Lacrosse

The NLL is arguably the biggest lacrosse league in professional sports right now. With 13 teams, an average attendance of 9,596 fans at every game and what seems like an announcement every week or so of some new corporate partnership, it would seem that the NLL is doing quite well from a business standpoint under the guidance of current league commissioner Nick Sakiewicz.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at who some of the leaders in lacrosse are — current owners of NLL franchises — and provide some info about their ownership history, their professional life as well as other interesting information about them.

There are some pretty big names in business and sports that also act as owners for NLL franchises. There’s Comcast Spectacor that owns the Philadelphia Wings (as well as the Flyers of the NHL and the Philadelphia 76ers), Terry and Kim Pegula, who own the Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks, as well as the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills, and Joe Tsai, who owns the San Diego Seals, the Brooklyn Nets and has been an investor in the Premier Lacrosse League.

We’ll be doing a profile on each of the owners for the various NLL franchises over the next few weeks. Below is a list of all of the current owners and their respective franchises. We’ll update this info with hyperlinks once these articles are published.

Hopefully, this series will be informative and will provide a little glimpse into the pro sports industry including how it relates to lacrosse. Our goal will be to do similar profiles on major players in the WPLL, PLL and MLL.

For now, here’s the list!

Leaders In Lacrosse: List of NLL Owners

Current Owners

Terry & Kim Pegula – Buffalo Bandits, Rochester Knighthawks

Brief Summary

When Terry Pegula purchased the Buffalo Sabres in 2011, the Buffalo Bandits came along as part of the deal. In 2018, Terry reached an agreement to purchase the Rochester Knighthawks from Curt Styles who now owns the Halifax Thunderbirds. Terry also owns other franchises like the Buffalo Bills along with his wife and successful businesswoman Kim Pegula, who is the president of Pegula Sports and Entertainment, a company that manages their pro sports franchises.

John Arlotta, Andy Arlotta – Georgia Swarm

John Arlotta originally purchased what was then the Minnesota Swarm in 2008. John is a Notre Dame alumnus and was actually the lead donor for Arlotta Stadium at the university. His son, Andy, is a co-owner and current president of the Swarm, entering 12th season. John is a retired Captain in the US Army Reserves and has been a CEO and managed a diverse array of companies. Both he and his son Andy have experience in the healthcare industry as well.

Mohegan Tribe, Brad Brewster – New England Black Wolves

The New England Black Wolves are partially-owned by both the Mohegan Tribe, a federally-recognized tribe and sovereign nation, and Brad Brewster, who has worked in public affairs and various law and political capacities. The Black Wolves were actually relocated from Philadelphia and were the former Wings franchise that existed in Philadelphia from 1987 to 2014. The Black Wolves began league play during the 2014-2015 season.

Comcast Spectacor – Philadelphia Wings

Comcast Spectacor — a sports group owned by Comcast — currently owns the Philadelphia Wings, as well as the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers. David Scott currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the company, and also acts as Governor of the Philadelphia Flyers for the National Hockey League.

Jamie Dawick – Toronto Rock

Jamie Dawick is the current owner for the Toronto Rock which was purchased after the 2009 season. Dawick has also served as general manager for the team since 2014. Dawick was helped complete the privately-financed $20 million dollar Toronto Rock Athletic Centre, which has hosted NLL games, the NLL draft and NLL combine.

Calgary Flames – Calgary Roughnecks

The Calgary Flames purchased the Calgary Roughnecks in 2011, which was the third NLL team to be owned by a group that also included hockey franchises. N. Murray Edwards is the current chairman, director and co-owner of the Calgary Flames and has also been involved in various philanthropic efforts. Alvin G. Libin, Allan P. Markin and Jeffrey J. McCaig are also all listed on owners on the Roughnecks website.

Stan Kroenke – Colorado Mammoth

Stan Kroenke bought the Mammoth in 2004 and owns a plethora of other sports franchises such as the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids and the English Premier League football club Arsenal. Fun fact: the Colorado Mammoth were awarded the honor of hosting the league’s one-millionth fan of the 2006 season, which was the first time the NLL had reached over a million fans during the season.

Joe Tsai – San Diego Seals

Joe Tsai is the co-founder and executive vice-chairman of the Alibaba Corporation and current owner of the San Diego Seals, Brooklyn Nets and is an investor in the Premier Lacrosse League. Joe played lacrosse at Yale University, graduating with his undergraduate in 1986 and a doctorate from Yale Law School in 1990. The Seals made the playoffs in their first season as an expansion franchise. He is quickly emerging as one of the leaders in lacrosse.

