Health exec nets a lacrosse team

Lifelong sports fan hoping popularity continues to grow

By James Paton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 26, 2008 at 5 p.m.

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Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

Denver businessman John Arlotta shows off a cap with the logo of the Minnesota Swarm, a pro lacrosse team he is buying.

John Arlotta's passion for baseball, basketball, golf and other sports was ignited at a boys club his grandfather helped create in western New York.

Arlotta didn't discover lacrosse until much later. But once he did, the game became an obsession.

Today, Arlotta, an executive in the health care industry, is about to take the reins of a professional indoor team. The CEO of Denver-based Coram has agreed to buy the Minnesota Swarm, a National Lacrosse League club. He declined to reveal the purchase price, but teams recently have sold for more than $3 million.

The seller is Arlotta's long- time friend Craig Leipold, who recently acquired the parent company of the Minnesota Wild, the National Hockey League team.

The two men, both from Wisconsin, met two decades ago as part of a young presidents club.

Leipold "noticed there was a lacrosse team he was buying, too," Arlotta said. "He said, 'John, I know you're passionate about lacrosse. Would you be interested in some form or fashion in a team? Would you like to buy this?' I said, 'I'd love to.' "

Arlotta, who is leaving Coram, is betting that lacrosse will continue to grow in popularity.

The sport has expanded well beyond its mid-Atlantic base. The NLL's team in Colorado, the Mammoth, led the league in attendance again this season, drawing more than 17,000 a game. The men's lacrosse squad at the University of Denver made the NCAA tournament, though it lost to Maryland in the first round.

Lacrosse is picking up steam in Minnesota, especially at the high school level, Arlotta said.

"To me, this is a very good time to get involved, from a business standpoint," said Arlotta, who divides his time between Denver and Milwaukee and plans to spend at least part of the year in Colorado once his acquisition is finalized. "Living in Denver and seeing what the Mammoth have done is incredible. I think that can be replicated in other parts of the country."

Still, competition is tough for fans and sponsorship dollars.

The Minnesota Swarm sat in the middle of the pack in attendance, luring an average of 11,405 over eight home games this year. Ticket sales have risen over the past few years.

Leipold, who previously owned the NHL's Nashville Predators, said after becoming owner of Minnesota Sports & Entertainment that the lacrosse club wasn't part of the core business.

The lacrosse league, trying to shore up the weaker markets, has battled instability. While some teams, including Colorado, have fared well, others, such as San Jose, Chicago and New York, have struggled.

The league announced in October that the season would be canceled after it failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the players' union. But the sides revived the talks and nine days later said they had agreed on a seven-year deal.

Sponsorship revenue declined this season because of the labor strife, but ticket sales rose 10 percent, and the league hopes that with labor peace it will be able to secure a national TV deal and expand to other cities, said league Commissioner Jim Jennings.

Reebok, Dodge, Progressive, Edge Shaving Gel and the U.S. Navy are current sponsors.

Jennings sees the sales of the Swarm and the Rochester Knighthawks as positive. Both deals are poised for approval.

The league has identified possible ownership groups in Vancouver, British Columbia; and Halifax, Nova Scotia; as well as in Seattle and St. Louis, Jennings said.

Arlotta, former chairman and chief executive of NeighborCare and one-time president of Caremark Rx, acknowledged "the biggest challenge is not everyone knows that much about lacrosse yet," but he believes the sport's appeal is increasing.

He has funded a lacrosse program at the Boys Club of East Aurora near Buffalo, N.Y., and, in a more high-profile move, has contributed a significant sum toward a $6 million lacrosse venue being built at his alma mater, Notre Dame. The name of the venue: Arlotta Stadium.

Arlotta, who graduated from Notre Dame in 1971, said he had hoped to play a sport in college but quickly realized he wasn't "big enough or fast enough."

Buddies had asked him to play club lacrosse at college, but he said he wasn't interested. Arlotta didn't pay much attention to the sport until he moved to Baltimore in 2003 to take the NeighborCare job and started watching the team at Johns Hopkins.

He quickly turned into a fan.

But now Arlotta, 58, will watch the game from the front office, not the stands, something he admits will be a challenge without a background running a pro team.

Almost all his experience is in the health care industry. Arlotta's current company, Coram, was recently acquired by Apria Healthcare for $350 million.

"I'm very excited," he said. "I also have a lot to learn."

patonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2544

National Lacrosse League

Teams and their owners:

* Buffalo Bandits Tom Golisano

* Calgary Roughnecks Brad Banister

* Chicago Shamrox Kevin Loughery Jr.

* Colorado Mammoth Stan Kroenke

* Edmonton Rush Bruce Urban

* Minnesota Swarm Pending sale to John Arlotta

* New York Titans Gary Rosenbach

* Philadelphia Wings Russ Cline

* Portland LumberJax Angela Batinovich

* Rochester Knighthawks Pending sale to Curt Styres

* San Jose Stealth - Steve Luczo, Bill and Denise Watkins

* Toronto Rock A group of shareholders

126,000 The number of boys and girls playing high school lacrosse across the country, which is nearly triple the number playing a decade ago, according to National Federation of State High School Associations estimates.

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