NLL: Orlando Titans for Sale for $1.4 Million
by Corey McLaughlin | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
If this were eBay, the "Buy it Now" price for the Orlando Titans
would be $1.4 million. That’s the amount Titans majority
owner Gary Rosenbach is looking to sell the professional indoor
franchise for, he said last week.
Guess that’s the asking price for a team with no players or
plans for a 2011 National Lacrosse League schedule.
“Today’s announcement was a very hard one for me to
make,” Rosenbach said in a press release. “I am first
and foremost a fan of professional indoor lacrosse and have done
everything within my means to help the sport grow and succeed in
both Orlando and New York. However, it saddens me to say that
it’s time for me to pass the torch on to someone else who
shares my passion for the sport and the desire to see the Titans
succeed.”
It’s been a rough road to this point for the Titans. Two
weeks ago the franchise confirmed the NLL’s earlier
announcement that the team would not play in 2011 because of an
unsettled ownership situation, saying the team sought more local,
Central Florida based investors.
In a statement addressing that topic, Rosenbach said, “it was in the best interest of everyone involved to take a year off and come back in 2012 with a more financially fit and competitive franchise.”
A dispersal draft of Titans players was then held Aug. 6. Reigning NLL goaltender of the year Matt Vinc went No. 1 overall to the Colorado Mammoth and the Boston Blazers took 2010 league MVP Casey Powell with the second pick. Others landed among the 10 remaining NLL teams.
The players were up for grabs then. Now the franchise is.
The Orlando Sentinel reported in June that Rosenbach, who is not
Florida based and also owned the team its first three seasons in
New York, was decreasing his interest in the club. Steve Donner,
then the club president but who is no longer employed by the team,
said Orlando did not turn a profit for the 2010 season -- but had
performed better than in its three seasons in New York -- and had
trimmed staff.
The Titans had an announced average attendance of 7,046 for their
regular season home games at Orlando’s Amway Arena this
season, their first year in Florida. But they saw a decline as the
season went on despite posting an 11-5 record and winning the East
Division regular season title. Orlando drew 4,205 fans for a first
round playoff game against Boston and 4,651 in a semifinal loss
versus the Toronto Rock.
