Saskatoon has been the rumored home of professional sports teams for years, down to when the St. Louis Blues were anticipated to be setting up in the city in the 1980s – an event I learned about through a commemorative bumper sticker on a used car. Now, finally, the city will be getting pro sports. It’s the National Lacrosse League that will be coming to the city, with the Edmonton Rush making the move down the Yellowhead.
Saskatoon is always a theoretically appealing location for sports, if only because it’s a market that is not really served otherwise. There are good college programs in the Huskies, and junior hockey with the Blades, but there’s nothing at a higher level. It’s a hole in the market, a gap that could theoretically be filled by something. The strength of Saskatoon is that it could work as a provincial hub for whatever sport it would host, the market is actually much bigger than the population of the city itself.
The big example of this is Regina and the CFL. Ignoring the awful start to the 2015 season, the Roughriders work because they are a provincial team, not a Regina team – it’s no coincidence that the province itself is a prominent part of the team’s name. People make the trip from every corner of this big trapezoid to watch football in Regina, it’s considered a provincial point of pride, which is a pretty great marketing gimmick. It’s also a necessary marketing gimmick, because Regina by itself couldn’t otherwise sustain a team – it needs the entire provincial market to work.
Lacrosse, for whatever reason, does not enjoy the same national presence as football, but a Saskatoon team would be banking on the same effect, and the Rush will be called the Saskatchewan Rush for the same reason. It would be the best lacrosse in the province, and the team needs that provincial pride. It likely isn’t going to draw Rider numbers, it’s also not really expected to, but does need to get fans from everywhere into the city.
The former Edmonton Rush also set up the city with an advantage if they are going to be a draw. The team is good, or at least was good last season, given that they’re the most recent league champions. That means you don’t get the teething pains of an expansion team. You’re not going to have to stick through a couple seasons of a team finding its footing, Edmonton already did that for you, now you can enjoy top level lacrosse. The ability to win is always a good sign for a sports team, even if it couldn’t save it in Edmonton itself.
Then again, while Saskatoon is theoretically appealing, we’re heading into uncharted territory. The city is unproven in a lot of ways, and there are sports it just doesn’t support – baseball can’t survive there, the rotting carcasses of failed teams litter the parks – and lacrosse would be a new experiment for the city to take on. There’s no indication of whether this is going to be proof that Saskatoon can handle professional sports or if it’ll be a warning to other teams contemplating setting up in the city.
If you want Saskatoon to have a pro sports team, you have to support this lacrosse team, its success is the only way that city is going to get anything else. It’s going to be part of the case for or against any future expansion.
