Jax’s exit opens door

You can have your indoor soccer leagues. You can keep your tractor pulls and motocross. You can have the WNBA, and the USFL, and the various and sundry minor league professional sports leagues that have attempted to make in Portland.

All yours.

Me?

I’ll take the peace and quiet today.

The Portland LumberJax indoor lacrosse franchise announced this week that they’ll cease operating and look for a new home. So count me among those who will help them pack and drive them to the airport if they need it. Because the white noise created by the flurry of peripheral low-level sports that flock to Portland is too much.

This city deserves to dream bigger.

Bless the LumberJax for trying. And for giving away loads of tickets to children who wanted to see a game played by adults. But if we’re keeping it real, we have to acknowledge that this league, and this sport, was nothing more than a cannibal that wanted to eat up local sponsorship dollars, your season-ticket dollars and news coverage that should be dedicated to major professional sporting events in the Portland area.

– Excerpt from The Oregonian, John Canzano’s Column, May 6, 2009