Now that the Edmonton Rush have captured the 2015 Champions Cup, there is one more piece of business left for them to take care of. They need to secure a venue to play the 2016 season. Their current lease agreement expires at the end of this season and they have yet to complete a deal with The City of Edmonton to play at Rexall place and Rogers Place once it opens for the 2016-2017 season.
While all indications are that the Rush may relocate, perhaps to Saskatoon, it is still possible that they remain in Edmonton. It seems that team owner Bruce Urban’s comments during the Champions Cup series got the attention of the fans and city council. After all, the fans did show up for the final game of the series. There were 5000 more fans in the seats than usual showing their support for the team and their owner Bruce Urban.
While one good turnout doesn’t guarantee a stronger fan base for the future, the strong support that was shown toward the club during the final game was a gesture by the fans, to the club, that they want the Rush to remain in Edmonton.
It was reported that after the cup winning game, members of Northlands, the city owned organization that operates Rexall Place reached out to Bruce Urban to return to the negotiating table and that Urban refused to resume talks. Perhaps he is playing hardball, or even worse for the fans of the Rush, Bruce Urban may have negotiated a deal with another city to move the team.
During his comments of last week, Mr. Urban had indicated that he would be issuing a further statement regarding the future of the team once the season comes to an end. The fact that almost a week has gone by since the championship game may be an indication that Urban has resumed talks with either Northlands or the City of Edmonton behind closed doors to try and make a last minute deal.
If a deal cannot be reached and in fact the Rush relocate to another city, there is no guarantee that Mr. Urban will see any long-term financial gains. Saskatchewan is known to be a strong supporter of their only major league team, the CFL’s Roughriders, but that is still not a guarantee that they will support a lacrosse team for an extended period of time.
The other cities mentioned, such as Minnesota, just lost their team so it does not make any sense that a team will return so soon after the Swarm vacated the Xcel Energy Center. The remaining cities mentioned are also regurgitated locations that failed in the past.
The Edmonton Rush averaged just over 7,000 fans per game this season. Now that may not sound like much, but it is a fan base that still has potential to grow if handled correctly. With proper advertising and involvement in the community, certainly Edmonton can increase its attendance by a few thousand per game. If they do that, then they would be accompanying the top teams in the league as far as attendance goes, and what better selling feature to attract more fans than a Champions Cup.