Bruce Urban – Saskatchewan Rush

The Rush franchise was purchased by Bruce Urban back in 2005 and has been one of the NLL’s most successful franchises, having won three championships within the last five seasons and are hoping to compete for their fourth this year. Urban is the owner and operator of the Western RV Group of Companies, the largest RV dealer in Western Canada.

Canucks Sports & Entertainment – Vancouver Warriors

The Warriors were sold to Canucks Sports & Entertainment in 2018 and were relocated to Rogers Arena from the Langley Events Centre. The team was rebranded as well. Canucks Sports & Entertainment is owned by the Aquilini Investment Group, whose managing director is Francesco Aquilini, a Canadian businessman.

Conclusion

That’s the complete list with a bit of brief information about the ownership situation of each team. We’ll take a deeper dive into each of these leaders in lacrosse in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

With the announcement of the seventh PLL team this month, and the 2020 PLL expansion draft soon to come, it’s a perfect time to discuss how this draft will affect the league. A full list of the expansion draft rules can be found here. I’ve included the most important details below:

1. “On January 13th, 2020, the original six lacrosse clubs will be required to submit a roster of 11 protected players to the PLL League Office (one goalie and 10 positional players).”

2. “The seventh Lacrosse Club will draft a total of 18 players in the Expansion Draft.”

3. “No more than four players can be selected from a single existing lacrosse club in the Expansion Draft.”

Given these rules, Jack Smith and I went over each roster and picked 10 field players and one goalie to protect. We then identified 18 players we think would fit well together for the expansion team. Players in bold were voted as a top-50 player by the PLL players.

2020 PLL Expansion Draft Projections

Our Mock Draft

Archers

A-Will Manny

A-Marcus Holman

M-Ben McIntosh

M-Dominique Alexander

M-Tom Schreiber

M-Dan Eipp

M-Mark McNeill

D-Matt McMahon

D-Scott Ratliff

D-Jackson Place

G-Adam Ghitelman

Summary:

Archers LC finished 5-5 in the regular season showcasing an exciting style of offense that took advantage of the transition game. Manny and Holman stay onboard to hold down an attack unit that may welcome Pat Spencer — assuming his basketball career ends at graduation and chooses the PLL over the MLL. McIntosh and Schreiber will continue to shine on the offensive end, while Eipp, McNeill, Alexander and Ratliff dominate on defense and in transition. McMahon and Place remain down low to protect Ghitelman, who edges Adams. Archers goaltenders — Ghitelman and Adams — came in third in the league in terms of goals prevented in our PLL By The Numbers series. Given that Ghitelman played approximately 68% of the time, it’s not an unreasonable assumption that Ghitelman played a large role in that.

Atlas

A-Eric Law

A-Ryan Brown

A-Kieran McCardle

M-Connor Buczek

M-Kevin Unterstein

M-Paul Rabil

FO-Trevor Baptiste

D-Cade Van Raaphorst

D-Tucker Durkin

D-Kyle Hartzell

G-Jack Concannon

Summary:

It will be interesting to see how a new coach addresses the roster without much lead time but we believe that the three strong attackmen and four midfielders on the protected list lead a solid group of scorers to build on. The defense will have three returning poles to protect Concannon. Baptiste is a must protect at the faceoff-X, as he clearly made the largest impact in the league from a faceoff perspective, and arguably of any player based on our PLL By The Numbers series produced by NBA sports analytics guru Wayne Winston and his son Greg. In an expansion draft, you’re going to lose someone talented and it seems like this time it’s likely to be Joel Tinney or John Crawley.

Chaos

A-Connor Fields

A-Miles Thompson

A-Josh Byrne

M-Myles Jones

M-Deemer Class

M-Jake Froccaro

DM-Kyle McClancy

D-Brodie Merrill

D-Jack Rowlette

D-Jarrod Neumann 

G-Blaze Riorden

Summary:

Chaos LC brings back their fun and dynamic style of play that helped them to a 7-3 record. Offensively, Chaos has to keep Fields and Byrne at attack and Jones, Class and Froccaro at midfield. We are hoping that Miles Thompson can stay healthy next year. Defensively, they return the defensive captain in Merrill with the underrated Rowlette and rising star Jarrod Neumann, who took the league by storm last year. They’ll cross their fingers that their defensive midfielders survive the expansion draft. Blaze Riorden is a must-protect, considering that he averaged the most goals prevented per game by almost double than the next goalkeeping squad according to our PLL By The Numbers end of season statistics (technically, the goals prevented stat measured a goalkeeping unit, but since we estimate that Riorden played 98% of the time it’s realistic to assume that it was largely him that generated that number).

