The New York Riptide of the National Lacrosse League is reportedly moving to Ottawa next season.
It looks like the Senators are bringing pro lacrosse back to Ottawa next season. According to a report from Ottawa's TSN 1200 radio, the National Lacrosse League's New York Riptide will transfer its operations to Ottawa next season.
According to the report, the Riptide was dealing with poor attendance and will lose its home at Nassau County Coliseum.
The Nation's Capital briefly had a National Lacrosse League team called the Ottawa Rebel in the early 2000s. It was owned by former Ottawa CFL team owner Brad Watters, whose group also brought pro lacrosse to Toronto and Montreal.
The Rebel were a completely terrible team and never straightened things out, posting a 9-37 record over three seasons. They suspended operations and eventually ended up in Edmonton as the Rush and today they're the Saskatchewan Rush.
The Riptide are in the middle of the pack in the NLL standings and currently have the game's best player in Jeff Teat, who has a league leading 33 goals and 68 points in 10 games.
The Sens are expected to make the announcement official at a news conference on Wednesday morning.
There's been no word on whether they'll maintain the name Riptide, return to the Rebel, or go with something new. Based on the league's 2024 "NLL UnBOXed" school program with Ottawa, perhaps the league might favour the name "Electrics," which already has a pretty solid logo.
According to the NLL website:
NLL UnBOXed At School is a grassroots initiative that begins in 2024. It's a physical education curriculum and equipment endowment platform for elementary and middle school-aged boys and girls in any of the NLL’s dedicated activation markets. They include Baltimore, Charlotte, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Montréal, Ottawa, Salt Lake City, Seattle, St. Louis, and the Tampa Bay area.