Update

Last week, the National Lacrosse League and its player's association reached agreement on a new 7-year Collective Bargaining Agreement that allowed for a new 2008 season to be scheduled. The original 2008 season had been cancelled when an agreement was not reached by the original deadline of October 15.

On the evening of Monday, October 29th, NLL Commissioner Jim Jennings held an online chat with fans to thank them for their patience throughout the process and to answer their questions about the upcoming season and beyond. Here is a summary of the most frequently asked questions and the Commissioner's answers.

Question: What really happened to bring the season back to life, can you pinpoint a breakthrough?

Jennings: Our owners decided to give it one last try. They authorized me to contact (player's association president) Peter Schmitz in hopes of saving the season. I spoke with Peter and a positive dialogue ensued. We negotiated for three days and came to a positive conclusion.

Question: Are you pleased with a 7-year deal?

Jennings: Yes, I'm very pleased with a 7-year deal. Since I've become Commissioner, one of my objectives was to get a long-term Collective Bargaining Agreement so we would be able to pursue national sponsors and a national television agreement.

Question: Because of dates being released, are we looking at a shorter than 16 game season?

Jennings: I anticipate we will have a 16-game schedule. We are trying to start our schedule as close as possible to the season's original start date of December 27. We are working together with the teams and arenas. We hope to have the new schedule out within the next seven days.

Question: Is there any hope of getting games on national TV this year?

Jennings: We've contacted several television networks in hopes of salvaging our efforts to have the All-Star and Championship games air live on national television. With our season schedule still in the process of being assembled, it's too early to say if we have a place to fit into a network's television schedule.

Q: Will there be any exhibition games this year and will teams go on the road, possibly in Halifax?

Jennings: There are no exhibition games scheduled as of yet. At this time, we are completely focused on creating the new 2008 regular season schedule. If there's an opportunity to play some pre-season games, we'll explore it.

Q: Can you tell us when the NLL video game will be ready?

Jennings: Yes, we have extended our agreement with Activision for the development of a NLL video game. It's taking longer than expected, but they assure us it will be out for 2009.

Q: Commissioner Jennings, do you browse fan forums or fan websites to take in their opinions or suggestions?

Jennings: I love hearing from our fans. Feel free to email me any time at jim.jennings@nll.com.Bandits Blogger