Q&A with Minnesota Swarm owner John Arlotta

John Arlotta bought the Minnesota Swarm lacrosse team in 2008 and has been working to help the franchise turn the corner both in terms of finances and popularity ever since. As the team heads into its final two home games of the season at Xcel Energy Center (April 17 and 24), Arlotta answered questions from the Star Tribune's Michael Rand. Q Your business resume suggests you don't lose too often in that realm. That said, what was your approach going in when you bought the Swarm in 2008?

A We looked and said Minnesota is going to be a burgeoning market, and lacrosse is an emerging sport. We saw the strong hockey connection and with box lacrosse having a lot of similarities to Canada. Lots of kids playing hockey, then when that season is over a lot of kids are looking for something to do. The perfect transition sport is lacrosse. This is a market that we could be helpful in growing the sport and be successful. But success for me is only to get to break-even financially, and we're a long way from break even. I've told a lot of my friends, this is very expensive fun. ... Some of the things we've set out to do haven't worked out as well as we'd hoped. But I've always had the philosophy that you go execute something, and if it doesn't work, you're willing to go try something else. There's been a lot of that going on. Slowly it's starting to get better.

Q Do you measure yourselves against the "major" pro sports teams in town and the Division I university, or do have a different tactic?

A I don't believe in crutches. If we say our attendance is X, and we wish it was X times two, but there was a Gophers hockey game ... there's enough of an audience here that we should be successful. Now, we couldn't get anybody's attention starting the season because of the Vikings. But we have to learn to get around that. But I think it's more about finding the right touch points, the right places to go to get our fan base larger. There are enough people out there. We just haven't found all the right answers yet.

Q What does the sport and National Lacrosse League need going forward?

A Let's take the sport first. It's an East Coast sport, but it's been moving west. ... You look at the West Coast and there are programs staring like crazy. The only thing holding it back is enough coaches, refs and other people to teach kids across the country. For the NLL, it's a slightly different situation. We need to get all our teams to build ticket bases. Minnesota is no different. There are four or five teams that regularly get 10, 12, 15, even 18,000 fans. We need an entire league operating that way. Once we get local markets, we can start to talk about television and national sponsors. Those will be important steps, and we're working on both pieces, but it will be a few years before that comes together. We have a great game, a fun game to watch. When you have a good product, it's a matter of trying to sell it.

Q What is your lacrosse background?

A I moved to Baltimore (in the early 2000s), and I ended up running a company there. (I met a) John's Hopkins fan and watched that team with him, and it made me sorry I didn't play it at Notre Dame as a club sport. I sold that company and moved to Denver, and that's become a hotbed for lacrosse. ... I ended up selling the company in Colorado, and then Craig Leipold calls me and tells me he's buying the Wild and, oh by the way, would you like to buy this lacrosse team because he's a hockey guy and not a lacrosse guy. Craig and I have been friends for over 20 years now.

Q There's an NLL video game on Xbox to be released soon via download. What are your thoughts on that?

A It's interesting because I originally wasn't sure it would make a big difference. But someone was telling me the experience soccer had when they came out with a game like that. It's in the early stages ... but I think this is a perfect next step and a great way to identify with players in the NLL.