Chrome

A-Justin Guterding

A-Jordan Wolf

A-Matt Danowski

M-Jordan MacIntosh

M-Ned Crotty

M-John Ranagan

FO-Connor Farrell

D-Joe Fletcher

D-Chris Sabia

D-Joel White

G-John Galloway

Summary:

John Galloway returns in net to lead a defense that had the worst goal differential in the league. Guterding, Wolf and Danowski — aka the Duke attack line — stay intact and looks to build on last year’s performances. The midfield will be led by Crotty and MacIntosh, while rising star Connor Farrell hopes to continue 2019 success and what may have been the most impressive rookie campaign in the league. 

Redwoods

A-Matt Kavanagh

A-Jules Heningburg

A-Ryder Garnsey

M-Brent Adams

M-Pat Harbeson

M-Sergio Perkovic

M-Sergio Salcido

D-Eddy Glazener

D-Matt Landis

D-Garrett Epple

G-Tim Troutner

Summary:

Two teams had the ability to keep 11 top 50 players, but we are deciding to make things interesting. Although Gurenlian is still a faceoff icon, the thought is that he may retire in the next few years. If the Redwoods don’t protect Gurenlian and are able to trade for a draft pick that would let them take Ierlan, the chance to potentially have another faceoff legend on the team — one that would be more likely to have more years ahead of him in his career — might be too good to pass up. It’s unlikely that if Gurenlian is not protected that he wouldn’t be drafted by the Waterdogs as he is a great piece to have. The best-case scenario for Redwoods is for Gurenlian to go undrafted in the expansion draft and then have a chance to stay and continue playing in addition to mentoring Ierlan until he retires (the chances that Ierlan is going to the PLL over the MLL seems likely simply based on the fact that a Twitter account that appears to be his has a picture of him taking in the sights at a PLL game last summer). However, provided that the Redwoods are able to ensure that they get Ierlan, in my mind, it would be worth the risk to make that move happen. It’s tough to say if Redwoods can guarantee a good enough draft pick by the time the 2020 PLL Expansion Draft happens, but it would be great for them if they could. The protected players allow the team to keep their identity without losing a long term talent. The toughest decision was to protect Glazener or Sexton, with Glazener narrowly winning out.

Whipsnakes

A-Matt Rambo

A-Ryan Drenner

M-Jake Bernhardt

M-Tyler Warner

M-Mike Chanenchuk

M-Connor Kelly

FO-Joseph Nardella

D-Bryce Young

D-Michael Ehrhardt

D-Matt Dunn

G-Kyle Bernlohr

Summary:

The reigning PLL champions had the 12 top 50 players (not a surprise) but they’re only able to keep 11 of them. For us, it came down to Drew Snider or Ryan Drenner and we believed keeping the Rambo-Drenner connection was imperative. With Nardella proving himself not only as a premier face-off athlete but also as a threat in transition, he’s a must protect. Bernlohr returns behind Young, Dunn, and Ehrhardt with Warner helping at both ends and in transition. The ridiculous offense lead by all-everything Rambo and Mr. Clutch (Ryan Drenner), will be supported by Kelly, Bernhardt and the human two-bomb Mike Chanenchuk. 

Waterdogs

Note: When picking this team there were too many options to consider so we decided to give you an idea of what kind of talent would be available and how it could be used. It is completely hypothetical and just goes to show the kind of talent that exists in the league. Enjoy!

A-Christian Cuccinello (Archers)

A-Chris Cloutier (Atlas)

A-Ben Reeves (Whipsnakes)

FO-Greg Gurenlian (Redwoods)

M-Joe Walters (Redwoods)

M-Drew Snider (Whipsnakes)

M-Ian MacKay (Archers)

M-John Crawley (Atlas)

M-Dhane Smith (Chaos)

M-Romar Dennis (Chrome)

DM-Mark Glicini (Chaos)

D-Larken Kemp (Redwoods)

D-BJ Grill (Chrome)

D-Austin Pifani (Atlas)

D-Matt Rees (Chaos)

D-John Sexton (Redwoods)

D-Michael Manley (Chrome)

G-Drew Adams (Archers)

Summary: Cuccinello, Cloutier and Reeves give you a little bit of everything. A healthy Gurenlian immediately gives you a boost at the faceoff X and his leadership and experience will go a long way. This assumes that Gurenlian gets picked up by the Waterdogs due to the scenario we mentioned above in the Redwoods LC section. The midfield is full of guys who displayed clear ability but were stuck behind ridiculous talent on their old club. The defense is a perfect mixture of youth, experience and ability to move the ball in transition. There’s no shortage of talent but plenty of guys hungry to prove they can be “the guy”.

Who would you take for the Waterdogs in the 2020 PLL expansion draft?

Authors: Nick Zoroya @nicholaszoroya, Jack Smith @jack_smiff1