HALIFAX—While one group is itching to start a CFL team in Halifax, and another prepares to bring in a professional soccer franchise, rumours of a professional lacrosse team are now being tossed around.

Media reports suggest that the owner of the Rochester Knighthawks — one of nine National Lacrosse League (NLL) teams — is considering either starting an expansion team here or moving the Knighthawks to Halifax.

But the excitement about so many teams converging in one place is being tempered by concern that Halifax may not have the capacity to host them all.

Halifax is a fine candidate for an NLL team, according to sports economist Moshe Lander, but that doesn’t mean the municipality should jump at any offer it gets.

“It can be successful,” said Lander, a professor at Concordia and Dalhousie universities. “But there’s lots of things that have to go right, and there’s lots of things that have to be considered.”

The NLL has box lacrosse teams across Canada and the U.S. — Buffalo, Calgary, Colorado, Georgia, New England, Rochester, Saskatchewan, Toronto and Vancouver.

Box lacrosse, as opposed to field lacrosse, is played in hockey arenas drained of their ice, meaning Halifax already has a possible venue in the Scotiabank Centre. Lander said the existing infrastructure makes Halifax appealing for franchisees.

“It’s a very low-cost sort of move,” he said, adding that bringing crowds into the downtown area on more nights of the year could be an economic win for Halifax.

Lander said all the recent attention on Halifax from professional sports leagues is easily explained. As a growing city, it has the best capacity for sports franchises in Atlantic Canada — an untapped market.

But Lander cautioned that the market for sports teams in Halifax could saturate, if franchise owners don’t make the right plays.

The Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Halifax Hurricanes of the National Basketball League of Canada and any possible lacrosse team would all have similar seasons through the winter months. Competition could compromise the viability of any or all of those teams, said Lander.

“If all they’re doing is poaching each other’s business, then all of them are going to fail,” he said.

Lander said it wouldn’t be unprecedented for three such teams to share an arena, but with a population the size of Halifax, the arena might not fill up for each team at every game.

Scotiabank Centre representative Erin Esiyok-Prime said in an email she didn’t have any information to share about an NLL team coming to Halifax, but Scotiabank Centre is “always looking for new opportunities.”

Another concern of Lander’s is that the rumoured franchisee isn’t local. Curt Styres is the current owner of the NLL’s Rochester Knighthawks and according to his LinkedIn profile is from Ohsweken, Ont. Lander said a team owner with no connection to the region would have little incentive to keep a team in Halifax long-term.

“(Styres) doesn’t live there,” said Lander. “He’s going to maybe show up a few times to see a game and sit in the owner’s box but he doesn’t have an intimate understanding of Halifax or of the citizens or of what the city’s needs are … So at the first sign of financial trouble, is he just going to up the team and move them to Moncton or move them to Bangor?”

Craig Rybczynski, a representative from the Rochester Knighthawks, would neither confirm nor deny the possibility of an NLL team coming to Halifax.

A statement from the NLL confirmed the league is expanding, but it said conversations around the expansion are confidential.

Greg Knight, executive director of Lacrosse Nova Scotia, said he’s heard about the possibility of an NLL team in Halifax and hopes it comes to fruition.

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“It would certainly be huge for us,” Knight said in an interview. “We’re a bit of a smaller sport in respect to all the other sports that are in operation in the province, and if a professional team was to set up shop here, that would … help shine a spotlight … and get people talking a little more about (lacrosse).”

Meanwhile, Halifax Regional Council recently heard from Maritime Football Ltd., the group hoping to bring a CFL team to Halifax. The meeting was in camera, but afterward the mayor said the group “advanced their case.”

Last month Halifax announced a Canadian Premier League professional men’s soccer team, which will play at the historic Wanderers Grounds. A pop-up stadium at that site will host a series of rugby, soccer and football games this summer.

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