IL Indoor

Proposed Arena Lacrosse League owner and commissioner Allan Harvie.

Former Southern Professional Hockey League franchise owner, Allan Harvie, is attempting to bring indoor lacrosse, which he describes as “… just like hockey, without the skates“, to locations in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland through a unique charity based league called the Arena Lacrosse League, which Harvie hopes to have begin play in February of 2011.

During a press conference held at Norfolk Scope Arena yesterday, Harvie, a native of Prince Edward Island, told media that the league would operate as a non-profit organization, with proceeds from the league being donated to a charity, also started by Harvie, called virginians4haiti, a humanitarian program that “assist with rebuilding of the homes, hearts and souls of the Haitian people who are in desperate need of such aid”, as quoted on the charity’s website.

“I thought it would allow an opportunity to combine two passions,” Harvie was quoted in The Richmond Times-Dispatch. “And everybody wins.”

The former Richmond Renegades owner hopes to have teams in Richmond VA, Norfolk VA, Hampton VA, Charlottesville VA, Charlotte NC, Fayetteville NC, Winston-Salem NC, and a lone team in the state of Maryland, playing out of Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro. Nine months outside of the league’s proposed start date, The Dispatch reports that Harvie has yet to confirm any ownership within the previously listed locations, or otherwise, but is in serious talks with three groups and is hopeful to have at least five or six teams in place by February of next year.

The National Lacrosse League, who tells Insider today that they have not had any contact or are affiliated with the proposed ALL in any way, previously operated pro franchises in states the new indoor league plans on setting up shop in, with teams like the Baltimore Thunder, Washington Wave and Charlotte Cobras passing through the ALL proposed states of play.

The plan is to have a 20-24 game schedule, with what would be considered very small 16-man uniformed rosters, a team’s gameday payday $2,900 (the winning side taking an additional $1,000 bonus), with coaches apparently making as much as $35,000. Based on those figures and a 24-game regular season, players playing in all of their team’s contests would earn in the ballpark of $4,350 – $5,850. Without factoring in any win bonuses, and again using a 24-game sked, it would appear a team’s regular season payroll would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $70,000 for the year.

In order for a franchise to be sustainable, Harvie says a team would need to bring in $120,000 in sponsorship, sell at least 500 season tickets, as well as a minimum of 1,100 gameday ticket sales at $12 a seat. “It’s not a high demand for seating in order for a team to make money,” Harvie is quoted in The Dispatch. “We anticipate a lot more than that.”

Harvie is quoted in the Daily Press as asking for a franchise fee of $25,000 from the first four teams that enter the ALL, anticipating an annual budget of $350,000 – $400,000 per franchise.

The announcement of the ALL comes at a time when established clubs in Ontario’s Major Series Lacrosse loop are seemingly struggling financially, recently losing their Barrie Lakeshores franchise just prior to their first game of the season, many Senior sides drawing extremely sparse crowds, this in a province that is considered by many, alongside British Columbia, to be the major hotbeds of box (or “indoor”) lacrosse in North America.

The NLL however, after seeing the Portland Lumberjax leave the league due to an inability to operate in the present economy, and the Titans and Stealth franchises moved to non-traditional lacrosse cities, appear to be stable leading into the 2011 season, no news so far this summer of any teams closing up shop. The NLL had also stated earlier this year that there are no plans for expansion this off-season.

One of the new league’s proposed homes, Hampton Coliseum, hopes the league does well, but isn’t quite as optimistic as Harvie at this point. Hampton Coliseum director Joe Tsao tells the Daily Press, “The whole thing is kind of sketchy to me. I think he has good intentions. … I like the sport of lacrosse as an indoor business. It’s fast and brutal, and people like that. …. If this is an opportunity, I’d certainly like to be a part of it.”

The Daily Press also reports that Harvie plans on donating any profits the league makes to his virginians4haiti program, telling the media outlet, “I don’t need the Arena Lacrosse League to support me. If you go down (to Haiti) one time, you’ll see a lot more need than here.”

It’s expected that the league’s official website, arenalacrosseleague.com, will be launched in coming days.

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