September 2, 2011
Blazers suspend operations for 2012 season
Team was unable to reach an agreement with TD Garden
by Chuck Jaffe/
The Boston Blazers have suspended operations for the 2012 season.
The Boston Blazers of the National Lacrosse League, failing to come to terms with management at TD Garden, pulled the plug on the 2012 season, announcing on Sept. 1 that the team will look to relocate and return in 2013. The team’s next home may or may not be in Boston or New England.
If the team returns in 2013, it will be starting over, without its current roster of stars. Those players will be part of a dispersal draft, their rights permanently transferred to the team that selects them; if the Blazers return, they effectively start over from scratch with an expansion draft and the first overall pick in the league’s entry draft.
The heart of the Blazers problem was the team’s relationship with Boston’s TD Garden; sources close to the team note that the team effectively was a renter, paying top-dollar to use the facility without getting any cut of concessions or parking. Without those kinds of ancillary revenues, the team was dependent on ticket sales and sponsorship to turn a profit. The difficult economy made it hard to find sponsors; and while home attendance rose from an average of 6,620 in 2009 to 8,712 last year, those numbers were simply not enough without a more favorable arena deal.
“We spoke to at least four arenas in New England – the Garden being one of those – and had serious conversations with them about the 2012 season,” said Doug Reffue, the team’s president and general manager. “At the end of the day, we focused our attention on TD Garden because we felt that was the arena our fans wanted us at. Unfortunately, we could not reach an agreement that would allow us to be profitable.”
Reffue said the team is starting a six-month strategic plan to evaluate prospective home venues, both locally and nationally, but said the team will need to have a deal locked down and know where it is playing by February in order to market and sell tickets for the 2013 season. He noted that Boston and Hartford – “among other New England locations” – are definitely in the mix for the team, but clearly indicated that ownership will move the franchise outside of the region if it finds the right business conditions.
“What I have learned here in four years here is that success in professional sports depends on the facility you are playing at,” Reffue said. “Without a very favorable partnership with a facility, it becomes difficult to reach profitability. … We need a partner who shares our vision for furthering the popularity of box lacrosse, and who will share our burden – as well as the revenues and profits – to be missionaries for our sport.”
While players will learn their future destinations in a dispersal draft, the immediate work for the Blazers’ office staff involves refunding ticket purchases. Reffue noted that all season-ticket holders will be reimbursed in full, and that buyers will be contacted by the team; while fans do not need to do anything to process their refund, anyone with questions about it can contact the team at 1-888-BLAZERS. He said the refunds should be completed by no later than the third week of September.
At that point, the Blazers' business operations will be maintained in an "offseason" capacity throughout 2012 – meaning that the club will continue to host its youth-related community programs and philanthropic activities. The Blazers will also provide fans with status updates on the team’s Web site and Facebook page.
This marks the second time a professional box lacrosse franchise has gone dark in Boston. The original Blazers – initially called the New England Blazers but renamed for Boston when the team moved from the Worcester Centrum to the Boston Garden – was part of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League, which eventually became the NLL. That team, related to the current franchise by name only, played from 1989 through 1997.
The Blazers’ decision drops the NLL down to eight teams, and means that 2012 will be the 17th consecutive season when the league starts the season with a different line-up of teams from the previous season. If the Blazers return in 2013 – or there is any other franchise movement – that streak would be extended to 18 years.
The new Blazers debuted in 2009 and went 10-6. Two 8-8 seasons followed, and the team was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round in each of its seasons. The 2011 season featured “the Big Three” of Dan Dawson, Casey Powell and Josh Sanderson, the three top vote-getters for the league’s MVP award in 2010 – the first time in professional sports history that the three leading candidates for most valuable player one year were teammates the next season.
“Lacrosse is booming and growing in New England, faster than almost anywhere in the country,” Reffue said. “We enjoyed a good amount of support from the lacrosse community in New England. That part of this was great, but we need much more than that in order to survive. We need corporate support, which has been very difficult to get in the last three years. We need mainstream media support … and we need to attract non-traditional fans and get them engaged in the sport. All of those things must happen for professional box lacrosse to thrive in New England.”
