Expansion

[judge death]

During the game when JJ was talking to Fox Sportnet he mentioned possible expansion city's St louis, Minnisota, Tampa bay, Orlando

[MontclairLax]

if thats tru, there expanding and moving teams around to much, its gonna turn out like the failure of the after-gretsky NHL era

[jmplax31]

St. Louis and Minnisota, would work as teams I think. I think expansion next year could work if the ratings are good and the new teams attendece is as good as Arizona. Plus, like people have been saying if the NHL strike and the NLL would be a great substitute for the Hockey fans and it could ( in the futrue, just replace hockey all together.)

[MontclairLax]

hope so

[Hooligan]

Minnesota is a forgone conclusion. 99% most likely to have a team in 2005

St. Louis is being bounced around a lot lately, and is a good possibility from what I hear.

Also, keep your eye on: New York, Detroit, Boston and Orlando (area).

The NLL has said in different interviews that they would like to be at 16 teams soon. A deadline for that is not certain, but doing it too quickly would be stupid. The league needs to settle first, and then consider expansion.

If the Western teams take like the Arizona Sting did in their first game, then the NLL has nothing to worry about. If not....its back to the drawing board.

[SjstealthJunkie]

Personally, I think that expansion shouldn't take place until a long-term CBA is in place. Jennings and the league owners would be shooting themselves in the foot if they tried to bring more teams into the league before taking care of the players they already have.

Realistically, it would proabably be in the league's best interest to assist in building markets in areas where an expansion is being sought. The easiest way to do that would be to play some exhibitions there with existing teams (maybe even the All-Star Game) BEFORE launching a new team in the market. This way new fans will have the opportunity to experience the game and the passion of the established fans of the sport...

Just an idea...

The San Jose Stealth Junkie...

[powellfan1]

The NLL should wait 2 more years before any other new teams are made. The league needs to getmore stable, with all this moving around, some fans won't even know the teams every year. It also hurts the players because there team either dies and they keep getting drafted over and over, or they get protected and have completely new teammates every year.

[MontclairLax]

they should start expanding in a few years, and try NOT to move any teams around