Leave it to the team about to leave town to spill the beans on National Lacrosse League expansion next season.

In a report appearing today on the Montreal Express' French-language web site, expressdemontreal.ca, details on expansion and relocation, realignment and schedule length for the 2003 season are revealed.

The announcement runs afoul of the league's stated policy, emailed to media members a week ago, that "there will be no further comment from any League or team personnel on expansion or relocation" prior to the NLL Board of Governors' meeting from 18-20 June, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The report states that nothing concrete has come of discussions to keep the team in Montreal, implying that the Express is almost certain to move to Winnipeg or Edmonton next season.

The relocation will mark the only new Canadian city to enter the league, the press release continues, with four new American cities in the mix -- Denver, landing the former Washington Power (as expected), and expansion entries Los Angeles, Portland and either San Jose or San Francisco. The other eleven existing NLL franchises are staying put.

The teams will apparently align into two divisions of eight, presumably eastern and western conferences, contradicting prevalent rumors that the NLL would group the teams into four divisions of four. The league currently has a three-division setup for its thirteen teams.

The schedule format also will change, according to the report, expanding to ten home games and ten road games per team. The start of the season will also be pushed back to late December or early January, the league's starting point for every season except the one which ended this past April. The 2002 season opened play in mid-November, a week before the American Thanksgiving.