http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/mammoth/article/0,1299,DRMN_9297_3896614,00.html The outdoor lacrosse league is moving west. They will be owned by the Mile High Stadium authority, so they will not move with the Rapids, I assume, to the new stadium in 2007. I think the Rapids might also find themselves with lots of Wednesday night games if the stadium wants to be a bunch of jerks.
There will probably be Lax lines on the field Monday as well since there is a lacrosse game there tomorrow. Hopefully the Rapids will continue to be the "biggest" sub-tenant at Invesco and continue to have some scheduling power.
Actually, I was thinking that lacrosse would be a good match for soccer in the new soccer stadium. Lacrosse isn't going to sell 50,000 seats any time soon. They match the small stadium model. From a Kroenke standpoint, I guess there is no reason to confuse the customer on the relative merits of indoor and outdoor lacrosse, so he wouldn't have wanted this team to form in Denver. However, there was a certain inevitability and if there were an outdoor team, I couldn't see him refusing to rent the new stadium to the lacrosse team. But, with an outdoor team owned by either the Broncos or the Mile High Stadium group (I think they are the same thing) then there is no chance of extra money coming the Rapids way in the form of rent in the new stadium.
My guess (and being the spiteful bastard that I am) is that they did this to A) Replace the Rapids as a summer tennant B) Try to erode attendance at the new place C) Prevent the Rapids from renting their stadium to an outdoor LAX team
just like someone said earlier, KSE probably wouldnt buy an Outdoor LAX team or let one play in the new stadium because it would mean competition for the Mammoth. the Outdoor team at Mile High is just a way for the stadium to fill dates once the Rapids leave. the LAX lines hopefully wont be a problem since they dont have all the lines that Football has thus it wont be too hard to clean up
Don't worry. I'm happy to have lacrosse, and I hope they move to the new stadium eventually. I like the game. I don't like that afterbirth that is paraded out at the Pepsi center though. The marriage of MHSA and Lacrosse is made for divorce. MHSA won't support the team, and the league will need better. Furthermore, without the side show stuff that comes with indoor lacrosse I suspect that lacrosse won't draw very well over the long term. I like the game, but with the space on a full size field a good team maximizes possession, minimizes hitting, and patiently exploits the gaps (see Princeton in the late 90's). That's gonna make for a lot of disappointed fans who show up looking for a brawl and instead watch a bunch of guys play catch with stix.
TWEEEET! Before you all go overboard on this, consider that DU has the only known lacrosse-specific stadium in the country: http://denverpioneers.collegesports.com/sports/m-lacros/spec-rel/070904aaa.html A miniscule crowd at Invesco will be nice and cozy at Barton Stadium.
Yeah Barton is completed and its a very nice facility. they should move a pro team their, perfect capacity and it would have a nice atmosphere.
Last time I checked the outdoor lacrosse league only played six home games per season. That's not enough to appreciably damage the field, nor mess with the Rapids schedule. Carry on...
You can put down chalk lines for LAX I believe. The lines don't get piles of sumo wrestlers on them very often as far as I can tell. Oh yeah ... and go SU Lax!!!