The Calgary Roughnecks will continue playing at the Pengrowth Saddledome through the 2006 season, the team announced today.

"This was a very significant and time consuming negotiation for the Roughnecks organization," Roughnecks owner Brad Banister said in announcing the three-year lease agreement.

"We are hopeful that this agreement will allow the franchise to become a profitable business venture in the very near future."

This past season, the Roughnecks finished a two-year lease at the Saddledome. In March, Banister described it as a lousy deal, leading to talk of moving across the street to the Corral in 2004.

"[The Corral is] a viable possibility," Banister said then. "But right now, we're still in this lease. I signed it, my fault... But now I'm learning more and more and I learned I probably didn't do a good deal."

However, the Corral -- home to the NHL's Calgary Flames from 1980 to 1983 -- wasn't so viable after all. The building holds a mere 7500 fans, 4000 fewer than the Roughnecks' average home crowd this season (11,562).

The Corral is also well below the NLL's 10,000-seat minimum capacity.

To go along with the lease announcement, the Roughnecks also cut ticket prices throughout the lower bowl. Air Canada Club seats, the highest-priced in the arena, fell from $40 (Canadian) to $26, with the rest of the first floor going from $30 to $20.

Upstairs, though, is a different story. Eleven of 28 sections increase in price from $10 to $20, fourteen stay level at $20, and three (now designated as the "Family Section") remain at $10.

Banister, naturally, focused on the positive.

"Following our first season, we made a promise to our fans to greatly improve the club," Banister said. "We did and the fans responded."

"Now with this new ticket pricing structure we are taking a calculated gamble that rather than increasing revenue by raising ticket prices, we will increase revenue by reducing ticket prices, increasing our fan base and filling the Pengrowth Saddledome."