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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, DECEMBER 31,2003 Efjc Canatuan Statesman www.durhamregion.com Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 December 31,2003 infodurhamregion.com Paul Futhey Lacrosse agreement a big deal The National Lacrosse League season got off on the right foot last Friday, the day after Christmas: the two games on the schedule were played. Hallelujah. God bless us, everyone. everyone. Yes, season opening matches in Arizona and New York saw Arizona holding off the visiting Vancouver Ravens 16-12 in one game and the visiting Philadelphia Wings topping the Rochester Knighthawks 13-7 in the other. All of that almost didn't take place, though. A labour dispute threatened to kibosh the season before before it even began. Fortunately, things got resolved in the final hours before a league-imposed deadline earlier this month. It happened a little over a week to go before those season openers, openers, in fact. The resolution is pretty much an extension of the old collective bargaining bargaining agreement. In the words of a release on the NLL Web site, it's a deal containing "minor modifications" modifications" to the one recently expired. Good faith negotiations on a longer- term deal to ensure labour peace are to ensue. Seriously, that's great. That's fantastic. fantastic. Glad to hear it. Especially because both sides knew, in this case, what a labour stoppage stoppage would really mean. "No one wins with no season," said Buffalo Bandits player and Hampton resident Jason Crosbie. He made the remark when contacted by This Week the day the agreement was announced. True. And while Crosbie's words may sound similar to what often gets said in similar situations in mainstream mainstream pro sports, he followed them up with this assertion: "I don't know if the league would have survived." In the words of interim Toronto Rock GM Derek Keenan, "major damage" would have been done. This is a big year for the league. It has seen its membership trimmed to 10 members, three of them in new locations. locations. One of those is in Glendale, Arizona, Arizona, where the recently relocated Arizona Sting franchise occupies the same arena as the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes. Nearly 13,000 were on hand to see the Vancouver-Arizona Vancouver-Arizona game on Boxing Day - an auspicious sign for the league in a new market. On the players' side of things, a successful westward relocation (there are also franchises in San Jose and Anaheim) should work in their favour when it comes time to negotiate a new, long-term deal one year from now. While some are quick to dismiss the NLL labour disagreement as just another example of sporting silliness, it's pretty obvious there's no comparison comparison between this and the strikes and lockouts in the mainstream professional professional leagues of hockey, baseball and basketball. The income the lacrosse players are earning is supplementary to that obtained through their time at 'real jobs.' There are teachers, firelighters and police officers among those players, players, coaches and managers. Therein lies the irony. While a work stoppage would more than likely likely kill the NLL, the issues on the table would likely be ones we as fans can actually relate to. The sides weren't arguing over how to split up a grossly inflated revenue revenue pie. They weren't debating ridiculous concepts such as players getting 'service time' during a strike, like those in baseball did over the 1994 work stoppage (Strike: a time when the players, you know, refused to work). Crosbie said he didn't know if the NLL would have survived a work stoppage. I don't know, either. I certainly wouldn't want to bet on it. From the sounds of il, 1 don't think anyone was overly keen on finding out, Paid I'nthey is a sports writer for The Canadian Statesman and Clttr- inyton This Week,