NLL Insider

BMO Field may be the host to Canada’s first MLL Franchise

The team would play at Toronto’s BMO Field, the new 20,000-seat home of Major League Soccer’s tremendously successful Toronto FC. It would work with the Toronto Rock for ticket sales and marketing but not be owned by the NLL franchise. IL’s source says Stuart Brown, who helps run Ontario’s Edge Lacrosse program, would serve as the MLL team’s main operations leader.

Rumors have been circulating all offseason about movement and contraction for MLL, and this scenario actually sounds perfect for the league and its players. If the ’08 MLL Champion Rochester Rattlers move to Orlando, which one MLL player said Friday is close to happening and has been rumored all offseason, that leaves a large group of Western New York and Ontario players in a tough situation. So in comes a team in Toronto that IL’s source says would like to model itself after the Vancouver Whitecaps from the old North American Soccer League in the 1970s and ’80s and become something of a Team Canada in preparation for the 2010 World Championships in England.

The most likely scenario would have the MLL-owned Barrage move to Toronto. If two MLL teams fold, another popular rumor among players over the last two months, that would likely lead to some sort of massive restructuring of rosters. And with the league needing to keep travel costs down, there’s a good chance the new Toronto franchise would wind up with a good chunk of Rochester’s Ontario-heavy core, which includes Team Canada stars Brodie Merrill, Gavin Prout, Jeff Zywicki and Colin Doyle. Team Canada’s John Grant Jr., who lives in Rochester and is from Peterborough, Ont., likely won’t be able to play this summer as he recovers from a torn ACL. Fellow ’06 gold-medalist and Delaware-grad Jordan Hall hails from British Columbia but played his rookie MLL season with the Rattlers last summer and plays for the NLL’s New York Titans.

Other Upstate New York-based Rattlers include Rochester’s Joe Walters, Chris Schiller, Pat Dutton and Brett Queener and Buffalo’s Joe Smith and Nick O’Hara. IL’s source also said the Toronto group would look to attract Team Iroquois players, especially those from nearby Six Nations, Ont., so expect to hear names like Brett Bucktooth (who lives in Syracuse and plays for the Rattlers and NLL Buffalo Bandits) and Delby Powless (Six Nations, Bandits) among the possible targets.

Other big-name Rochester Rattlers include Casey Powell (Syracuse, New York Titans) and Jack Reid (Connecticut, Boston Blazers).

MLL has imposed a Feb. 1 deadline on the Toronto group, so stay tuned to NLLInsider.com for more on this developing story. And let us know your thoughts at Wingszone.com/nllmb.

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