Ottawa Rebel Suspend Operations
July 30, 2003 - National Lacrosse League (NLL) News Release
The Ottawa Rebel lacrosse club has suspended operations, effectively immediately. The Rebel will not participate in the 2003-2004 season, scheduled to begin in December. "We look forward to having this franchise revived in a new market for the 2004-05 season," said Commissioner Jim Jennings. "We continue to place underperforming franchises in emerging NHL and NBA markets, where they can be aligned with strategic partners that will ensure their success."
The Rebel players will be made available to the other member clubs via a Dispersal Draft. The Dispersal Draft will be held on Thursday, July 31st at 4pm Eastern Time. The Draft will consist of three rounds, and be conducted via telephone conference call. Results will be posted as they occur on the league's official website, www.nll.com.
The rules for the draft are as follows:
Each team will receive one (1) selection in each round. The draft will consist of up to three rounds or until all players have been selected, which ever comes first. The draft order for each shall be as follows:
Selection, Team
1 Anaheim
2 New York
3 Columbus
4 Philadelphia
5 San Jose
6 Vancouver
7 Calgary
8 Colorado
9 Buffalo
10 Rochester
11 Toronto
The Dispersal Draft Order was determined via the following criteria:
Member Clubs that did not make the playoffs shall have priority of selection in reverse order of the previous year's League standing. For teams that made the most recent NLL playoffs but failed to make the championship game, the order of selection will be based on each teams regular season record (worst record to select first). The NLL Champion (Toronto Rock) will select last in the following year's draft; the runner-up (Rochester Knighthawks) will select second to last. The tie-breaking procedure for clubs with identical records included head-to-head meetings during the previous regular season, records versus divisional opponents (if necessary and applicable) and records versus common opponents played an equal number of times (if necessary and applicable).
A list of draft eligible players will be posted shortly.
National Lacrosse League Stories from July 30, 2003
- Rochester to Draft 10th in NLL Dispersal Draft - Rochester Knighthawks
- Rochester Knighthawks to Sign Autographs at Rattlers Game - Rochester Knighthawks
- Ottawa Rebel Suspends Operations - Ottawa Rebel
- Ottawa Rebel Suspend Operations - NLL
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