Speaking during a media conference call this afternoon, National Lacrosse League commissioner Jim Jennings announced that the league will not expand for the upcoming season.

The decision, made at the league's annual Board of Governors meeting held this week in New York City, ends for a year the expansion hopes of investors in Los Angeles, Portland, San Jose, Seattle and Edmonton.

"We just weren’t comfortable enough with the bids," Jennings told reporters.

"The league continues to pursue expansion on the West Coast of the United States ... We are continuing the search for the right ownership groups."

"We believe we have the talent pool but we want to ensure responsible growth. We are, basically, not in any hurry. We're more for quality than quantity."

Jennings specifically mentioned the situation in Edmonton, which has flirted with an NLL expansion team each of the past two summers and has lost out both times.

"We did not receive a formal application from a potential ownership group to place a franchise in Edmonton for the [2003] season," he said. "We know how disappointed the fans in Edmonton are, but we ask them to be patient. We still expect to be there in the future."

Jennings added that he expects that several of the expansion cities previously mentioned will receive franchises for the 2004 season.

The expansion talk was overshadowed, though, by the gathering clouds over the Montreal Express franchise. Up for sale since March but unable to find a buyer who could meet the $1.2 million (US) price tag, the Express has been given an additional three weeks, until 10 July, to figure out what it will do for next season.

"They want to sell that team and we're looking for new owners to take that team over," Jennings said. "They're in negotiations with several parties right now and they've said they needed more time to complete that."

The options facing Brad Watters and his team of investors are to sell the team to local investors by the new deadline or suspend operations for a year and sell to out-of-town interests.

An immediate move is no longer an option, with the NLL's self-imposed deadline for declaring an intent to relocate blown past almost three weeks. For over a month, the Express had been flirting with a move to Edmonton or Winnipeg.

Remaining in Montreal, if possible, is still a league priority. "We don’t want teams in the league for only one year and then leave," Jennings said.

If the Express does close shop for a season, its players would be subject to a dispersal among the other twelve teams. The exact format of such a draft has not been decided, but if the NLL follows a similar format as other leagues have in this situation, players would be drafted in reverse standing order from this past season, until the entire Montreal roster was depleted.

One relocation will happen, however. The Washington Power, reportedly within days of folding during the 2002 season, will move to a new city. Jennings refused to comment on where the team, relocating for the third time since 1999, is headed, but all signs point to Denver, where an official announcement is expected on or around 7 July.

The Board of Governors tackled other issues this week, including a reversal of last season's schedule expansion. Teams will still play sixteen games, but the regular season isn't expected to start until the weekend of 27 December, approximately six weeks later than in the 2002 season.

The playoffs are slated to begin the weekend of 20 April, leaving just sixteen weeks for regular-season play. The goal -- eliminate the three- and four-week layoffs some teams endured this past season.

In the only rules change announced today, the governors have elected to devise standard equipment for goaltenders. Although goalies have long tinkered with their equipment for comfort and for size, the problem was exascerbated this past season with many goaltenders donning uniforms with strange modifications or pads which spanned the entire goal width of four feet, nine inches.

Competition committee member Steve Govett, president of the on-the-move Washington franchise, said during the conference call that many equipment manufacturers are developing pads to meet the new requirements, which won't be made public until 1 August.

The league will treat equipment checks much like stick checks, allowing opposing coaches to challenge a goaltender's equipment between quarters. If the goaltender's pads are legal, the team issuing the challenge will be called for a bench minor; if they're not legit, however, the goalie is assessed a game misconduct penalty.

In other news:

Jennings announced the the league is looking into developmental camps in areas which aren't represented in the NLL, helping the game grow throughout both the United States and Canada. The camps would complement the Scoop n' Shoot program the league introduced a year ago. "Grass roots programs are the key in order for this game to grow to the next level," the commissioner said.

At the other end of the developmental spectrum, NL2, the planned farm system to begin in the northeastern United States and expand across the continent, is on hold for a couple more years. The current economic climate was cited as the reason for putting the league aside.

Buffalo Bandits general manager Kurt Silcott told reporters that the team, tangled up in owner John Rigas' legal troubles at Adelphia Communcations, is expected to participate in the upcoming season. The league does not intend, however, to take over the Bandits, as the National Hockey League has done with Rigas' Buffalo Sabres.

With the demise of CNN/SI last month, the league must find a new American televison partner. Jennings conceded that this has not been completed yet, although earlier information suggests that the league may hook on with CNN/SI's successor, AOL Sports, the planned joint venture between AOL and the National Basketball Association.

Asked about the Columbus Landsharks, saved from extinction this time a year ago but still not growing by the leaps and bounds hoped for when the franchise was created in 2000, is considered "healthy" by the league and is staying put.

Outsider's Guide assistant editor Scott Neiss and correspondent Saul Davidson contributed to this report.