NLL Insider

Put your money where your mouth is.

Essentially, that’s what Roughnecks owner Brad Banister did when he gave out free tickets to a game earlier this season. Not happy with crowds around 11,000, Banister provided a seat to anyone in Calgary who wanted to see pro lacrosse.

Now, Rush owner Bruce Urban has taken it a step further. His surging club heads south to Calgary this weekend for the second of three meetings with its provincial rival. Urban announced yesterday he would buy a ticket at the Saddledome for any Edmontonian who wanted to come down for the game.

Urban, who owns RV dealerships throughout the Alberta, said he was prepared to spend $50,000 on tickets as he stoked the fire of the already intense Battle of Alberta.

He even said he’d buy food for folks if he sees them on the concourse.

Of course, some people think giving away tickets devalues the game. It cheapens the product, goes the argument. As I’ve said in the past, I disagree. Urban and Banister are essentially ‘small-market owners’ who are trying to ramp up the status of their respective clubs. They are coming up with unique marketing angles to sell the game. Giving out free tickets all the time is bad. Doing it for one-off promotions to create hype: Brilliant.

When the Roughnecks played the Rush last weekend in Edmonton, the Riggers bought a full-page ad in the Edmonton Sun calling it the City of Losers. It’s an inside joke here in Alberta, so let me explain. As you drive into Edmonton, there is a sign proclaiming it the City of Champions, harkening back to the city’s glory days of the 1980s when the NHL’s Oilers and CFL’s Eskimos racked up titles hand over fist.

The ad also rubbed salt in a fresh wound, making fun of the Oilers for missing the playoffs this year.

Make no mistake, the management of these two clubs are working together — pretending to hate each other — to hype up this rivalry to benefit both clubs. More hands make for lighter work. Both clubs have the same goal off the floor and are working together to achieve it.

Urban, especially, is thinking Carpe Diem. His team is on an unexpected winning streak and look like a serious playoff contender since Bob Hamley arrived. With the Oilers and the major junior hockey Oil Kings both out of the playoffs, Urban has a sports-mad city all to himself and is trying to capitalize.

It’s a spend it and they will come mentality. Get the product out there, expose as many people as possible to it and let the game sell itself.

The Roughnecks (as well as other NLL teams) had expected to see their attendance go up during the NHL lookout in 2004. The assumption was hockey fans would come out to lacrosse games. In reality, they didn’t. Lacrosse is still a fringe sport and outside of Denver and Toronto, people have to be actively recruited to the game.

Urban and Banister deserve kudos for doing just that.

QUICK STICKS
Here’s an oddity right out of the Twilight Zone. Lewis Ratcliff scored his first goal for the Toronto Rock 2:28 seconds into the first quarter Saturday night. Later that evening, Josh Sanderson tallied his first marker for the Roughnecks 2:27 into the first quarter. One second apart. Both Toronto and Calgary lost those games. Both clubs were held under 10 goals … Athan Iannucci will break Gary Gait’s single-season goal mark this year barring a meltdown. And he should given the amount of shots he’s taking in games. During his club’s 11-9 win over Toronto Sunday, Iannucci recorded 29 shots, 21 of them on net. He scored four goals. Next highest shot total for a Wings player in that game? Merrick Thomson with 11 … Wonder why the Roughnecks keep losing games? They can’t score when they have to. The team has been brutal in the fourth quarter all year. In their last games, the Riggers have been outscored 14-6 in the final 15 minutes. Not surprisingly, they’ve lost all three.

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