Confusion continues as Major Series Lacrosse season supposedly set to start
Dan Lomas, Cobourg Kodiaks (Photo: Dave Fryer)
If you thought last week’s meetings between the Ontario Lacrosse Association, Major Series Lacrosse, Brampton Excelsiors Lacrosse Club and Owen Sound Lacrosse Club would finally bring clarity to an incredibly chaotic and often confusing story, well, you’d be wrong.
The four parties met last Tuesday and continued to chat up until Friday while attempting to find a last-minute resolution regarding the status of the BELC and OSLC, plus ultimately starting (restarting?) an MSL season that was paused due to threats of litigation by Owen Sound owner, Joe Norton.
Norton, who’s 2018 purchase of the Brampton Major Excelsiors has since been questioned by the OLA, along with his attempt to move the team to Owen Sound a few seasons later, threatened to sue anyone using Excelsiors assets he insists he legally still owns (name, logos, etc.), no matter where the OLA has instructed that franchise to sit.
The OLA, who serves as MSL’s governing body, had previously ruled that the Excelsiors be returned to Brampton and for teams to make good on long-owed player development fees, or face significant discipline.
Last week’s talks revolved around a resolution that would see both Brampton and Owen Sound included in a 2022 MSL season. Multiple sources have indicated to The Lax Mag that a resolution was close to being reached, but a roadblock that could not be overcome by Friday’s deadline forced a stalemate. A media blackout prevents The Lax Mag from sharing specifics of those unresolved issues between the two sides.
In a report by The Peterborough Examiner last week, OLA VP of Junior-Major, Sean O’Callaghan, promised that the association and MSL would provide a joint press release by the end of the week. As of Sunday afternoon, no joint statement had been issued.
What has occurred since talks concluded on Friday, is continued confusion regarding the start of the 2022 MSL season.
The Peterborough Lakers presumably pushed “post” prematurely on a Facebook message proclaiming that the 2022 MSL season would include only five teams, that the MSL season would start Sunday, and that the Lakers would host their first home date the following Thursday.
The post has since been deleted and the following statement was instead made by the team:
Happy Dance! We will be playing soon. We still expect our home opener to be June 16 but while things get adjusted to get the league kick started again the Cobourg game is still unconfirmed because of the quick turn around, so we took that announcement off. Keep tuned in as more details are approved and confirmed. We apologize for making any quick assumptions about our schedule.
Although sources indicated discussions regarding the season were ongoing this past Saturday, no official statement with any significant detail has been publicly provided by anyone involved in last week’s meetings.
O’Callaghan continued to provide The Examiner updates, however, telling the Peterborough paper yesterday, “There will be an MSL season this year.”
“We did not want to jeopardize the full season coming out of two years of COVID. We want to make sure there is some form of Major Series Lacrosse this year.”
The Examiner also writes:
Sean O'Callaghan, the Ontario Lacrosse Association vice-president of junior to major, confirmed to The Examiner on Saturday afternoon the MSL season will proceed with five teams — Peterborough, Cobourg, Oakville, Brooklin and Six Nations — while officials from the Brampton Excelsiors Lacrosse club and Owen Sound Lacrosse Club sit out the season to resolve an ongoing dispute over ownership of the Excelsiors franchise.
Late Saturday evening and early Sunday morning, the Lakers, Cobourg Kodiaks and MSL shared on social media that the 2022 season would start this Sunday.
It's unclear if the OLA Board of Directors have voted on this decision, which would in part go against their previous ruling regarding the Excelsiors, one that was supported by an appeal tribunal too. It’s unclear if they’ve approved a decision that would essentially need them to ignore their own constitution, which requires Senior A (MSL) and B (Ontario Series Lacrosse) leagues to amalgamate as one if (Classification & Group, R5.07), “…there are not more than six clubs in the Major or Senior series...” It’s unclear if there are sanctioned officials available or assigned for a game as soon as this Sunday, a similar issue arising when the league attempted to start their season on May 23rd.
A lot remains unclear obviously, but of course, there’s more.
The Examiner also confirms that a full reworked schedule has yet to be made while the league scrambles to get going for Sunday at 6pm in Cobourg. As per O’Callaghan in the same article, there will also be some sort of temporary dispersal of in-limbo Excelsiors players, but again, no clear plan present of how that would work.
It's not yet known how many regular season games each team will play as the MSL governors will need to meet to hammer out those details.
O'Callaghan said the players who belong to the disputed franchise will be given an opportunity to play for one season with another team. How that will be worked out is still to be decided.
"There will be an opportunity for them to partake with another team in Ontario or if they decide to go out west there will be an opportunity there," he said.
The desperation to get back onto the floor has seemingly led to the same confusing communication, lack of clarity and last-second chaos, which would be remarkably on brand for this endless ordeal.
Will a fully sanctioned MSL season officially start this Sunday? Great question.