When a tribal counselor first raised the prospect of the Seneca Nation buying the Rochester Knighthawks, it was to join a group of investors.
That was in mid-May.
There were initial discussions internally, and with National Lacrosse League officials.
But something didn’t sit right with Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca.
“My vision was that the Seneca Nation needs to be in control of its destiny, if it was going to invest in a franchise like the Knighthawks,” he said. “And so, from the get-go, that was my position, is that Seneca Nation was going to move forward as a sole owner if this was going to happen.”
The Seneca Nation was announced as the Knighthawks’ new owner Tuesday. It is thought to be the first sovereign Native Nation to own a major professional lacrosse team, according to a Seneca spokesperson.
This is a game they say the Creator gifted their people centuries ago. The Haudenosaunee were the first lacrosse players, here in New York and in bordering parts of Canada, making it America’s oldest team sport. And the Knighthawks and Rochester have a storied history in the NLL.
"Once the opportunity came,” Seneca said, “we looked at it and we realized the importance of it and our connection to this game of lacrosse and what it means to us as a medicine game, as a spiritual game, as a game that's able to bring our people and communities together.”
But for a time this summer, it looked like the Knighthawks could be the latest of Rochester’s sports teams to be shuttered, joining the likes of the Rhinos, the Rattlers, the Razorsharks.
“For us after last season, it was uncertainty,” said Connor Fields, the team’s star forward and last year’s league MVP. “We didn't know if there was going to be another season, you know, with this team, in this city.”
How close did it come to folding? "If the Seneca Nation wasn't willing to purchase the team, you know ... the odds were against us a little bit,” said Dan Carey, the Knighthawks’ president and general manager.
A fated outcome
The ownership announcement was made Tuesday at Blue Cross Arena, where the Knighthawks play. Players sat in the front row and later signed autographs for fans who filled the audience.
“It's like a swirled whirlwind of emotions,” said Nick DeLucenay, 43, of Greece, who has been a season ticket holder since 2010. “I've been constantly checking media like, what's going to happen?
“I'll admit,” he continued, “I was like a little kid again. I was jumping up and down, all happy when I found out. ... That the Seneca Nation own it? It's just perfect.”
As a teenager, Fields played for the junior league Seneca WarChiefs on the Seneca Nation territory.
"The meaning of the game ... how it should be played, playing it the right way, I was lucky enough to be introduced to that at a young age,” he said. “And I credit playing for the Seneca WarChiefs, for a lot of where I am today, and who I am as a player.”
With Seneca Nation, he said, the team doesn’t just have new owners — it has the right owners. At the close of the news conference, he presented Seneca with a Knighthawks No. 70 jersey with Seneca’s name on the back. Seneca is the Nation’s 70th president.
“To hear President Seneca talking … you could tell that they really do care about the game itself and the growth of the game and playing the game the right way,” Fields said. “And they want to win, right? And that's all the things we want, too.”
The team was previously owned by Pegula Sports Entertainment but is now held by the Seneca Nation's business subsidiary, Seneca Holdings LLC.
The deal transferring ownership moved quickly. What typically requires a year of due diligence and detail was “fast-tracked” and completed in little more than two months, said NLL Commissioner Brett Frood.
“A tedious process with a wonderful, ideal, utopian result,” is how he described it.
Terms of the deal were not released.
History, on many levels
Rochester is where Seneca scored his first lacrosse goal as a 10-year-old playing for the Newtown pee-wee team in the 1960s. Blue Cross Arena is where Frood saw his first NLL game in 1997. And the Knighthawks were his team.
“I know, as commissioner, you're supposed to be agnostic, right? I've got 14 teams. No favorites,” he said, explaining though how this process "has been certainly near and dear to my heart. ... It’s come full circle for me.”
The Knighthawks have gone to three straight NLL playoffs and have a decorated history, albeit under an earlier franchise. The rafters of Blue Cross Arena are largely barren.
Its records and championships from past years followed former owner Curt Styres when he moved the team to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2019. Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula bought the second franchise, and the team name, to keep lacrosse in Rochester.
When they announced this summer that they were divesting, and would not continue operating the team, it looked for a time like the run was over.
“I was a big Buffalo Braves fan back in the day,” Seneca said of the former NBA franchise that is the present-day Los Angeles Clippers. “I remember as a kid the effect that it had on me when a sports team was taken from a city and a fan base.
“For us to be able to step in,” he said, “to be able to take possession of this team, this franchise, and to keep it here in Rochester, I think means a great deal.”
