By Pat Calabria
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
Team officials of the Long Island Tomahawks confirmed yesterday that the box lacrosse franchise lost $500,000 to $1 million last season and said the club’s sole owner, Bruce Norris, was seeking additional investors.
However, both the team president and the general manager said they were convinced the Tomahawks would remain on Long Island, at least through next season.
“We have a heavy cash-flow problem,” Tomahawks’ president Jim McCaffrey said.
We’re just looking for some help and we’ve been talking to people [investors] who are representing themselves and people who are representing corporations.” McCaffrey would not identify any of the individuals or corporations, but added that some of them were located on Long Island.
The Tomahawks, playing their first season in the Nassau Coliseum after a year in Rohester, drew fewer than 4,000 fans a game. General manager Morley Kells, when asked how much money the club had lost, said: “Over $500,000 and less than $1 million.”
“That’s an excellent answer,” McCaffrey said.
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
Norris denied earlier this week that he was seeking to relinquish entire ownership of the team. While watching a game between the Detroit Red Wings, the National Hockey League team he owns, and the Islanders, Norris said: “I’m just looking for some help, that’s all.”
The Tomahawks, who won the regular-season championship of the two-year-old National Lacrosse League before being eliminated in the first round of the championship playoffs, are negotiating with WOR-TV for a possible television package, according to McCaffrey.
“Something like that would be very important to us,” he said.
McCaffrey added that he expects the team—one of six in the league—to lose money this year and, possibly, next year.
“The fourth year [here] is when we expect to turn the corner,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
Kells, who is also coach of the team, said he expects to be ready to make an announcement about the team’s future “in the next 10 days.”
Although Kells agreed the team would play on Long Island again this season, he said the rest of the league would meet soon to solve some of its problems, including the possible transfer of the Boston franchise to Hartford.
The Tomahawks’ problems, McCaffrey said, could be helped by dividing the projected losses among a group of investors.
“That’s just logic,” he said. He added that all the players had been paid and that the team has no outstanding bills. “We’re looking for someone to help,” he said, “and we fully expect to find someone.”
