The National Lacrosse League is adding an expansion team in Dallas/Fort Worth, a person with knowledge of the matter told Sportico.
The team, which won’t announce its nickname until later, will be owned by Bill Cameron, who controls the WNBA’s Dallas Wings and who is also an investor in the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the indoor lacrosse league hasn’t announced the club.
The NLL declined to comment.
The person said the expansion fee eclipsed the $5 million paid by private equity firm GF Capital Management’s GF Sports for the New York Riptide, which began play this past season.
Greg Bibb, who is the Wings’s chief executive officer and president, as well as a partner, will be the new team’s managing partner, the person said.
The NLL’s 14th team will begin play in the 2022 season, the person said.
Adding a team to the No. 5 U.S. media market should help buoy the league’s audience. NLL games are streamed on AT&T’s B/R Live in North America.
The team will play at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. The facility holds anywhere from 9,300-14,000 fans depending on the event.
The NLL in April canceled the remainder of its regular season after having already paused the campaign because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The league, founded in 1986, now has nine teams in the U.S. and five in Canada.
The league’s ownership ranks include billlionaires Joe Tsai, who owns the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, and Stan Kroenke, whose sports portfolio includes the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and NFL’s Los Angeles Rams.
