Shake up in the Canadian Lacrosse League

Rodney Hill has officially expanded his ownership responsibilities on the Canadian lacrosse scene.

Hill will continue to be the owner of the Ohsweken Demons, members of the Canadian Lacrosse League, also known as CLax, which is gearing up for its third season starting in February.
Hill, an Ohsweken entrepreneur, is also now a co-owner of the fledgling circuit. He owns 50 per cent of the league while the Charlesway Corporation, which owns the Niagara Falls Monsters and Barrie Blizzard, owns the other half.

Hill, however, is content to remain anonymous, not keen to do any media interviews.

Jay Tober, the chief financial officer for the Charlesway Corporation, offered his thoughts on Hill’s involvement with the league.

“I think he’s a community-minded individual,” Tober said of Hill. “And he likes to promote lacrosse. It’s a way for him to give back to the community. It gives people something to do on say a Friday night.”

Vince Hill (no relation), who is the Demons’ director of operations, also offered his thoughts on why Rodney Hill has opted to become a co-owner of the CLax.

“He’s always had a personal interest in the game,” he said. “He had a minor lacrosse background. I believe in Fort Erie.”

The CLax operated with seven squads in 2013. But it will only have five clubs competing in its 2014 campaign.

The two teams that will not be returning to the league this season are the Toronto Shooting Stars and the Iroquois Ironmen, who captured the CLax title this past year.

Like the Demons, the Ironmen played their home contests at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA) in Six Nations.

The Ironmen were owned by Rodney Hill’s wife Nancy.

“It was two different owners,” said Vince Hill. “But the money was coming out of the same pockets.”

Vince Hill also served as the Ironmen director of operations.
“We just decided to put it on the shelf this season,” he said of the Iroquois team. “The team though is for sale.”

Besides the Demons, Monsters and Blizzard, the other entries in the league this coming year will be the Oshawa-based Durham TurfDogs and the SouthWest Cyclones. The Cyclones will play their home matches out of the ILA as well as a rink in Wilmot, Ont.

Squads will play home and away contests against all of their league rivals, resulting in eight matches for each side.

Also, all five teams from the league will play a road game versus a club from Tuscarora, N.Y. Those matches will all count in the CLax standings. The Tuscarora side, however, will not be eligible to compete in the league playoffs.

League officials are hoping Tuscarora will join the CLax as a full member starting in 2015.

Vince Hill does not sound overly concerned the league, which started off with six teams in 2012, has had numerous upheavals with its franchises.

“It’s part of the growing pains of any new league,” he said.
Hill added many new circuits have tried fielding teams in locations that have not proved to be successful.

“It’s not unusual,” he said. “We’re just trying to find the right marketplaces.”

Both the Demons, who won the 2012 CLax title, and the Ironmen, made a bit of history in the league’s inaugural year. They became the first two professional teams in North America to field all-Aboriginal rosters.

With the Ironmen sitting out this coming year, the Demons can sign any of their players for their roster. But Vince Hill does not believe that makes the Demons the favourite to capture the championship.

“The other teams in the league should be better too,” he said.

That’s because the higher-calibre National Lacrosse League, which has nine franchises in Canada and the United States, has reduced the number of players teams can carry on their rosters from 23 to 20. As a result, Vince Hill believes some players that will not be able to crack NLL teams this season will trickle down to the CLax.

“The over-all strength of the league should improve,” he said.
Though Rodney Hill is now officially a co-owner of the CLax, Vince Hill said this is not entirely a new situation. He said Rodney Hill was the money man behind all of the teams during the league’s inaugural season.

And he added while Rodney Hill and his wife operated the Demons and Ironmen last year, the Charlesway Corporation handled the expenses of the other league entrants, and not just for the Monsters and Blizzard.

“This year they’ve combined their resources,” Vince Hill added.