By LINDSAY KRAMER The Post-Standard
The Major Indoor Lacrosse League welcomes Syracuse’s interest in a possible franchise but has concerns about the team’s arena size and proximity to other MILL teams, a league official said Tuesday.
Bruce Lucker, executive vice president of the seven-team MILL, met with Syracuse Crunch president Howard Dol-gon on Tuesday to discuss Dol-gon’s interest in bringing a team here. Syracuse is on a list of 12 markets being considered for MILL expansion in 1997.
“It’s heading in a direction that could go all the way if things went as well as they went today,” Dolgon said.
Lucker said if all factors are equal, he’d favor Syracuse. First, however, he wants to study what impact placing a team here would have on the gates of MILL franchises in Buffalo and Rochester.
Also, the MILL prefers to place teams in arenas that seat at least 10,000 fans in order to keep ticket prices down. The Onondaga County War Memorial has a capacity of slightly over 6,200.
“We think Syracuse would be a viable market,” Lucker said.
“Syracuse has a lacrosse heritage. The real question for us is, what do we do to build the gross so we can be in Syracuse as a profitable business?”
Lucker said the MILL had initial discussions with Syracuse University officials about using the Carrier Dome, but those talks never got serious. Pat Campbell, managing director of the dome, said the MILL backed off when it found out how much it would cost to convert the facility into an indoor lacrosse arena.
Dolgon is pursuing plans to expand the War Memorial. For now, he thinks the MILL could work and be moderately priced in the current building.
Lucker said the MILL will create a shorter list of expansion candidates by mid-May. The MILL hopes to name its new teams by July.
