success both on the field and in the box office, selling out Maple Leaf Gardens and claiming the 1999 and 2000 NLL titles. 2000 saw one of the original four teams move, as the Baltimore Thunder went to Pittsburgh to become the Pittsburgh CrosseFire. The NLL also expanded to 8 teams, introducing the Albany Attack to play in New York's capital.
In 2001, the league continued to grow to 14 games and introduced its 9th team, the Columbus Landsharks. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Crossefire continued to search for a place to call home, as they moved to the US capital to become the Washington Power. The Syracuse Smash became the second team to play north of the border, as they moved to become the Ottawa Rebel.
Despite all the turmoil, the league continued to expand to new markets, and 2002 was a major part of their nationwide expansion aspirations. For the first time, the league moved out of the Eastern time zone, adding the Vancouver Ravens and Calgary Roughnecks, as well as adding the Montreal Express and New Jersey Storm. The expansion to 13 teams necessitated dividing the league up into divisions for the first time since 1994, as the Central, Eastern, and Northern Divisions were born. The league also expanded the schedule to 16 games, where it still stands today. While the 2002 expansion ultimately proved unsuccessful (3 of the 4 teams have since folded), it did set the stage for the league to grow to a national scope. It also marked the only time the higher seeded team did not host an NLL playoff game, as the Washington Power surrendered the quarterfinal game against Philadelphia to the Wings for financial reasons.
2003 saw the Montreal franchise suspend operations, becoming the second team in league history to be in existence for only one season. The Power, who had struggled to draw fans in Washington, made their 3rd move in 4 season to Denver to become the Colorado Mammoth. This move was finally successful, as the Mammoth have become one of the flagship franchises in the league.
In 2004, for the first time since 1990, the league lost one of the original franchises as the New York Saints went dark. Contraction from the 2002 high of 13 teams continued, as the Storm moved across the country to Anaheim, becoming the Anaheim Storm, while the Ottawa Rebel folded. The Albany Attack and Columbus Landsharks followed the Storm westward, settling in as the San Jose Stealth and Arizona Sting respectively. The league consolidated into a 4 team Eastern Division (Philadelphia, Buffalo, Rochester, and Toronto) and a 6 team Western Division (Colorado, Arizona, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, and Anaheim).
2005 then saw the Vancouver Ravens folded due to lease and ownership issues, while the Montreal franchise rights were bought by the NHL's Minnesota Wild to create the Minnesota Swarm in the Eastern Division. This type of transaction, where an expansion franchise is formed using the rights of a team that had suspended operations, would be used again in the NLL for the next few years, as a glut of teams that were suspended would make those franchise rights more affordable than the league expansion fee of several million dollars.
2006 saw the Anaheim Storm suspend operations, while an ownership group led by Angela Batinovich bought an expansion franchise called the Portland LumberJax, and Bruce Urban bought the rights to the suspended Ottawa franchise to form a team in Edmonton named the Rush. 2007 saw the league finally get back to its 2002 size of thirteen teams, with the addition of the New York Titans and the Chicago Shamrox, while all of the 11 teams from 2006 stayed in place, a first since the 2002 expansion.
The 2008 season was scheduled to see yet another expansion team, as the NLL was scheduled to return to Boston. However, things took a turn in October 2007, more than two months before the scheduled start of the 2008 season, that would delay the NLL's return to Boston. On October 16, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Commissioner Jim Jennings sent an email to players announcing the cancellation of the 2008 NLL season, after the NLL and The Professional Lacrosse Players' Association failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. The previous deal expired on July 31, 2007. Later that day the league made its official announcement to cancel the season. However, the negotiations continued, and on October 25, the league announced that a new seven-year agreement had been reached, and that the season would be played. A new schedule was announced on November 2, 2007, but only included 12 of the expected 14 teams. According to the news release, "the Arizona and Boston franchises have opted not to play in the 2008 due to a number of business issues. Both franchises will resume operations in 2009."
The 2009 season would have seen the league return to fourteen teams. But while the Boston Blazers joined the league as expected, the Arizona Sting instead ceased operations and its players were dispersed in a draft. A few weeks before the season started, the Chicago Shamrox announced that they were also suspending operations, and yet another dispersal draft was held.
