Examiner Piece: Is Chicago’s loss Rochester’s gain?

Saturday morning, I read Major League Lacrosse’s release proclaiming a June game pitting the Chicago Machine against the Denver Outlaws in my hometown of Rochester, NY. I was excited that my hometown might get another shot at proving that they deserve an outdoor pro lacrosse team, after losing the Rattlers in January 2009.

However, I found it curious – why would the MLL host a game in a city they had pulled out of a mere year ago? It was then that I followed some statements on lacrosse boards and stumbled upon the fact that the Chicago Machine had no home games scheduled – every upcoming game was scheduled for the “MLL Home Office.” So I wrote an Examiner piece about it – “Are the MLL Chicago Machine on the outs?”

While the NLL has a cautious optimism about the stability of their league – as evident in Commissioner George Daniel press conference on the State of the League two weeks ago – the MLL continues to run into potholes. It’ll be interesting if they do end up moving the Machine franchise to a market that they had previously moved out of, or what other cities become a part of the Machine’s 2010 Road Tour.