The National Lacrosse League has already seen two relocations this offseason, but that doesn’t mean expansion talk has ceased. Edmonton and Minnesota, who both lost teams, are still prime locations. The league has been looking at Philadelphia again, and there have been talks of teams in Long Island, Montreal, Nashville, and Las Vegas.
A new potential location emerged this week when the Telegram.com had a report about the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. Worcester has lost their American Hockey League club, the Worcester Sharks, to San Jose as a part of the AHL’s west coast move. This has left the city of Worcester without a pro sports team, and without a tenant.
According to the Telgeram, Worcester is talking about adding an NLL team.
Ms. Dunn said she has spoken with five leagues about placing a team in Worcester: the AHL, ECHL, Major Arena Soccer League, National Lacrosse League and World Rodeo League.
“I think at some point in our future,” Mr. Augustus said, “there will be additional professional sports, but particularly hockey.”
In the past, the Worcester Counts basketball team, the New England Blazers lacrosse team and the Mass. Marauders and New England Surge arena football teams played at the DCU Center, but didn’t last long.
“We’ve seen all these teams leave,” Ms. Lukes said. “They all start with high hopes and then leave in the dark of night, never to be seen again. I don’t know if it’s because we’re playing second fiddle to Boston. I don’t know if it’s because the fan base here will look to Boston as a source of their loyalty and following, but clearly we have not been able to generate successfully any kind of team that inspires the sports fans in Worcester.”
She said a potential new pro sports team at the DCU Center must belong to a viable league, have financially sound ownership with the ability to pay rent and expenses, and be involved in the community.
“We don’t want to bring something in that’s just going to fail,” she said.
Worcester has hosted lacrosse before with the Blazers, as mentioned in their story. Since then, the Boston Blazers have had two attempts and the New England Black Wolves play in Connecticut. This raises the question if New England could support two teams in an already small sport.
There has been plenty of movement throughout the NLL for the past few years, and it seems like a far cry from expansion. The league is trying Saskatoon and Atlanta as markets for the first time already, and Vancouver and Connecticut are already fairly new clubs.
At the very least, the league has spoken with Worcester, according to this report, which means expansion could be a discussion in the future.
