Home Opening Celebration January 9
January 3, 2004 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Vancouver Ravens News Release
Happy New Year!
Here's to a happy, healthy and productive 2004 for all of you who make up the Ravens Family of Season Ticket Holders and Half-Season Ticket Holders, those of you who in so many ways form the foundation for our National Lacrosse League franchise.
On behalf of our players, coaches, management and staff, we wanted to send along our best wishes for the New Year - but with precisely one week to go before our home opener against the Calgary Roughnecks, Friday, January 9th, at 7:30 p.m. at General Motors Place, we also wanted to take this time out to include you in our plans for our Home Opening Celebration.
It's a Home Opening Celebration that will first and foremost mark our organization's belief that we are poised to make the transition from playoff contending team to championship contending team. Thanks to the great work of our lacrosse operations leadership of Paul Dal Monte, Dave Evans and Dr. Dave Lough, we acquired three first round draft picks in Mark Miyashita of Richmond, B.C. (first overall), Craig Conn of St. Catharines, Ont. (fourth overall) and Kevin Olson of Burnaby, B.C. (12th overall). Trading for rugged defender Andy Ogilvie exemplifies some of the other moves which have been made to add new dimensions to our line up.
The Home Opening Celebration will also be an opportunity to thank our Season Ticket Holders in particular and all of our fans in general for their patience and understanding during the protracted Collective Bargaining Agreement discussions between the NLL and the Professional Lacrosse Players Association (PLPA) during the summer and well into the fall. Given the timing of the PLPA strike action and its impact on our pre-season marketing and sales initiatives, we will be using the Home Opening Celebration to make up for some lost ground (during the typical pre-season lead in of October, November and December) and jump start what we expect will be our best season yet.
To reach out to new fans and reconnect with others in the lacrosse community, we are offering a Home Opening Celebration special ticket offer of $9 on Friday, January 9th, for selected lower bowl seating sections. Tickets are available at TicketMaster or by telephoning (604) 280-4400 beginning Monday January 5, 2004;
To show our appreciation to our Season Ticket Holders, we will be offering a pair of added value tickets to an upcoming Ravens home game. Call (604) 899-5300 for more details.
Finally, the Home Opening Celebration will be, in our view, a great way to acknowledge your Ravens players. Not only have they stood strong behind our franchise as we work hard to complete a recovery plan from last season, their commitment to Vancouver and to the British Columbia lacrosse community was demonstrated so clearly through their leadership and actions during the recent PLPA strike. Out of respect for our fans, our sponsors, our broadcast partners and the great game of lacrosse, they took steps which ultimately resulted in a resolution of the strike action and preservation of the 2003-2004 NLL season that had come to be at risk. I cannot say enough about the character of your Ravens - except to ask you to join with us in acknowledging them at our Home Opening Celebration.
Your support - and those of your friends and families who love lacrosse, along with that of new fans - will make a big difference for us as we move forward into an exciting 2004 NLL season.
We look forward to seeing you on Friday, January 9th, 2004.
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National Lacrosse League Stories from January 3, 2004
- Home Opening Celebration January 9 - Vancouver Ravens
- Mammoth Win Starts 2004 Season in Front of 17,778 - Colorado Mammoth
- Stealth downed 17-8 by Colorado Mammoth - San Jose Stealth
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