Toronto Rock And National Lacrosse League Season Cancelled By Labour Dispute
Posted October 16, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It won’t quite have the impact of losing an entire NHL year, but if you’re a fan of the Toronto Rock, be prepared for them not to roll at all in the near future. The entire 2008 National Lacrosse League season has been cancelled after the league and its players failed to reach an agreement on a new contract.
Both sides met over the weekend, after a three-year deal ended last July. But talks remained at an impasse and finally broke down on Sunday night. When the deadline for a new deal passed at 12:01am Tuesday morning, commissioner Jim Jennings sent out an email to the union and its members, confirming they’d be sitting idle in the new year. “This will confirm that we have not reached accord on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement,” the post reads. “As such, the 2008 NLL season is cancelled.”
Like most of these kinds of disagreements, it was all about money. The league wanted to give players only a minimal pay hike and demanded a five-year deal. Members of the Professional Lacrosse Players’ Association were asking for just a one-year agreement – and the elimination of a pay ceiling.
Unlike other pro sports that feature highly paid athletes with highly inflated egos, many lacrosse players do it for the joy of the game. The highest paid players pull in just over US$25,000 a year for their efforts in a 16-game schedule, played mostly on weekends. Rookies earn just under US$7,000 and just about everyone involved has a full time job doing something else to make ends meet. The league was supposed to return to action on December 27 th.
Despite the grim news, players remain optimistic something can be salvaged before what should have been the official start date. “I’m still hoping something gets worked out,” ventures Rock forward Josh Sanderson. “Losing the season, that’s no good for anybody — fans, ownership or players. I’m still hopeful a deal gets done.”
It’s not the first time the NLL has seen labour trouble. It endured a 12-day strike in 2003 and narrowly avoided losing the season in 2004 when a last minute agreement was reached before the deadline. The league has never achieved the popularity of other sports and it’s not clear if it will be able to rebound from losing an entire year – and possibly, fan interest.
The Toronto Rock is one of the more successful franchises. It drew an average of 15,851 fans to each of its eight home games in the 2007 season and a total of 126,815 overall – good for second place in the league right behind Colorado. They’d been scheduled to hold tryouts at the end of this month and were going to start the season January 11th at the ACC against Minnesota.
