National Lacrosse League - St. Paul

NLL Expands to St. Paul, Minnesota

The National Lacrosse League is getting a team in St. Paul, Minn., and might also have a 12th entry for next season.

The owners of the NHL's Minnesota Wild have purchased the rights to the dormant Montreal franchise and will put a team in the Xcel Energy Center. An NLL announcement is expected within the next two weeks.

Detroit also might get a team, and dates for an expansion draft and release of a schedule won't be finalized until it is determined exactly how many teams will take to the floor for the December-to-May season. Teams play 16 games each.

The NLL has shrunk in the last three years so getting the number of clubs back up has been a priority of commissioner Jim Jennings. The Minnesota club would be the fifth with a direct ownership link to an NHL team.

Brad Banister, president and general manager of the champion Calgary Roughnecks, is all for expansion.

"We had 13 teams a couple of years ago and we're down to 10 and a couple more teams would help the league," he said. "And there is talent out there.

"We'd like to see one of two more teams in the east."

The future of the league looks bright, said Banister.

"This is my fourth season being involved and we keep getting stronger," he said. "Attendance is increasing and TV viewership is up.

"People are catching on. Everything is looking positive."

The Roughnecks hope to double a season ticket base that sat at 3,000 last season.

"We've already matched what we did to November last year," Banister said. "We had 19,500 in the (Pengrowth Saddledome) for the league final last year and that was very encouraging."

Notes: Shawn Williams of the NLL's Rochester Knighthawks won the scoring title in the Ontario Lacrosse Association major summer series with 46 goals and 78 assists for 124 points in 18 games with the first-place Brooklin Redmen . . . Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owner of the Colorado Mammoth in Denver, has announced plans to build a 20,000-seat stadium in Commerce City, Colo., for the Mammoth and for Kroenke's soccer teams . . . Lacrosse was among the sports played by John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, when he attended Yale University in the 1960s. He wore No. 14.

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