The Hamilton Nationals were going to return to Major League Lacrosse in 2015, according to a November article by Inside Lacrosse. Their report, which was the first to discuss the new Florida Launch team in Boca Raton, stated that the Nats would return to the league in the 2015 season at the new Hamilton Tiger Cats CFL stadium.
On November 5, this was written on IL:
Calls to MLL commissioner Dave Gross and Hamilton owner Curt Styres have not yet been returned, but the sources tell IL that a team likely would return to Hamilton in 2015 — as expansion — while Florida would keep the players they inherit from the Nationals for this coming 2014 season….
…One source told Inside Lacrosse that Hamilton’s moving to Boca Raton for 2014 and returning with a team to the Ontario city for 2015 connects with a new stadium being built for the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The 24,000-seat stadium in Hamilton is slated to be done in the summer of 2014.
In an interview I conducted with commissioner David Gross for a story to be published later this week he told me that the Nationals would not return in 2015. When I asked about the state of the Nationals, Gross stated, “The Nationals ceased operations this past offseason.”
I sent a follow up question, saying how it was reported the Nationals would return, where the league said, “That was never mentioned by the MLL.” Emails sent to Inside Lacrosse regarding their report of a Hamilton return have yet to be responded to.
The Nationals, which had moved from Toronto and had moved from Rochester before that, moved their roster to Florida before the season. It appears unlikely there will be another Canadian team in the near future.
The Nationals were often one of the lowest in league attendance before they moved to Boca Raton for the 2014 season. There will be no league expansion in 2015 but it seems that it could occur in 2016 or 2017, but it won’t be in Hamilton.
