“We will work diligently to secure a new ownership group and arena deal for the Philadelphia market. I believe the Philadelphia market will once again be a successful NLL market in the near future. To all of the Philadelphia Wings fans, keep the faith.” – NLL Commissioner George Daniel
The Philadelphia Wings have officially moved to Connecticut but it might not be the end of professional indoor lacrosse in Philadelphia. Yesterday it was reported by Inside Lacrosse that the name, logo and history of the Wings will remain in Philadelphia. The new Connecticut franchise will have a different identity.
The hope is that a new franchise will emerge for the city of Philadelphia and return under the Wings moniker, similar to the situation with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. They moved to become the Baltimore Ravens before the same Browns name returned two years later as a different franchise.
Philadelphia has been a member of the NLL since 1986 and had been the longest tenured team not to move. Now they and Colorado, formerly Baltimore, remain as the last standing NLL active franchises.
This isn’t uncommon for lacrosse, either. Major League Lacrosse plans on doing the same thing with the Hamilton Nationals who moved to Boca Raton, Florida this year as the Florida Launch. A new Hamilton franchise is expected to return in 2015.
New England has now had three shots at an NLL team. They had two Boston Blazers franchises who failed. They may have the Wings team now, but not the Wings history.
