MLL Lizards Rebrand In Effort To Extend Footprint In N.Y. Region

The MLL Long Island Lizards on Friday announced that they are re-branding and changing their name to the New York Lizards in an effort to extend their regional footprint to include New York City, Westchester County, New Jersey and southern Connecticut. Lizards CEO Jeff Rudnick said, “When the new ownership group took over the Lizards in May of this year, we negotiated a deal with Major League Lacrosse to expand the Lizards’ exclusive territory.” He added, “We felt that the New York name was more appropriate and fit better with our new market area.”

The team debuted a new logo with an interlocking N-Y-L, and while the general green-black-white color scheme remains the same, the Lizards have brightened up the shade of green. Rudnick said, “Other sports right now – whether the Seahawks in the NFL or the Oregon Ducks in college football – using the bright colors is definitely a popular thing right now and we thought this would be a great thing for our uniforms, the pop of the green against the black.”

In addition, the N.Y. Lizards during the '13 season will for the first time play two home games at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island. Rudnick said, “We’re hoping that will attract more people from our new exclusive markets … people who might have felt that going out to Long Island was a little bit too far for them. So that’s a little bit more of a centralized location.” The Lizards have played home games at Hofstra’s James M. Shuart Stadium since '09.