According to a tweet from NXT Sports, the Philadelphia based company is looking to bring a team to the National Lacrosse League to Philly. The NLL has had a Philadelphia team, the Wings, in each year of their entire existence since 1987. The Wings moved this offseason to Connecticut where they will play as the New England Black Wolves.
We are engaged in preliminary discussions with @NLL regarding bringing the Wings back to Philadelphia. #StayTuned
— NXTsports (@iamnxtsports) October 6, 2014
The talks are preliminary so it’s unlikely that it would be a 2015 move, especially after the draft has already taken place. However, it seems as if 2016 would not be out of the question.
One thing that should be noted is the word “expansion” isn’t used, so presumably, this could still be a relocated team. That remains to be seen, and it is probably too early to speculate about that.
Brett Manney, who is a defenseman on New England and formerly Philadelphia, works for and is a face of NXT, so the connection there is obvious. The question now arises of whether a company like NXT, a lacrosse events and camps company, can afford to run an NLL team with the arena costs and the like.
Does a return to Philadelphia mean right in the city at Wells Fargo Center, or more like somewhere like Allentown, where the Wings had been rumored to move to anyways?
The tweet with #StayTuned gives the impression we might have more details soon. We have reached out to the NLL for comment and will update as soon as we get it.
