[q12]

League commissioner hopes Halifax lacrosse team’s popularity will require arena expansion

By ZANE WOODFORD
StarMetro Halifax
Thu., Sept. 13, 2018

HALIFAX—With one of the smallest arenas in the league, the commissioner of the National Lacrosse League is hoping for sellout crowds for Halifax’s new, yet-to-be-named professional indoor lacrosse team.

After months of rumours about a lacrosse team coming to the city, National Lacrosse League commissioner Nick Sakiewicz and team owner Curt Styres made it official with an announcement at HFX Sports Bar & Grill on Thursday morning.

The team will play at the Scotiabank Centre starting in the 2019-20 season, with the first home game in December 2019. There’s a five-year, extendable agreement between the team and the arena. There’ll be nine home games per regular season, which runs from December to April, along with pre-season games in the fall and potential playoff action in May.

The Rochester Knighthawks will be moving to Halifax, becoming the league’s 12th franchise and the fifth in Canada.

Sakiewicz said the league did “a lot of research on this marketplace” before allowing the team to move to Halifax.

“It’s a world-class city,” he said. “It deserves a major league sports team, and the NLL, the National Lacrosse League, is a major league. We are the NHL of lacrosse.”

Ticket prices for the Halifax team haven’t been determined yet, but the team is selling deposits for season tickets on its website, halifaxnll.com. Sakiewicz said tickets across the league are between $23 and $24 on average, which he called, “very reasonable, very fan-friendly, very accessible.” Tickets in Toronto and Calgary start above $30.

Sakiewicz said the NLL averages 11,000 fans per game, and the 10,595-seat Scotiabank Centre will be one of the smallest arenas in the league. The Toronto team plays in the 19,000-seat Scotiabank Arena, formerly known as the Air Canada Centre, and the Calgary team plays in the 19,000-seat Scotiabank Saddledome.

“We were a little concerned, frankly, about the size of this arena,” Sakiewicz said. “Hopefully, they’re hugely successful and we sit down with the mayor in a couple years and try to increase the capacity.”

Size concerns aside, Sakiewicz said the Scotiabank Centre will be a “great arena for games.”

"It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be raucous,” said Sakiewicz. “Our fans describe an NLL game as a rock concert with a world-class sporting event, all on the same day.”

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said he’s confident the city will support the team.

“We are a growing, thriving, youthful, diverse city with a big love of sports. If you’re looking for a loud, passionate fan base, then I think we’ve got you covered,” he said.

But what name those fans will be chanting is still unknown.

“I think the fans in the community will have a lot to say about what the name of the team should be and what the narrative of the team should be,” Sakiewicz said. “But I think that’s going to be a lot of fun in the many weeks and months to come, that the community is going to be involved in helping Curt and his team name the team.”

Over the summer, the registration for the domain name halifaxprivateers.com was updated, and earlier this year, the NLL itself trademarked the name Halifax Privateers

Read more here:
https://www.thestar.com/halifax/2018...orts-team.html

So there will be three teams in the NLL with arenas named after Scotiabank.

It's very interesting to hear they are interested in expanding Scotiabank Centre if the NLL team becomes a big attendance draw and success like it is in Saskatoon. I would really like to know what the options are for expansion like completing the upper bowl with seating in the either end bringing the capacity close to 15,000.