Championship History
| Team | Championships |
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| Philadelphia Wings | 6 | | Toronto Rock | 5 | | Buffalo Bandits | 4 | | Rochester Knighthawks | 2 | | Baltimore Thunder | 1 | | Calgary Roughnecks | 1 | | Colorado Mammoth | 1 | | Detroit Turbos | 1 | | New Jersey Saints | 1 |
Commissioners
Current League Structure
The National Lacrosse League currently plays a 16 game regular season, with 4 teams from each division qualifying for postseason play. The 1st and 4th seed in each division meet in a divisional semifinal game, while the 2nd and 3rd seeds meet in the other. The next round are the Eastern Division and Western Division champions. The divisional champions then meet in the Champions Cup final for the league title.
Each year, the league holds a mid-season All Star Game between two teams representing the Eastern and Western divisions.
2009 Teams
| Team | City | Arena | Founded |
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| Eastern |
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| Boston Blazers | Boston, MA | TD Banknorth Garden | 2007 | | Buffalo Bandits | Buffalo, NY | HSBC Arena | 1991 | | New York Titans | New York City, NY/Newark, NJ | Madison Square Garden/Prudential Center | 2006 | | Philadelphia Wings | Philadelphia, PA | Wachovia Center | 1986 | | Rochester Knighthawks | Rochester, NY | Blue Cross Arena | 1995 | | Toronto Rock | Toronto, ON | Air Canada Centre | 1999 | | Western |
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| Calgary Roughnecks | Calgary, AB | Pengrowth Saddledome | 2001 | | Colorado Mammoth | Denver, CO | Pepsi Center | 2003 | | Edmonton Rush | Edmonton, AB | Rexall Place | 2005 | | Minnesota Swarm | St. Paul, MN | Xcel Energy Center | 2004 | | Portland Lumberjax | Portland, OR | Rose Garden Arena | 2005 | | San Jose Stealth | San Jose, CA | HP Pavilion | 2004 |
Expansion
NLL commissioner Jim Jennings' ambitious plan for expansion includes 24 teams and possibly a 20-game schedule by 2011. He says that Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg "are the front-runners for expansion in Canada."
In July 2007, the Vancouver Ravens were conditionally approved for a 2008 return; the conditions included selling at least 2,500 season tickets and finding a suitable arena lease by July 19, 2007. On July 16, 2007, the Vancouver Ravens announced an agreement with Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment to make General Motors Place the home venue of the Ravens, if they are able to meet the season ticket sales requirement. However, just a few days later, the NLL announced that the Ravens would not play in the 2008 season.
A number of cities and potential ownership groups have expressed interest in expansion franchises:
Media
In May 2001, Blast Lacrosse, a video game based on the NLL, was released. It was the first lacrosse video game ever and included all nine teams of their 15th season, including mascots.
Also in 2002, Molson Sports and Entertainment released War On The Floor, a video similar to the Don Cherry Series. It was hosted by Joe Bowen featuring Pat Coyle.
On February 15, 2005, the NLL announced that Activision would produce a new video game. The game was slated to be released for the 2007 season. In an online chat held on NLL.com with commissioner Jim Jennings, it was noted that the game will be out in 2009.
In 2007, the NLL had a regularly scheduled "Game of the Week" on Versus, the network formerly known as OLN and home of the NHL, Tour de France, and PBR. For the 2008 season, due to dispute between the Professional Lacrosse Players' Association and the NLL owners in completing the collective bargaining agreement, the "Game of the Week" on Versus was cancelled. Previously, the NLL has had its All-Star Games and Championship games on National TV, with NBC in 2005 and ESPN2 in 2006. In the early 2000s, CNN Sports Illustrated aired NLL games regularly.
Also in 2007, the NLL signed an agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio, who has been named "Official Satellite Radio Partner". The pact includes a "Game of the Week" as well as weekly highlight show.
For the 2009 season, the NLL is showing every game in the league live on their website.
Player origin
Although 9 of the league's 12 teams are American, over 70% of the players are Canadian. The rest are either American or Iroquois, with a select few Europeans and Australians.
Awards
See also
External links
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