THE CANADIAN PRESS
Chris Levis is perfectly content in the knowledge he’ll never become a millionaire playing lacrosse. The same holds true for most National Lacrosse League players who have had their season cancelled due to a labour dispute.
Levis, the backup goalie for the Colorado Mammoth, grew up in Windsor, Ont., where he was a good hockey player, but he left the ice for the sport he loved most.
"The camaraderie was completely different than it was in hockey circles," Levis recalls. "It didn’t seem as political, and anybody who has grown up around the sport knows what I mean when I say lacrosse people are committed down-to-earth people."
He played for Six Nations teams and the Buffalo Bandits selected him in the 1998 NLL draft. His rights also were owned by NLL teams in New York, Columbus, Ohio, Vancouver and Calgary before he joined the Mammoth two years ago.
He represents his teammates in the Professional Lacrosse Players’ Association and was in New York last weekend for contract talks that went nowhere. After the players unanimously rejected the last NLL offer before the league-imposed midnight Monday deadline, commissioner Jim Jennings pulled the plug on a schedule that was to open Dec. 27.
"Sitting at the table, it’s frustrating to be fighting for pennies," Levis said Wednesday from Vancouver, where he manages a downtown health club. "We’re not asking for million-dollar salaries."
The association wants players to get a share of future profits, while the 14-team league maintains its business model for league-wide success requires continued salary caps.
"We’re saying to the owners that we really want to see this sport grow and if it grows we want to be tied into that with you," Levis explained.
Levis, 31, was paid about US$15,000 last season as backup goalie for the Colorado Mammoth, who averaged more than 16,000 spectators a game in Denver’s Pepsi Center.
The capped maximum for a veteran was US$21,294, and each team could designate as many as two franchise players who could get $25,552. With a 16-game schedule, the vet cap worked out to $1,330.88 a game. The NLL says it offered five per cent more on the vet cap in each of the next five years, which would raise pay by $66.54 a game in 2008.
The rookie max of $6,880 amounted to $430 a game. The NLL says it offered an increase of three per cent, or $12.90 a game.
The players have already done their fair share to get the NLL where it is now, Levis said, as they risk injuries that might jeopardize full-time jobs most hold down outside lacrosse.
"I know guys who are in physio all week just so they can play on the weekends," he said.
Levis said the players probably would have taken the minimal raises offered if they got a stake in the future.
"I want to play," he said. "I love the guys in Colorado with all my heart, but something has to budge on (the owners’) end. We’re certainly willing to hear the other side’s opinions and talk but multiple offers were made on their part with virtually no chance for us on the big-ticket items. It was frustrating."
There had been no communication as of 5 p.m. ET Wednesday between the NLL and the PLPA since the season’s cancellation.
Levis played for the amateur Coquitlam Adanacs in the Mann Cup series that ended on Sept. 16 and immediately began training for the NLL season.
"I love the game," he said. "When we show up on the weekends and we put on the equipment and play, that’s the sport element.
"There eventually has to be a really strong business sense that steps in. Economically, this deal doesn’t make sense to the players. So many guys struggle with the idea that they don’t want to be away from the game. Once you get over it and you realize it’s only money and you’ll get a chance to make it up later, that’s it."
The players are willing to accept concessions "but we want to be tied in just in case this league takes off," said Levis. Sponsorships such as the one with Reebok have given the NLL a push.
"The popularity of the game is increasing," said Levis, who had planned to use his lacrosse income this season to put a down payment on a house. "We don’t want to break the bank but if something big does happen we want to be sitting there to benefit on a marginal basis."