Stand on

Written by John Short

Wednesday, 11 April 2001

This time, it seems the job of bringing a new sports franchise to Good Old Ourtown can be done right. Based on all available information at this early stage, the ducks will be in order, which means some marketing will be done and customers will be lined up before the cheque goes into the bank for a franchise in the suddenly red-hot National Lacrosse League. For one thing, the league makes no secret of its interest in the community. For another, it has been reliably confirmed that a couple of groups with solid financial foundations are preparing applications to bring lacrosse here. These are remarkable differences from the behaviour of Ed Chynoweth and his Western Hockey League friends who tried to operate the Edmonton Ice and the stance of Peter Pocklington and National Professional Soccer League officials as they put the Edmonton Drillers back in town. The Chynoweth application, which turned out to be a disaster, was kept secret until the last moment. Any possibility that the respected Vic Mah and his allies would be brought into the fold was wiped out by the WHL's course of action. It was no coincidence that Pocklington, then owner of the Edmonton Oilers, moved so fast to reintroduce indoor soccer. He and general manager Glen Sather tightened their hold on what is now Skyreach Centre while the Ice played across the road at the AgriCom. They did it by scheduling as many Drillers games as possible to conflict with the Ice, a surefire way of splitting the young-adult market with enough money to afford these events but not enough to afford costly National Hockey League contests. If you share my belief that this entire community benefits whenever a new and successful sports franchise gets established, cross your fingers in the hope that NLL president Jim Jennings and his minions -- as well as the prospective lacrosse owners, of course -- learned from the costly failure of the Ice and the Drillers. ``Having lacrosse here should be good,'' Mah said. ``I think the crowds might come out to watch the sport, but I'm not sure how many fans really know the game anymore.'' Already, the lacrosse newcomers -- whoever they turn out to be -- have an advantage not available to Pocklington or his under-funded successor, Wojteck Wojcicki, and not properly exploited by Chynoweth -- an Edmonton-Calgary rivalry. As time and money ran out for Wojcicki, he moaned on a regular basis that his tiny crowds surely would have expanded whenever the Drillers played Calgary. ``Having Wichita or Kansas City here doesn't mean as much as a Calgary team would.'' Chynoweth, a Prairie product who previously served as WHL president, evidently understood the importance of a Calgary-Edmonton rivalry, but didn't leave his young franchise in place long enough for a Hitmen-Ice ``hatred'' to develop. President Jennings of the NLL, by contrast, left little doubt in a recent conversation that the presence of Calgary was a major element in the decision to chase Edmonton investors. ``We're in a growth mode,'' he said on a radio show, ``and we think many communities will be interested in joining us. ``It may be an extra year before Edmonton gets its act together, but the presence of two rivals so close together can only enhance the value of both franchises.'' His approach is consistent: Vancouver joined the league recently; an attractive Pacific Northwest rivalry should start to take shape in a couple of weeks when owners of the new U.S. franchise are unveiled. Mah's positive response to the lacrosse venture carried one slight reservation. ``I still think a junior hockey team would draw bigger crowds.'' If anyone cares, I feel the same way.