Indoor lacrosse team could play at Coliseum
Fans line up at Nassau Coliseum. (April 23, 2011) Credit: Chris Ware
A new professional indoor lacrosse league, planning to begin play in January, will include a metropolitan-area franchise that could be based at Nassau Coliseum, New York team owner Michael Xirinachs confirmed Tuesday.
Former NBA Development League president Phil Evans, introduced as commissioner of the North American Lacrosse League at a noon news conference in Manhattan, did not announce franchise cities. But a source said six teams will be revealed on a weekly basis over the next six weeks, after the Sports Business Journal reported on Monday that New York; Charlotte; Orlando; Hershey, Pa.; Lexington, Ky.; and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., will be the charter members.
Xirinachs, 51, a St. John's University graduate with the wealth management firm Emerald Asset Advisors in Cold Spring Harbor, said in a telephone interview that he hopes to have an agreement for the New York team's home arena finalized by July 1. Negotiations are ongoing with the Coliseum, Madison Square Garden, the Prudential Center in Newark and the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, though Barclays won't open its doors in time for the NALL's six-game home schedule that will run from January to mid-April.
"We'll see what kind of [arena] deal we can get. We'd love to be on the Island; lacrosse is a hotbed out here," said Xirinachs, who became involved with the start-up league through mutual friends of lacrosse. Xirinachs' son, Matthew, is a senior at St. Anthony's High School who has accepted a lacrosse scholarship to play at Drexel University next year.
Besides league games, Evans said there will be exhibitions against international squads, including Ireland and Team USA. Sports Business Journal reported that franchises will cost about $250,000 and players will be paid from $200 to $1,500 a week, and play in arenas averaging more than 10,000 seats.
The league came together "in short order," Xirinachs said, "over the last six months or so. We're going to have a draft, find players. We may even run a contest for the fans to pick a team name."
