National Lacrosse League: Major league players & minor league management

Here's the entertaining scenario for this year's championship: The National Lacrosse League decided to sign a television deal with Versus--a third tier United States cable sports network. In the deal, they concluded that they'd host a game on May 12th at 4pm EST for television purposes. The Rochester Knighthawks' arena had been booked by a circus--they book two years in advance. The league moved forward with that date despite knowing Rochester couldn't host the championship.

So, as you might have guessed, the league's worst nightmare came true. Rochester made it to the finals and earned the right to host based on their 14-2 regular season record. The league has a little-known rule that if the host team's arena isn't available, it can be moved to the other team's arena. Yet, for some reason, despite knowing the scenarios, they decided to make a decision on the host site after the two teams had been determined. Why might that be? My hypothesis is they wanted to pick and choose the site. San Jose is the worst drawing team in the league, and I suspect they would have let Rochester host the game in Buffalo or Toronto had they made it. Otherwise, simply state the rule ahead of time. It's pretty simple.

In the end, the NLL put its television contract ahead of its fans and the integrity of the championship. Arizona will host Rochester. Oh, by the way, for some odd reason Arizona started selling single game tickets two days before a decision was supposedly made. With each blunder, I become more and more convinced they succeed in spite of their management, not because of it. The league proposed a minor league concept called the NLL2 that never came to fruition.They now want to compete with Major League Lacrosse with the NLL-O. The proposed NLL-O has already been delayed several times and the concept is incredibly flawed. While there's now a decent core of teams in the NLL now, the league has had its share of teams fold. Finally, the NLL has been forced to move its championship game to progressively less popular networks over the last three years.

I enjoy the sport immensely. Sadly, the league took a huge step back with this move. Should the lower seed win at home, in my opinion, an asterisk should be placed next to 2007 in the record books. The game could have easily been hosted in Rochester on the 5th; Versus has changed the NLL's time slot several times, so I'd hope they'd return the favor (although there are now reports that Versus simply told the league "no"). But, if nothing else, the league should have been honest with everyone regarding this policy. Instead they opted to give themselves the option of making up the rules after the two finalists had been determined.

Update: Despite this challenge, the Knighthawks defeated Arizona 13-11 in front of 9,700 fans in Arizona. The game was a good one, although the Versus telecast was less impressive. It's too bad the higher seed didn't host the game, but the correct team will still go down in the history books as the champion. A viewing party was held at a venue in Rochester, and according to one account, over 1,000 people packed the facility.

Volunteering in Rochester

This past Friday, I had the privilege of visiting a third grade class at School #41 in Rochester. It was the most rewarding volunteering experience I have ever been a part of. It was put on by Junior Achievement in cooperation with RIT's Saunders College of Business. The program allows individuals from the community to go in and teach a class for a day. If you get a chance to get involved with this program, I highly recommend that you do so.

Additionally, Rochester Cares is a great local organization with a wide array of activities. The City of Rochester School District has additional opportunities. So for those that are looking to get involved in Rochester, there are a number of great ways to do so. My experiences in the Rochester City School District have been very positive. While challenges exist, it's definitely not the picture that many stereotype it to be. I recommend that you get involved and see for yourself.